This article presents an analysis of the impact of fame on tourist intentions to pay for visiting heritage sites. Thanks to a comparison of intentions to buy a visit when the heritage site is famous (heritage brand name awareness) versus not famous (no heritage brand name awareness), the objective is to verify if strong brand awareness could have a negative impact on tourist buyer behaviors. Results show that, regarding national tourists, brand awareness is not always a guarantee of commercial success for heritage places.

In fact, fame is a poor asset for well known national heritage sites : It drives site-seeing (coming to the heritage place), but not site-visiting (consuming cultural products : i.e., the entrance fees, the guided tours, etc.). Since fame and strong brand awareness are not always synonymous with good reputation and favorable brand equity, some implications for heritage site branding are proposed.
* This research was supported by a grant from GIS M@rsouin (Môle Armoricain de Recherche sur la SOciété de l’information et des Usages d’Internet, www.marsouin.org), a research federation, supported by the Breton Council, built on Social Science and Humanities Research Centre workforces dealing with the uses of ICT.

Keywords : Brand equity ; name awareness ; buyer behavior ; heritage sites ; fame ; branding