The Heritage Game

This article addresses a clear gap in the literature: while gamification is increasingly used in heritage and destination marketing, tourism product design and the safeguarding of tangible and intangible heritage, very few studies have examined what works — and why — in a Bulgarian context.

The authors design a structured framework based on twelve gamification criteria and nine impact criteria, and apply it through a three-stage methodology to select the two top-rated Bulgarian case studies as best practices. The contribution offers a transferable evaluation tool for stakeholders across Europe and situates Bulgaria — alongside Portugal, Italy, Greece and the United Kingdom — as a key contributor to gamification research in cultural heritage.