Cultural heritage tourism is a complex field involving many factors, includingthe business of tourism, the needs of the host community, and the management andpreservation of heritage assets. This thesis aims to discover what factors play a keyrole in the success of cultural heritage tourism operations. Through research ofliterature and case studies, recurring factors taken from success stories and theevaluation of cultural heritage tourism failures has led to the development of a list ofeight critical success factors that play a key role in successful cultural heritagetourism operations. Although success is not solely dependent upon these factors,they have been important in the successes of the case studies discussed in this thesisand throughout cases studied in academic literature. Therefore, it is recommendedthat these factors be considered when developing any cultural heritage tourismoperation.