Just an idea...

There are lots of adjectives you could use, but finding a suitable noun is tricky - however, I think "magnet" fits the bill. It suggests that the location has magnetic qualities, i.e. that it draws people to it (like a magnet to iron filings).

If you don't need a short & snappy solution, you can say that the place:
has drawn/lured people/visitors to it for more than 600 years (too long-winded for the title, obviously).

Various adjectives that might come in handy include: desirable [for living or buying, not holidaying], seductive, bewitching, aspirational [again, living only] + destination/location.

My first thought was dream destination as Julia suggested in the discussion box. My only objection to 'magnet' is that I feel it excludes aspect of actually living there.

I am borrowing magic from dkfmmuc and I like Julia's solution the best in terms of the direction it's taking. But 'magnet' alone is bit too bare bones. Needs to be fleshed out and made more descriptive. Magnetic as an adjective would work well. There are many more adjectives one might use, such as "irresistible or captivating appeal" or perhaps you could talk about a 'place with/of alluring charm' or something similar..

"This is a place of magical appeal, with honeycombed cliffs and valleys crawling their way through, and Goreme definitely stands apart as one of those places where only few have traveled, yet the ones who have speak continually of its wonder." http://www.travbuddy.com/Goreme-travel-guide-607390

“I have a notion in my life that I call Places of Desire, or in German Sehnsuchtsorte“
http://www.thebridgekeepingtraveller.com/p/places-of-desire....

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 39 mins (2016-07-14 12:15:50 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I guess Germans like to translate the word into “place of desire“
“As artists we are nomads but still have a homeland: the theatre is our ideal place of desire for all questions and desires of life“
http://www.madnessandarts.de/en/festival/documentation/refle...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 41 mins (2016-07-14 12:18:12 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

https://de.pinterest.com/SydneySuper/places-of-desire/

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2016-07-14 12:52:24 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

“In her groundbreaking study, made possible by the opening of the north/south border during fieldwork, Dikomitis demonstrates how both ethnic groups are linked by their histories of displacement to a single 'place of desire', a small mountainous village located in the north of the island.“
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/2091960

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2016-07-14 13:15:35 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Sehnsucht

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 hrs (2016-07-14 13:39:22 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

“Sehnsucht: A Word That Does Not Exist in English, but Should“
https://tylerhuckabee.com/2013/10/23/sehnsucht/

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 20 hrs (2016-07-15 08:13:30 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

http://www.thebridgekeepingtraveller.com/2012/09/how-gdansk-...
“Dictionaries propose "longing", "yearning" or "craving", but those words only actually tell us about the first half of Sehnsucht, the Sehn-part. The second half, Sucht, means "addiction". Sehnsucht is not only a wish for something that is not present“
“I have a notion in my life that I call Sehnsuchtsorte, places of Sehnsucht, that lacking a better translation I will call Places of Desire for the sake of readability.“
“Places of Desire are what gives me drive and strength, for whenever I think about them I know that if such inner and outer beauty exists, the world can't be all bad. They are the places that I always miss, in every moment of my life, and in the craving that I have for them lies the seed of my ambitions to make the world a better place.“