Excerpts

Textprobe: Kapitel 2.2.1, Definition of cultural tourism: According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), tourists have a growing interest to learn about cultural and historical heritage. As a result cultural tourism has become the fastest growing market in tourism (OECD, 2009). But what is actually cultural tourism? In fact all forms of travel involve a certain element of culture, since travelling always means to displace one from its own culture to another. Cultural tourism consequently has to be more than just displacement from someone's own culture (McKercher et al., 2002). Cultural tourism is difficult to define, because it is composed of two terms culture and tourism. The definition of 'culture' alone is already difficult, combined with the definition of 'tourism' it is even more complex (Jamieson, 1994). According to Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1985 citited by Reisinger and Turner, 2003) culture has been defined in over 160 ways, which indicates the complexity of the term. Similarly, the definition of tourism has been pointed out to be a difficult task, as it is a multidimensional phenomenon (Cruz, 2006) (Holden, 2005). According to Walle (1998), cultural tourism refers to tourism activities which are involved around culture. This definition is quite weak, as it might not clearly highlight the difference in the above-described element of traveling by McKercher, et al. (2002). Therefore, ICOMOS, (1994, p.1) defined cultural tourism as '[...] that form of tourism whose object is, among other aims, the discovery of monuments and sites'. In the latter definition, it is essential to note that in cultural tourism, culture does not have to be the only aim or the primary purpose, thus it can be just part of it, but it is essential to be one aim. Foo (1998) proposed the same treatment, thus everybody who visits one or more cultural attractions can be considered a cultural tourist. Richards and Munsters (2010, p.15) gave two definitions of cultural tourism. The conceptional way of defining cultural tourism is: 'The movement of persons to cultural attractions away from their normal place of residence, with the intention to gather new information and experiences to satisfy their cultural needs'. The technical definition is 'All movements of persons to specific cultural attractions, such as heritage sites, artistic and cultural manifestations, arts and drama outside their normal place of residence' (Richards and Munsters, 2010 p.15). The first definition focuses on why the cultural tourist is travelling and what he/she is seeking, this is helping to understand the motivation of cultural tourists. On the other hand the latter definition points out the behaviour or the activities the cultural tourists is seeking. As there are many definitions of cultural tourism McKercher and Du Cros (2002) suggest it is necessary to divide the many definitions made for cultural tourism into four broad categories: tourism-derived definition, motivational definition, experiential or aspirational definition and operational definition. They argue it is necessary, because people shape the definition to suit their own needs. The more comprehensive ones usually come from politicians or marketers who want to point out the importance and size of cultural tourism, to justify investment. In comparison, some try to make it narrower and only include a few activities to be considered cultural tourism. During the conference 'Heritage and Cultural Tourism: The Present and Future of the Past' held in 2008, several Key Note Speakers for example Alison McIntosh, pointed out the importance of cultural tourism and that it is still very important to carry out more research on it, since there is not sufficient understanding (Gelbman and Ron, 2009). Ritzer and Liska (1997) suggest that a shift in the purpose of travel has taken place, as originally people were travelling to explore new places and now travel destinations and products have become more standardised and so they call it the McDonaldisation of tourism. Nevertheless Ritzer and Liska (1997) believe that there will be always demand for DeMcDonaldisation, and therefore for cultural tourism products. Butcher (2001) describes the new role of culture in tourism, giving the example of Guggenheim Museum. Guggenheim opened a branch in Bilbao, the city paid over $25 Million to stock the branch with art of other Guggenheim subsidiaries. It is important to highlight at this point that Guggenheim is an alien culture in the surroundings of Spain. The goal of Bilbao, by adding some international culture/art to their city is to raise the city's international profile and attract tourists to spend more money. On the other hand, Guggenheim itself is also linking up with another global 'brand', the Hermitage, to develop a joint venture museum in Las Vegas. This seems to be a sign of a radical development of the cultural tourism industry into a more business oriented way (Butcher, 2001). Although there is no generally accepted definition of cultural tourism, this form of tourism is concerned with the country or regions culture for example the history, architecture, religion or customs (OECD, 2009). It is also important to point out that, independently of the primary purpose for visiting an other place, someone who visits one or more cultural attractions or events can be considered a cultural tourist, because he/she is taking part in cultural tourism (Richards, 1996b). Excerpted from Cultural Tourism: Case Study Portugal by Laura Duhme All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.