Cultural Tourism
CULTURAL TOURISM
First of all, it is important to define cultural tourism as the basis around which the whole research is formulated. It is important to highlight the fact that the experts do not agree on a universal definition because of the wide range of activities it covers. Over the years, the definition of this type of tourism has suffer some changes depending on the field of study and one of the most popular definitions is the one stated by Richards
(2001, p.37) in which the concept of cultural tourism it can be defined in a technical way as “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” or in a conceptual way as “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”, again focused on the intentionality or motivation of the particular trip.
Traditionally, cultural tourism includes visits to historic buildings and sites, museums, art galleries, etc., the viewing of contemporary paintings or sculpture, or the attendance to performing arts (Richards 1994 cited Hughes 1996). But there are other typologies arising over the time, that can be extracted from the original definition; although some researchers may consider that they are essentially part of the “cultural tourism” itself. In this context, it appears “historical tourism” or “heritage tourism”. Prentice (1993 citedHughes 1996), also uses the term “heritage tourism” to include natural history attractions and the performing arts, although there is a specific term for the “arts tourism” taken for figures emerging from the UK Tourism Survey (UKTS) on cultural visits by domestic tourists, where “the main purpose of a trip is to attend a performing arts event (including the cinema) or to visit a museum, gallery or heritage
First of all, it is important to define cultural tourism as the basis around which the whole research is formulated. It is important to highlight the fact that the experts do not agree on a universal definition because of the wide range of activities it covers. Over the years, the definition of this type of tourism has suffer some changes depending on the field of study and one of the most popular definitions is the one stated by Richards
(2001, p.37) in which the concept of cultural tourism it can be defined in a technical way as “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” or in a conceptual way as “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”, again focused on the intentionality or motivation of the particular trip.
Traditionally, cultural tourism includes visits to historic buildings and sites, museums, art galleries, etc., the viewing of contemporary paintings or sculpture, or the attendance to performing arts (Richards 1994 cited Hughes 1996). But there are other typologies arising over the time, that can be extracted from the original definition; although some researchers may consider that they are essentially part of the “cultural tourism” itself. In this context, it appears “historical tourism” or “heritage tourism”. Prentice (1993 citedHughes 1996), also uses the term “heritage tourism” to include natural history attractions and the performing arts, although there is a specific term for the “arts tourism” taken for figures emerging from the UK Tourism Survey (UKTS) on cultural visits by domestic tourists, where “the main purpose of a trip is to attend a performing arts event (including the cinema) or to visit a museum, gallery or heritage