Marketing cultural tourism in Europe

Abstract

Cultural tourism has been identified as a major growth area in European tourism. Culture is increasingly being used as a promotional tool because cultural tourism is identified as a growing area of upmarket consumption, which can support economic as well as cultural regeneration, and aid wider tourism policy goals, such as spatial diffusion of tourism. Recent research on cultural tourism in Europe underlines the diverse nature of cultural resources used for tourism, contrasting with the narrow social profile of cultural tourism participants. There are now signs of a growing mismatch between supply and demand, as the growth in cultural tourism provision begins to outstrip the growth in demand.