World Heritage Sites through the Eyes of New Tourists – Who Cares about World Heritage Brand in Budapest?

Abstract

Budapest is one the most emerging tourism destinations in Central-Eastern Europe, and besides the popularity of the regenerated “multicultural and design” district, its cultural heritage, particularly those on the list of the UNESCO World Heritage, assure its growing attractiveness. However the cultural sites are the most visited sightseeing attractions, our proposition was that the tourists are not aware of the fact, that they are visiting UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS). The main aim of the paper is to highlight the importance of the WHS in cultural tourism, and to introduce the significance of place branding in it. A structured content analysis were taken out to analyse the reviews of the Tripadvisor considering the attractions of Budapest, with the objective of crystallizing the main motivations and awareness of the tourists visiting the world heritage site of Budapest. Further on our objective was to analyse their satisfaction with interpretation, attraction, and visitor management issues. Then their overall experiences, development needs and ideas for the world heritage sites attracting cultural tourism were taken into consideration. Our presupposition was that new technologies can improve a site’s popularity by pulling the attention on its real values that can be experienced by the visitors.