Although the term “cultural tourism” was first used in the 1980s – also as a result of European Union funding programmes – there is no generally valid definition, and in the course of the last few years it has been extended to include everyday objects and behaviour. “In general, the term “cultural tourism” can be differentiated between supply-oriented (the core of the definitions is the offer of attractions), demand- oriented (the starting point is the behaviour of tourists) and value-oriented definitions (cultural tourism as an offer of attractions accompanied by monument preservation and didactic objectives). Detached from this, four basic characteristics of cultural tourism can be identified: the tourist’s interest in culture, the visit to cultural institutions, the attendance of cultural events and the sound provision of information. The cultural tourism offer ranges from historical buildings (churches, museums, castles) and contemporary architecture (railway stations, new museum buildings) to historical sites and urban ensembles (battlefields, old town centres), cultural events and cultural events (festivals, folk festivals, carnival customs) and cultural landscape attractions (wine landscapes) to typical regional gastronomic offerings (food, wine)”.
Cultural tourism in Germany consisted mainly of city tourism. In order to promote cultural tourism in rural areas, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy launched the project: “The destination as a stage: how does cultural tourism make rural regions successful?” from 2015 to 2018. With this project, rural regions were specifically supported in marketing their cultural offerings. Five model regions were selected for the implementation of the project. One component of the project was the online dialogue platform www.culturcamp.de.
The field of action cultural tourism has gained relevance for cultural management in recent years. In 2018, the “Cultural Tourism Study 2018” was presented by the Institute for Cultural Management at the Ludwigsburg University of Education, with the results of an empirical study of the practice of cultural and tourism actors (cultural institutions, cultural administrations and tourism organisations.
In November 2019, the report of the working group of experts from the EU Member States of the Open Method of Coordination for Sustainable Cultural Tourism was published. During the WG’s deliberations, the term “sustainable cultural tourism” was defined for the first time: “Sustainable cultural tourism is the integrated management of cultural heritage and tourism activities in cooperation with the communities concerned so that, in the interest of the preservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage and the sustainable development of tourism, all stakeholders derive social, environmental and economic benefits.” One component of the report are 55 recommendations.
Comments are closed.