Cultural tourists: “An attempt to classify them”

This paper suggests a classification of cultural tourism participants by building on the McKercher–Du Cros typology in a Polish context. Based on a sample of 600 tourists arriving in Cracow to visit monuments and museums, participate in cultural events, and experience the cultural milieu, the study identified five main clusters. These were the ‘Purposeful’, ‘Serendipitous’, ‘Sightseeing’, ‘Incidental’ and ‘Casual.’ It was also found that motives for participation in cultural tourism are based on two dimensions, the importance of culture to the visitor and presentation of culture at the destination. The ‘Purposeful’ tourist proved the most numerous, thereby indicating the importance of the cultural motive as a determinant to travel within this sample.

► The motives for participation in cultural tourism are differentiated.
► The motives differentiate the importance of culture in decisions to travel.
► The motives don’t differentiate the level of cultural acceptance in the destination.
► The largest group of cultural tourists constitutes the ‘Purposeful tourists.