How heritage site tourists may become monument visitors

•We examine why some heritage tourists become visitors when others remain sightseers.•We propose a conceptual background: the Tourist-Heritage-Visit model.•Tourist profile and tour vacation context determine the logic of touring.•The perceived heritage qualities drive pre-coming intention to visit the monument.•The touring conditions impact previous intentions of visit and logics of touring.

The aim of the study was to determine how to make tourists more interested in visiting the core monument at heritage sites, rather than just sightseeing.More than 1200 responses were obtained through face-to-face questionnaires and served to build the Tourist-Heritage-Visit model. The results revealed the monument visit determinants that significantly distinguish monument-visitors from the sight-seers.Based on this in-situ segmentation, marketing recommendations are suggested to heritage site managers according two strategies. First, these findings should help target and increase the number of tourists on the most profitable segments (i.e. actions to do before the site visit). Second, some should serve to promote monument-visiting intentions among the current tourist attendance (i.e. actions to convince tourists already at the heritage place).