CULTURAL TOURISTS IN EUROPE

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CULTURAL TOURISTS IN EUROPE

• PICTURE FINAL CONFERENCE
• Luxembourg Sept. 2006
• Claude ORIGET du CLUZEAU

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2 CATEGORIES OF CULTURAL TOURISTS

• Culture addicts
• Travellers 7 to 10 of total tourists
• Day trippers
• Occasionnal cultural tourists
• ?many mixed motivations VFRs, beach, business,
  snow, shopping culture once in a while !

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TRENDS OF CULTURAL TOURISM

• First visit to the city is highly cultural
• ?  New Europeans , young people from
  everywhere, foreigners
• Second and next visits are less and less cultural
•  Old Europeans , nationals and regionals
• ?Cultural tourism increases at same pace than
  other forms of tourism

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A GROWING DEMAND IN EUROPE CITY-BREAKS

• Triggered by
• General mobility  splitting  families , jobs,
  university studies
• Low cost and fast transportation (good for
  Amsterdam and Barcelona )
• Cities  on the stage , unique characteristics,
  notoriety
• Events of every kind
• Transparency of uro prices
• ? Always both rational and emotional reasons

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PORTRAIT OF EUROPEAN CITY BREAK TRAVELLER

• lt 27 and gt 50
• Well educated or highly educated
• Urban
• Small household
• Frequent traveller (Western Europe)
• Recent traveller (Eastern Europe)
• ? already or soon a mature tourist
• English speaking
• Internet user

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FEATURES OF SHORT BREAK

• City is the destination,even if interested in
  surrounding region
• Year round journeys, but more in spring
• Accompanying persons
• spouse, few friends or relatives (individually
  organised)
• group (with travel agency, bus)
• Only 40 by car (European average 75)
• Accomodation near city center
• High daily expenditure, especially when short
  stay (30 or more than average tourist)

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EXPECTATIONS DURING CITY-BREAK (1)

• Mix of discovery and familiarity because in
  Europe
• Memories of common history, arts
• Global approach cultural sites, urban
  landscape, gardens, food, shopping, atmosphere,
  fun, shows
• Local population intangible asset and
  characteristic of differentiation cautious
  encounters if common language

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EXPECTATIONS DURING CITY-BREAK (2)

• Catch the spirit of the place
• Quality of cultural supply
• Variety of services on cultural sites
• City Card and avoid queueing
• Spectacular and also soft events
• Evenings full of life, bustle in the streets

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WHERE ? (1)

• Cities at 1 to 3 hours distance, including across
  the border ?possible repeat visits
• Capitals as symbols of a country
• Legendary cities Venice, Granada, Edimburgh,
  Brugge, Bergen, Bordeaux, Munich, Cracovia ?few
  repeat visits
• Cities of pilgrimage Avila, Czestochowa,
  Lourdes, Assise
• Cities with recent Renaissance Manchester,
  Lille, Potsdam, Liege,

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WHERE ? (2)

• Smaller art cities (esp.if Unesco, low cost
  transport,  satellite  of larger city)
  Trebic, Carcassonne, Jerez, Padova,
• Cities hosting an event ECC, football, Don
  Quijote, launching of new site (Bilbao), ? the
  effect may last for years
• Cities gateways to an attractive region
  Innsbruck, Faro, Bolzano
• ?Growing interest in a wider variety of cities,
  drawing the market of frequent travellers

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A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

• Cultural tourism as oldest and youngest form of
  tourism
• Demand responds to
• increasing number of cultural destinations in
  Europe
• wider variety of  cultural objects  with better
  services
• European bodies make considerable and efficient
  efforts to promote it !