Disappear elements of high culture are also

disappear, elements of high culture are also increasingly being mixed with popular
culture to produce new cultural forms. The new cultural tourist might visit the museum
during the day, but the evening is more likely to be spent at a show or a disco than at
the opera.
Different types of tourists require different marketing approaches. Not only do
motivations differ, but the role of holiday experience is increasingly important. First

time visitors are far more likely to accept the traditional sites and monuments
approach. Second and third time visitors are more likely to seek out the living culture,
as they have already done the “must-see sights” on the first visit.
Museums are undoubtedly the most popular form of cultural attraction for cultural
tourists. In 1997 more than 50% of the tourists visited a museum during their stay in
the research location (Richards, 1998). Monuments (40%) and galleries (30%) were
also very popular, but the performing arts (23%) and festivals (9%) were less
frequently visited. This supports the distinction made in the 1992 research (Richards,
1996a) between ‘heritage’ attractions, which have a low visit threshold and ‘arts’
attractions, which are often less accessible, because of the limited time of
performances, the difficulty of obtaining information and tickets and the language
barriers which are often involved.
In 1997 a new question was posed about the popularity of a number of major cultural
tourism destinations with cultural visitors. The results show that Paris, Rome and
London are by far the favourite cultural tourism destinations in Europe (figure 1). This
is related to the high concentration of ‘real cultural capital’ in these cities (Richards,
1996b). A second group of cities, which includes Athens, Venice, Florence and
Amsterdam also scores relatively well, particularly among visitors with a cultural
occupation. These cities tend to be smaller, and in addition to a rich historical past
have a wide range of museums, monuments and also a great deal of ‘living culture’.
Cities which fall outside the top 10 usually have less attractions, or are perceived as
offering less atmosphere. The combination of a rich supply of ‘real cultural capital’

and living culture or atmosphere was often decisive in the destination choice of
specific cultural tourists (Goedhart, 1997).
Insert figure 1 here
The Supply of Cultural Attractions
An increasingly important aspect of cultural tourism is the role of cultural producers in
assembling the cultural tourism product. The demand for cultural tourism to a
particular city can be closely linked to the amount and quality of ‘real cultural capital’
(Britton, 1991; Zukin, 1991, 1996) that it has. This real cultural capital provides the
basic raw material for the ‘new producers’ or ‘new cultural intermediaries’ to develop
products for cultural consumption (Richards, 1996b).