The changing nature of the cultural tourist: motivations, profiles and experiences of cultural tourists in Budapest

ABSTRACT

This paper reflects on the changing nature of the cultural tourist, including motivations, profiles and experiences. The paper firstly reviews broadening definitions of cultural tourism, which now include more intangible, interactive and creative experiences. The research focuses on urban cultural tourism and the city of Budapest in Hungary. The primary data examines how motivated tourists are by different activities including culture; how far tourists are interested in heritage sites and museums compared to everyday culture and creative activities; it analyses variations in cultural activities according to age, gender and nationality; and the types of experiences that are desired the most by tourists. Cultural tourists still appear to be highly educated, but educational experiences are less important than escapism or entertainment. Cultural contact is important, but creative experiences are not. There are only small variations between genders and nationalities, but larger ones according to age groups. Older tourists prefer heritage sites and museums, whereas younger ones prefer night-life, music events and festivals. Overall, the findings are important for urban capital cities that have concerns about overtourism and the night-time economy, as well as the desire to re-establish themselves as cultural tourism destinations.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural tourism
• urban cultural tourist
• city tourist
• tourist motivation
• tourist experience
• Budapest

Acknowledgement

Project no. TKP2020-NKA-02 has been implemented with the support provided from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary, financed under the Tématerületi Kiválósági Program funding scheme.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Project no. TKP2020-NKA-02 has been implemented with the support provided from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary, financed under the Tématerületi Kiválósági Program funding scheme.

Notes on contributors

Melanie Kay Smith

Melanie Kay Smith is an Associate Professor, Researcher and Consultant whose work focuses on urban planning, cultural tourism, wellness tourism experiences and the relationship between tourism and wellbeing. She is Programme Leader for BSc and MSc Tourism Management at Budapest Metropolitan University in Hungary. She has lectured in the UK, Hungary, Estonia, Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as being an invited Keynote speaker in many countries worldwide. She is the author or editor of 15 books as well as more than 80 journal articles or book chapters. Her most recent research focuses on wellness tourism, spa experience creation, the impacts of 'overtourism' in cultural cities and the changing nature of cultural tourism.

Ivett Pinke-Sziva

Ivett Pinke-Sziva is an Associate Professor and the leader of the BA Program in Hospitality and Tourism at the Tourism Department of Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary. Beside lecturing and researching, Ivett worked as a consultant in the tourism and destination management and marketing field and led several national and international development and research projects. Her research currently focuses on destination management, marketing and competitiveness, as well as health tourism, especially wellbeing and sustainability aspects.

Zombor Berezvai

Zombor Berezvai is an Assistant Lecturer at Corvinus University of Budapest and the Chief Economist at the Hungarian Competition Authority. He graduated as an economist at Eötvös Loránd University and started his career at Procter & Gamble. His main research interests includes retail innovation, transportation, and cultural tourism.

Karolina Buczkowska-Gołąbek

Karolina Buczkowska-Gołąbek is an Assistant Professor and researcher specialising in anthropology of culture and tourism (her main research concerns cultural tourists), food in tourism, as well as childhood studies (especially in the context of children, food and travel). She is a university lecturer in Poznań, Poland, where she is also the tutor of Cultural Tourism and Food Tourism courses. She is the deputy editor-in-chief of „Cultural Tourism” („Turystyka Kulturowa”) Polish Scientific Journal. She is also a member of ATLAS Gastronomy and Tourism Research Group.