Politecnico di Milano
School of Industrial and Information Engineering Master of Science in Management Engineering
The Analysis of Priority Spheres of Tourism Development of Valchiavenna Region
Supervisor: Chen Shan Master of Science Thesis by: Kira Kosareva ID Number 892277
Table of contents
Introduction ... 6
The goal and the main tasks ... 9
Chapter 1. Literature review ... 10
1.1 Goals of literature analysis ... 10
1.1.2 Methodology ... 10
1.2 Literature analysis on disaster and dark tourism ... 11
1.2.1 Methodology ... 12
1.2.2 Literature analysis ... 13
1.3 Literature analysis on cultural and heritage tourism ... 21
1.3.1 Methodology ... 23
1.3.2 Literature analysis ... 23
1.4. Literature analysis on tourism in small territory and synergy of neighbouring regions ... 35
1.4.1. Methodology ... 35
1.4.2. Literature analysis ... 36
1.5. Literature analysis on tourism communication and social media in tourism ... 46
1.5.1. Methodology ... 47
1.5.2. Literature analysis ... 48
Chapter 2. Project A.M.AL.PI ... 64
2.1 Cultural and heritage tourism... 65
2.2 Dark tourism ... 67
2.3 Tourism in small territory and synergy of neighbouring regions ... 69
2.4 Analysis of social media ... 70
2.4.1. Goals of analysis ... 70 2.4.2. Methodology ... 71 2.4.3. Facebook ... 72 2.4.4. Instagram ... 73 2.4.5. Websites ... 74 2.4.6. TripAdvisor ... 74 2.4.7. Google Maps ... 75
Discussions and conclusions ... 79
Appendix ... 84
List of tables
Table 1. Natural disasters Table 2. Facebook pages Table 3. Instagram pages Table 4. Engagement level Table 5. Posts per day
Table 6. Amount of comments Table 7. Amount of shares Table 8. Instagram links Table 9. Touristic pages
Table 10. General information about the pages Table 11. Amount of posts
Table 12. Web pages of places of interest Table 13. Links and information about sites Table 14. Links of sites
Table 15. Google Mapes links Table 16. List of hashtags
Abstract
Small regions recently face the problem of significant lack of tourists. Since 20th century the need in tourism development of small regions occurred. As there has always been a tourism centers with the focus on big cities the desire to show tourists all the beauty of every little region began to appear. Now region administrations are concerned about attracting new tourists to their regions and tourist tastes became more sophisticated. This scientific paper represents the information about main spheres of development of the region Valchiavenna in terms of tourism. The main aim of this work to analyze all the priority ways of development the Valchiavenna tourism in order to attract more tourists to this small region. Based on a review of the literature on different types of tourism and theories of tourism development, an analysis of present situation of Valchiavenna’s social media dedicated to tourism. There are four spheres that are analyzed in this work: dark tourism, tourism in small territory and synergy of neighbouring regions, cultural and heritage tourism, social media usage in tourism. After considering every sphere of a chosen region the analysis of social media was held. The results have shown that there is a need to develop every social media platform in order to increase tourists’ traffic. The present situation concerning social media usage by Valchiavenna region is poor and needs further development. Now those social media pages contain general information and nothing else.
Key words: tourism, dark tourism, small regions, social media, marketing techniques, Italy.
Abstract (Italian version)
Le piccole regioni hanno recentemente affrontato il problema della significativa mancanza di turisti. Dal 20 ° secolo si è verificata la necessità di uno sviluppo turistico delle piccole regioni. Dato che c'è sempre stato un turismo di massa nelle grandi città, emerso il desiderio di mostrare ai turisti tutta la bellezza di ogni piccola regione. Ad oggi le amministrazioni regionali sono preoccupate di attirare nuovi turisti nelle loro regioni e i gusti dei turisti diventano più sotisfati. Questo documento scientifico rappresenta le informazioni sulle principali sfere di sviluppo della regione Valchiavenna in termini di turismo. L'obiettivo principale di questo lavoro è quello di analizzare tutti i metodi principali di sviluppo del turismo della Valchiavenna al fine di attirare più turisti. Sulla base di una revisione della letteratura sui diversi tipi di turismo e delle teorie sullo sviluppo dello stesso e' stata affrontata un'analisi dedicata al turismo della situazione attuale dei social media della Valchiavenna. Ci sono quattro sfere che vengono analizzate in questo lavoro: turismo oscuro, turismo nei piccoli territori e sinergia delle regioni vicine, turismo culturale e del patrimonio, uso dei social media nel turismo. Dopo aver considerato ogni sfera di una regione scelta, si è svolta un'indagine sui social media. I risultati hanno dimostrato che è necessario sviluppare ogni piattaforma di social media al fine di aumentare il traffico dei turisti. L'attuale situazione relativa all'utilizzo dei social media da parte della regione della Valchiavenna è scarsa e necessita di ulteriore sviluppo. Attualmente le pagine dei social media contengono solamente informazioni generali.
Parole chiave: turismo; turismo oscuro; piccole regioni; social media; tecniche di marketing; Italia.
Introduction
On the 4th of September in 1618 in Piuro one of the most terrible landslides took place. This region was a small village of plurs, a very rural area on the border between Switzerland and Italy. This landslide took lives of approximately 2427 people and completely destroyed the location. Today this region is usually visited by tourists from neighboring countries: Italy and Switzerland. Moreover, Valchiavenna region is rich in natural and cultural places of interest. Today there is Italian-Swiss project called A.M.AL.PI.2018 with the total value of € 1,988,372.84. The main purpose of this project is to increase the attractiveness of the geographical zone of territories Bregaglia-Valchiavenna-Moesa-Ticino by promoting an innovative strategy for the use of its natural and cultural resources with common specificities. The official duration of A.M.AL.PI. project is 36 months starting from 05/07/2019 and the end on 04/07/2022.
The general purpose of this project is to promote an innovative strategy for the use of natural and cultural resources in order to attract more tourists. Considering a common historical-landscape context, it will create a cross-border geo-cultural path of a scientific-popular nature, which will pivot on the new Cross-border Center Large Landslides Alpine in Valchiavenna. Development of initiatives for the knowledge, conservation, management and sustainable enhancement of the natural and cultural heritage.
This will give a significant market penetration capacity, the growing scientific-cultural and didactic tourism sector, offering the possibility of investigating both the importance of geological knowledge in terms of disaster prevention, historical peculiarity of the valleys.
There are several elements of the project, starting increasing tourism in the cross-border area: mass tourism, that could be attracted through television services. Tourism of the
growing niche of scientific and educational interests related to alpine events, for instance, that can be used as a tool to develop social media channels: targeted digital and social offers and specific visit proposals. Moreover, maps, signage, installations and specific services can also be used in case of "classic" alpine tourism.
These are the ideas that can be implemented in this region because it has rich natural resources that can be used in a friendly way with the enhancement of the natural heritage and improving the sustainable use of the mountain. This will be carried out very slow and focusing on zero emissions and very low environmental impact. In general, the project, in the course of its realization, will adopt a series of measures to limit the environmental impact of the public and private transport activities.
The final product of this project is the geo-tourist route called "Alps in Motion: from Maloja to San Gottardo to discover the great alpine landslides". By enhancing the natural and cultural resources of the cross-border territories involved, A.M.AL.PI. project aims to generate lasting economic repercussions by creating the conditions for sustainable conservation and management of the heritage for raising awareness on the issue of major landslides. A digital path will connect the different points of interest that will be presented with the help of media content directly that can be easily downloaded and used on mobile devices. This project will help interconnect countries and regions to find the most beneficial way of development that therefore will create new opportunities.
Figure 1.1 Map of the Project 1
The goal and the main tasks
This scientific paper represents the information about main spheres of development of the region Valchiavenna in terms of tourism. The main aim of this work to analyze all the priority ways of development the Valchiavenna tourism in order to attract more tourists to this small region. The main tasks the author worked on are:
1. Analyze four chosen spheres of tourism development in Valchiavenna region: 1) dark tourism, 2) tourism in small territory and synergy of neighbouring regions, 3) cultural and heritage tourism, 4) social media usage in tourism. 2. Analyze different cases considering tourism development in small regions. 3. Analyze the present situation in region Valchiavenna in term of four chosen
spheres.
4. Collect the results and provide recommendations.
Following each step will help the author to reach the main goal of understanding the strongest and the weakest parts of the tourism in Valchiavenna region. Therefore, provide recommendations for the region and be able to create the strategy of increasing tourists traffic.
Chapter 1. Literature review
1.1 Goals of literature analysis
The priority task of this project is literature review. There were few aims of doing it. Firstly, there is a need to understand what are the previous historical examples of disasters that have something similar and in common with our case, what are the physiological aspects and what are the impacts on local economy, community caused by these disasters. Also, some cases of natural dark tourism could be taken into consideration.
Secondly, examples of tourism in small territories, cultural tourism and cooperation ones based on the synergy of neighbouring regions should be evaluated in order to understand what actions were made in these examples in order to increase the level of awareness of these places, to increase the popularity of them among tourists and to understand the methods, tools and strategy used in order to reach these mentioned goals.
Lastly, tourism communications ways should analyse in order to evaluate the decision processes of places to visit, digital channels types that are in use and level of digital presence in general and the importance of social media channels in tourism industry.
1.1.2 Methodology
The main methods used in this particular chapter is literature analysis and the data collection that would help in further understanding of the topics. The overall number of disasters and catastrophes that happened is huge that bring further difficulties to the analysis. Taking into consideration this problem, some criteria of selection have been introduced. Firstly, the fact that the Valchiavenna case had some specificity brought author to the decision to focus on these factors. Therefore, only natural disasters were
taken into consideration, excluding all the catastrophes that were caused by human mistakes or technological faults.
Then the cultural aspect was taken into consideration. Despite the rareness of such element in other cases the author payed special attention to it while searching and collecting data and articles dedicated to this topic. From geographical point of view, cases from all the world were analysed. Finally, medieval catastrophes were chosen for the project analysis of the sphere of dark tourism.
Main keywords: disaster, catastrophe, dark tourism, disaster tourism, natural disaster, exploitation of disaster and etc.
The literature used for the analysis can be divided in two parts. First part of the literature review was based on the online versions of academic journals dedicated to area of tourism. Many articles that were found in “Journal of Travel & Tourism Market explaining different tourists’ motivations”. Moreover, official web pages of touristic destinations, social media pages also played a huge role in investigating the information about region and its places of interest. Second part of the literature was retrieved from web pages such as: Wayfarover.com, Travel-conference.co.uk, Degruyter.com, Fundacionio.org, Dark-tourism.com, Ethicaltravel.org, Ncronline.org, Mlit.go and etc. Those sources of information are less formal, however, they provided interesting ideas on such topics as: exploitation of natural disasters for tourism aims and natural disasters. Moreover, those sources provided the author with the information about the number of tourists in selected countries and most common examples of dark tourist destination.
1.2 Literature analysis on disaster and dark tourism
Disaster tourism can be defined as an activity of visiting locations where an environmental disaster (natural or man-made) took place. Although there are a lot of
disasters that are interesting in disaster tourism, the most common disaster tourist sites are volcanic eruptions and the areas nearby. There are also debates on this topic about the morality and impact of disaster tourism. Those who are for disaster tourism often claim that the such practice not only raises awareness of the event, moreover, it stimulates the local economy, teaches people local culture. On the contrary, critics claim this may be exploitative, moreover, it mischaracterizes the events in question.
Depending on what tour or place you visit, disaster tourism can be considered as an educational experience or ‘exploitative’. The way that a disaster place is handled or not depends on both by those who organize the events and those who visit them (tourists). It is stated that visiting disaster sites has an effect on empathy, but what is interesting is that the nature of the effect depends on the visit an its peculiarities.
1.2.1 Methodology
The analysis started from the search of articles and materials based on key words that would describe the importance and popularity dark tourism. The main methods of this study are the analysis and synthesis of scientific journals and scientific literature, as well as reports and articles. The analysis of this literature will help realize the role of dark tourism in case of increasing the demand for such type of tourism. The main goal of analysis of dark tourism was to find catastrophe destinations that increased the number of tourists and the example of dark tourism management was held. The most important step of this part was to analyze strategies that were used in order to increase the number of tourists and, moreover, analyze tourists’ behavior and understand the reason of their desire to visit such places.
Keywords: dark tourism, catastrophe, catastrophe destinations, disaster tourism, disasters, natural disasters, natural catastrophes, dark tourism management.
The literature review was based on the academic magazines (online versions), that are more or less related to the area of dark tourism. Such resources were analysed and the articles from them were chosen as the primary ones for analysis. The newspapers with the most important articles are the following: Tourism Management, Current Issues in Tourism, Journal of Heritage Tourism, Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
1.2.2 Literature analysis
• What is dark tourism?
The globalization of the tourism industry has led tourism businesses to a rapid expansion. However, as globalization is often seen as complex, this process has led businesses to a wider set of ‘global risks’ (Ritchie, 2004). However, tourism is also an important economic sector for many countries and many destinations are dependent upon tourism for their growth and survival. This puts enormous pressure on managers concerned with tourism to consider the impact of crises and disasters on the industry and develop strategies to deal with the impacts to protect tourism business and society in general (Ritchie, 2004). It is crucially important to analyze such incidents and examine strategies that can be used to stop or limit their impacts on a growing and important industry sector. Crisis and disaster management should be a priority for tourism destination managers as well as business managers.1
Dark tourism destinations present governments and other authorities with “moral and ethical dilemmas” (Verma, 2013). Disasters often provide the dynamics of
commercial development and exploitation. However, not all sites or attractions related
to disaster can be in the sphere of dark tourism. Verma states the concept of the tourist gaze, that says that not every person view on a single attraction from one point of view and therefore they are differs from one another.
Today disaster destinations have become commercialized. The interest in deaths and disasters has become a growing trend. Dark tourism states a fundamental shift in the way people perceive death and disaster.
Deaths and disasters in touristic form are becoming an important feature in modern tourism landscape. Today there are more spiritual journeys for the tourist who wants to gaze upon “real and recreated death” (Verma, 2013). There are tourists who often need to feel and see the aftermath of a disaster. As a result, occurs a new form of tourism known as ‘Dark Tourism’.
The article of Light D.provides interesting findings upon dark tourism. It is different from heritage tourism and was first proposed in the middle 1990s. Dark tourism has also brought people to new theories of tourism consumption. The challenging nature of dark tourism is thinking about visiting places associated with death.2
For all the achievements of two decades’ research, dark tourism is a contested and divisive concept. Scientists still debate on the definition of dark tourism. There are several components that constitute dark tourism. Dark tourism research has reached the point where “a quality of darkness could be attributed actually or potentially, to some extent, almost everywhere” (Light, 2017).
• Case study of China (the Beichuan earthquake)
Though the human fear of death may be worse than death itself, in contemporary society, tourists are increasingly visiting sites that commemorate natural or man-made disasters. Natural disasters: earthquakes, tsunamis. Man-made disasters: war, political conflicts and etc. Attraction to spaces related to death can be found in the history of ancient Rome back to the gladiator games. Therefore, the Coliseum may be the first site of dark tourism (Yan, Zhang, Lu & Guo, 2016).
According to Yan, Zhang, Lu & Guo, in ancient China, the public witnessed acts of human sacrifice. Dark tourism is a psychological process of consumption gives tourists desired psychological outcomes in order to satisfy tourists' emotional demands.
These findings of the China case study showed that there are several factors that drive tourists to visit dark tourism places: being educated on patriotism, curiosity and leisure. According to Yan, Zhang, Lu & Guo, an educational purpose is the most important reason to visit such places, and curiosity is even less important than ‘leisure’. The of tourists’ demands are influenced by such values as patriotism and collectivism. Those values are very important for individuals visiting dark tourism sites in China. In addition, tourists engaging in disaster tourism are not necessarily motivated by contemplations of mortality.3
• Case study of Korea
Jeju April 3rd Peace Park in South Korea is located on the largest of Korea’s islands, and represents and memorializes one of the most destructive disasters in modern Korean history. This island has a population of over 600,000 of people. It is also well-known domestic tourist destination that attracts approximately 6 million visitors each year. The destination is located on a mountainous area of the island. The park was
3Yan, B. J., Zhang, J., Zhang, H. L., Lu, S. J., & Guo, Y. R., Investigating the motivation–experience relationship in a dark tourism space: A case study of the Beichuan earthquake relics, China, 2016, p. 108-121.
established to commemorate an uprising of Jeju islanders against the Korean Government (Kang, Scott, Lee & Ballantyne, 2012).
A benefit-based approach is an effective tool for use in facilitating understanding of visitor psychological experiences in tourism and leisure settings, and in particular, in dark tourism settings. This case study enables an analysis of visitor experiences at the April 3rd Peace Park, including reasons for visiting it. It is interesting that ‘obligation’ is a core motivation for travel to the Peace Park, whereas obligation is not a normal motivation for leisure travel. However, in a dark tourism, internal obligations (f.e personal duty) appear one of the main reasons for traveling to dark tourism sites.4
• Case study of of L'Aquila, Italy
Visiting places and events associated with death, suffering and tragedy is not new; early forms of such tourism includes medieval pilgrimages or travel to attend public executions. According to Seaton, the relationship between death and tourism
intensified from the nineteenth century and only in recent years got the name of ‘dark tourism’ has become the focus of increasing academic attention.
L’Aquila, a city in Italy that suffered a severe earthquake in 2009. In particular, the geographic isolation of the city and closed character of L’Aquilan society arguably explains the community’s negative attitude towards disaster tourists.
However, the perception changed and became more favorable as the disaster becomes temporally more distant. That is, the transformation in the local community’s
perception of dark tourism was due to their interaction with tourists and the ways in
4Kang, E. J., Scott, N., Lee, T. J., & Ballantyne, R., Benefits of visiting a ‘dark tourism’site: The case of the Jeju April 3rd Peace Park, Korea, 2012, p. 257-265.
which tourists ‘consume’ L’Aquila as a disaster tourism place (Wright & Sharpley, 2018). Locals became more appreciative of the tourists’ presence the more they are interested in seeking to understand the disaster more deeply. Local community
perception transformation is an important evidence of tourism’s potential contribution to the recovery process.5 Local community’s find positive thing is this case. It is an opportunity for locals to share their emotions about the disaster and communicating to the rest of the world.
L’Aquila as a disaster destination inevitably attracts tourists. It is crucially important particularly for those locations where earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural disasters can be predicted to create disaster recovery planning that should include provisions to manage that inevitable “influx of tourists” (Wright & Sharpley, 2018).
The experience of L’Aquila illustrated the recovery process and revealed an important aspect of disaster tourism. The impacts of a disaster continue long after the media loses interest in this destination. Tourism may be an effective tool to highlight the place and the tragedy of a disaster area when it is no longer headline news and no longer has media coverage.
• The case of Snowtown, South Australia
The case study of Snowtown showed that if this area wants further developed of dark tourism a number of factors must change. Snowtown and the surrounding area lacked any form of tourism infrastructure that would potentially encourage tourists to spend more time here (Kim & Butler, 2015). Tourists would arrive to take photographs or occasionally communicate with locals before departing. However, in long run
Snowtown’s dark tourism attractions, even if fully promoted, would not attract muny long-term visits.
This dark tourism can be developed as a tool for educational purposes. Thus, local government authorities should pay attention towards dark tourism development. Moreover, local government authorities should seek to develop sensitive solutions to the increase of the demands of dark tourists that would not be offensive for both local residents and families of the victims. According to Kim and Butler it is important to promote “educational forms of dark tourism”.6
Many examples and cases were considered in this analysis. The examples of disasters happening all over the world were taken into consideration to analyse the overall situation. The most interesting and useful cases were underlined by the author for the further analysis and representation of the concept of dark tourism. Those cases can be seen in the table 15, that can be also found in appendix.
Table 1. Natural disasters
Event: Place: Year: Comments:
Tropical Cyclone Winston
Fiji 2016 The use of SM for tourism
recovery
Jeju uprising Korea 1948 Dark tourism
L'Aquila Italy 2009 Significant increase of tourism level
Sichuan earthquake China 2008 Beichuan County, Post-disaster tourism
Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
Japan 2011 Blue tourism, ‘The miracle Pine’
6Kim, S., & Butler, G., Local community perspectives towards dark tourism development: The case of Snowtown, South Australia, 2015, p.78-89.
Earthquakes in Canterbury city of Christchurch
New Zealand 2010, 2011 Red Zone bus tours
Bohol earthquake Philippines 2013 Geotagged social media data Hurricane Katrina New Orleans 2005 City&Catrina Tour
Volcanic eruptions Kilauea 1924 National park
Earthquake San Francisco 1906 the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco
Tsunami Thailand 2004 Museum dedicated to the event
Volcano
Eyjafjallajökull eruption
Iceland 2010 Tourism boom
Earthquake in Kobe Japan 1995 Significant increase of number of tourists
The North Sea flood Netherlands 1953 Watersnood museum in the Netherlands
Mount St. Helens Volcano
USA 1980 Educational centre of Mount
St. Helens Volcano in the Mount St. Helens Institute
Volcano Hawaii 1985 Jaggar Museum in Hawaii
Yucatan Peninsula Mexico 2012 Tourism boom
Volcano Merapi Java, Indonesia 2010 Tour in zone near volcano
The interest for these places came after the catastrophes. As soon as the disaster happens the sooner greater number of tourists will come to visit this place. There are disasters that took place many centuries ago and the reason there are a lot of tourists is that it was promoted for a long time and people continue to visit these places. There are also catastrophes that happened recently, and people tend to visit them more often because they are discussed on social media, TV channels and radio. It attracts people even more.
Another interesting finding of this analysis is that all these catastrophes can be
divided into two types those that happened because of a nature (natural disasters) and those that happened by people mistakes, wars, for example. The motivation to visit
these types of disaster destination is different. The case of chosen region contains natural disaster. After the analysis of different cases there were found different
motivations of people to visit destinations of natural disasters. First of all, people visit these places because they want to help people. Second of all, people are attracted to these places because of the belief in superstitions or dark powers.
Analysing dark tourism management, the interesting finding was found. There should be a well-managed place with some activities not raw place but something that people can do. For instance, museums or tours. There should be something that people can see, feel, touch and reflect on.
Finally, all of these analysed cases have similarities:
1. Natural disasters have increased awareness of destination with the help of large media coverage. Many people who have never heard about these places decided to visit it only after the tragedy;
2. The interest has increased as a result of development of mass media, social media, and all researches that were carried out by the public;
3. Physiological aspects of ‘dark tourism’ make people want to visit these places.
From international tourist’s point of view, some common reasons for visiting natural disaster places can be identified:
1. Extraordinary environment. In many cases the interest is aroused by the comparison with the imagination created by the media and their interpretation; 2. Digital bridge for the visit: Museums.
3. Iconic image. It will help to recognize the place, and to stimulate interest and imagination of the place.
Moreover, historical significance and uniqueness should be used to illustrate the main idea, concept of this place:
1. How did the disaster change the place (comparing before and after); 2. Historical importance of the place (example of Pompeii);
3. Emotionality through stories.
1.3 Literature analysis on cultural and heritage tourism
People travel not only for joy and relax bat also to experience cultural peculiarities. Most of the European cities have a lot of tourist coming for exploration of culture and heritage. However, there are destinations only for beach holidays but in most cases every country, city or region has its own history, culture and uniqueness.
Heritage tourism, according to National Trust for Historic Preservation, is "traveling to experience the places, artifacts and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past",and "heritage tourism can include cultural, historic and natural resources". Culture has always been the most important part of travel. In the 20th century, some people claimed that culture is no longer the objective of tourism, tourism is now culture. Cultural attractions now play an important role in tourism at all levels, starting from the global world culture moving to attractions of local identities.
Culture, heritage and the arts contributed to attract tourist to a particular destination. However, in recent years culture has been rediscovered and reanalyzed as an important marketing tool that can help to attract those travelers with specific interests in heritage and arts.
Heritage tourism also involves visiting historical or industrial sites that may include old canals, battlegrounds, railways, military sites, etc. The main purpose is to gain an appreciation and information of the past.
Cultural heritage tourism is important for various reasons that are presented by Richard Greg. First of all, it has a positive economic and social impact. Secondly, it establishes and reinforces identity. Thirdly, it helps preserve and protect the cultural heritage. Finally, being an instrument, it facilitates harmony and understanding among people, moreover, it supports culture and helps regions to renew tourism. As Benjamin Porter together with Noel B. Salazar claimed that cultural heritage tourism can also create tensions and even conflict between the ‘different stakeholders involved’.
Cultural heritage tourism has a lot of objectives that must be achieved within the context of sustainable development such as: 1) the protection of cultural resources, 2) accurate and true interpretation of resources, 3) unique visitors experience and 4) the stimulation of the earned revenues for cultural resources. Therefore, we can see that cultural heritage tourism is not only connected with management, identification and protection of these heritage values but it also should be involved in understanding of the impact of this particular tourism on communities and regions. Being able to achieve economic and social benefits, provide financial resources for protection and maintenance, and also have money for marketing and promotion.
There is a problem with heritage tourism that represents the effect on indigenous peoples whose land and culture tourists visit. The problem is that if the indigenous people are not a part of the ruling power in the country or majority, they may not benefit from the tourism as much as they should. For instance, Mexican tourism has increased because of the Maya culture and the case when they predicted the end of the Maya Calendar. However, as we can already understand the indigenous Maya have not benefitted from the increased traffic through the ruins and other cultural landmarks. However, does it always happen? That is why we should analyze cultural and heritage tourism in order to understand it role on tourism market, understand its characteristics, problems, benefits etc. There is hope that the era of cultural tourism is only starting,
and regions can benefit from offering tourists to visit peculiar places. Moreover, both parts will benefit from this kind of relationship because people will experience cultures and heritage regions will earn revenue that can be further invested in sites maintenance and protection. So that future generations could also experience the past life itself.
1.3.1 Methodology
Basing on key words and content search we are looking for material describing the importance and popularity of heritage and culture tourism. The main methods of this study are the analysis and synthesis of scientific journals and scientific literature, as well as reports and articles. The analysis of this literature will help us to realize the role of heritage and culture tourism in case of increasing the demand for tourism. Also, case study is used in this work in order to gain evidence of culture tourism’ importance.
Keywords: Cultural tourism, heritage tourism, Cultural consumption, Cultural ecosystem services, heritage tourism, Cultural heritage management
The literature review was based on the academic magazines (online versions), that are more or less related to the area of tourism. Such resources were analysed and the articles from them were chosen as the primary ones for analysis. The newspapers with the most important articles are the following: Tourism Management, Current Issues in Tourism, Journal of Heritage Tourism, Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
1.3.2 Literature analysis
Cultural tourism as a social phenomenon appeared back to the surge in post-World War 2 leisure travel. In Europe, travel was a cure to develop cultural understanding and bring to consciousness shattered economies. As incomes and consumption increased in the 1960s and 1970s, so did international travel, and, moreover, the consumption of culture (Richards, 2018). By the 1980s the flow of international tourists to popular sites began to attract enough attention of tourists for the label ‘cultural tourism’.7
What if look at the nature of cultural tourism? According to Osborn we experience traveling visually. In psychology, aesthetics has a long tradition as an empirical discipline. Aesthetic experience has mainly been a subject of visual perception, and the main focus was on the visuals of artworks. Fortunately, there is now many thoughts about what visual properties have the potential to be aesthetically experienced or at least affect aesthetic preferences towards tourists visiting museums and relating items of culture and heritage.
For example, the research of Vietnam heritage tourism showed that Cham museum has a natural demand for heritage tourism based on the appreciation gained by visitors of indigenous Cham culture (Trinh & Ryan, 2016). This includes arts of exotic
sculptures, monuments and architecture. This example describes an evolutionary experience of place that changes some tourists point of view from relatively shallow interest to an almost spiritual position because of the role of the aesthetic that comes from landscape and dance.8
Cultural tourism has recently been re-affirmed by the UNWTO as a major element of international tourism consumption, accounting for over 39% of tourism arrivals. Culture and tourism were always linked between each other. Cultural places of interest,
7 Richards, G., Cultural tourism: A review of recent research and trends, 2018, p. 12-21.
8 Trinh, T. T., & Ryan C. Heritage and cultural tourism: The role of the aesthetic when visiting Mỹ Sơn and Cham Museum, Vietnam, 2016, p. 564-589.
attractions and events are powerful motivation for travelers. But it is only in recent decades that we use this term cultural tourism.
Today we can see that the demand for experiencing and learning about different cultures has grown among tourists today. Cultural tourism, according to Wall & Mathieson, “involves tourists experiencing and having contact with a host population and its cultural expressions, experiencing the uniqueness of culture, heritage and the characters of its place and people” and follows principles, which suggested Boyd, such as “ensuring authenticity and quality, the provision of a learning environment through interaction and involvement, conserving and protecting resources, and building partnerships”.9
• Peculiarities of cultural tourism
Season is one of the most important parts of cultural tourism. One of the most common feature of tourism demand is that it tends to be seasonal. According to the study from Italian experience the importance of the role played by cultural tourists increased. Generally, this study illustrates the tendency of cultural tourists to spend more money on their cultural journeys rather than non-cultural and to travel out of the peak season.
Although cultural tourism remains to be less seasonal in comparison with other forms of tourism, its potential could be improved by, for example, attracting older cultural tourists. If we want to change the seasonal pattern of tourism demand, policymakers should be focused on ageing tourists by offering a cultural holiday that can match their tastes and needs (Vergori & Arima, 2020). Moreover, foreign ‘cultural tourists’
9 Lynch, M. F., Duinker, P. N., Sheehan, L. R., & Chute, J. E., The demand for Mi’kmaw cultural tourism: Tourist perspectives, 2011, p. 977-986.
who visit Italy are more likely to choose ‘holiday packages’ rather than organizing their own trip.10
On the other hand, if we take young cultural tourists they may like to travel more during off-peak seasons. For instance, special discounts may be more attractive for young people visiting Italy during the Christmas and Easter holidays. Young tourists do not have enough money that is why they do not spend as much as they would like to. Therefore, travel agencies can attract young travelers by low prices that would reduce their travel expenses, for example, transportation, accommodation or museum costs etc (Vergori & Arima, 2020).
Domestic visitors may have different opinions on wild local areas compared to international visitors, that is why the expectations of the latter are often informed by the marketing strategies of tour operators or by social media activity. Place-based values within natural areas that are mapped by local residents may differ because domestic and international visitors can experience places differently (Ghermandi, Camacho-Valdez & Trejo-Espinosa, 2020). Downtown areas are more popular among tourists, whereas cultural and recreational destinations are more attractive for
locals.11
• The desire to develop cultural tourism
If the region has decided to develop cultural tourism. Moreover, there is a need for tourism destinations to have historical heritage resources to deliver historical and cultural meaning that heritage places and things hold. For instance, we can implement ‘active experience programs’ that can bring vitality to historical heritages (Park, Choi
10 Vergori, A. S., & Arima, S., Cultural and non-cultural tourism: Evidence from Italian experience, 2020.
11 Ghermandi, A., Camacho-Valdez, V., & Trejo-Espinosa, H., Social media-based analysis of cultural ecosystem services and heritage tourism in a coastal region of Mexico, 2020.
& Lee, 2019). As an illustration we can take storytelling ‘using intangible cultural
assets’ like traditional performances or even folk plays, they are important for tourists to be able to experience authenticity of those heritage tourism places. What is more, we can create events where tourists can experience the daily life of local people or even make traditional dishes. Introducing such activities can provide fresh meanings for the people about cultural heritage places that were not as interesting before but now there is an opportunity for the preservation and revitalization of historical heritage.12
Apart from having historical destination, according to De Propris the role of ‘cultural and creative industries (CCIs)’ in the post-industrial knowledge economy is
‘increasingly crucial’. Many studies claim that CCIs demonstrate ‘cultural identity’ and promote ‘cultural diversity’ (Wu, Lin & Wang, 2020). CCIs can make already strong ties among cultures even more powerful. This may help them to become the core of local economic development. CCIs continue to grow all over the world, particularly in developed countries.13
Moreover, in order to achieve the goal of sustainability in heritage tourism, heritage sites should be ‘managed effectively’ so that it ensures protection of heritage
resources and presenting them to the public. As heritage tourists are not
homogeneous, it is not easy to develop management actions that are acceptable for all tourists, especially if they have conflicting values. The value of heritage resources might be valued for their cultural and educational benefits, or be a source of local, national, or ethnic identity or pride, and some of them are expected to provide communities economic benefits (Alazaizeh, Hallo, Backman, Norman & Vogel, 2016). It is important to understand the diversity of these values because it may help
12 Park, E., Choi, B. K., & Lee, T. J., The role and dimensions of authenticity in heritage tourism, 2019, p. 99-109.
in obtaining the support of tourists and other stakeholders for creating heritage management strategies, which is an important factor to reach sustainable heritage tourism. If there is no tourists' support, management strategies might be difficult to implement.14
The UNESCO recognition is also used as an advertisement tool to attract tourists. Moreover, being on the WHL helps in increasing ‘global visibility’ and ‘tourist arrivals’. For example, Thorsell and Sigaty documented that recorded annual visits to 116 of the WHSs was approximately 63 million in 1998, that accounts for nearly 0,1 of international tourist arrivals. If we take a look back to when it all started, we can see that a boom of heritage tourism was caused by the Traveler magazine that was issued in October 1999. It illustrated 50 perfect places that every curious traveler should visit in a lifetime.
Heritage sites are considered to induce prosperous tourism that also create jobs and earn foreign exchange. This serves the major driving force for further growth in many countries. Moreover, being on the list of WHSs, UNESCO gives financial and
technological support to repair and maintain those heritage sites (Huang, Tsaur & Yang, 2012). This helps low-income countries that are heavily dependent on the tourism industry for their economic growth.15
While analyzing cultural and heritage recourses it is important to keep in mind that there are three types of ‘land patterns’ found at heritage resources. First of all, it should contain the core cultural and heritage sites. Second, it should also include associated land resources and conveniences connected to cultural or heritage elements
14 Alazaizeh, M. M., Hallo, J. C., Backman, S. J., Norman, W. C., & Vogel, M. A., Value orientations and heritage tourism management at Petra Archaeological Park, Jordan, 2016, p. 149-158.
15 Huang, C. H., Tsaur, J. R., & Yang, C. H., Does world heritage list really induce more tourists? Evidence from Macau, 2012, p. 1450-1457.
(Xu, Liu, Qian & Wang, 2017). These gives us an opportunity to gain huge potential to become tourism resources through exploitation. The third type is the ‘general land resources’, which become representative of a culture while being of recent
construction.16
If we analyze cultural tourism in terms of people and their experience, according to social identity theory (SIT), the social environment that a person lives in and interacts with is important in understanding the evaluation process that forms part of an
‘individual's construction of self-identity’. SIT sees self-identity as part of a person's social identity (Gieling & Ong, 2016). As military memorials are the part of a culture and heritage. This evaluation might help in case of existence of warfare heritage, for example, warfare-related memorial sites, underlining the importance of social
categories suggested by the heritage site. Therefore, feelings of self-enhancement and self-esteem are boosted if a person feels connected to particular social group or place. The more we analyze this process the more we understand the role memorial sites play in modern societies as they are also places of national importance that people feel connected to.17
• Pros and cons of cultural tourism
Tourism is now considered as an alternative option, no matter in developed nations or developing ones, to maintain the continuous development of economy. According to
Ying, T. and Zhou Y., no matter in remote or rural areas where traditional industries are in decline. It may also apply to China as it has large number of rural cultural tourism destinations that have emerged since the 1980s.18
16 Xu, S., Liu, Y., Qian, Y., & Wang, Q.,The significance of the West Lake pattern and its heuristic implications for creating China's heritage tourism economics, 2017, p. 286-292.
17 Gieling, J., & Ong, C. E., Warfare tourism experiences and national identity: The case of Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein’in Oosterbeek, the Netherlands, 2016, p. 45-55.
18 Ying, T., & Zhou, Y., Community, governments and external capitals in China's rural cultural tourism: A comparative study of two adjacent villages, 2007, p. 96-107.
On the one hand, the cultural heritage sector argues that cultural values are in danger of commercial gain. On the other hand, tourism proponents claim that tourism values are in danger when a management attitude exists that any ‘‘tourismification’’ has a destroying influence (McKercher, 2005). The consensus between these two opinions may be in the argument that the sharing of the resource creates partnership and, therefore, opportunities for both parties to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. Heritage tourism bring people back to their cultural roots and makes people’s interest in history or culture stronger.19
What should administrations also think about when starting cultural tourism? Intention to promote cultural tourism, for whatever reason, the obvious starting-point of this is having cultural resources that have the potential to attract tourists. It is obvious that many countries of CEE may be considered as ideal cultural tourism products. As Williams and Balaz stated: “Central Europe has the potential to capitalise on the shift from standardised mass tourism holidays to the more individualised forms of culture- and environment-based tourism’. The rich heritage of most of these countries embodied by spectacular art and building heritage as well as the diversity and legacy of many performing arts that were familiar to Western Europe even though there was communist rule and consequent isolation. The subsequent breakdown of the communist bloc gave an opportunity for a significant latent demand to emerge. These countries have those resources to capitalizeze on the demand for urban and cultural tourism. Moreover, they were able to exploit a novelty value of tourism to countries that were ‘closed’ some years ago and they did it at relatively low prices.
19 McKercher, B., Ho, P. S., & Du Cros, H., Relationship between tourism and cultural heritage management: evidence from Hong Kong, 2005, p. 539-548.
We have the potential for attracting tourists. According to ATLAS comprehensive Europe-wide surveys, there is increasing interest in culture-tourism relationship. Cultural tourism has been lately identified as a new market that shows changed needs and tastes, although this form of tourism has always existed. The number of niche markets started increasing in the latter part of the 20th century and thy are also known as special-interest tourism. It can be considered as the expense of the mass standardized market or as an addition to that existing market. The market fragmentation can be explained by such factors as increased incomes or leisure and there is also one factor that illustrates a shift in the needs to be satisfied by a holiday. The last factor occurs because of existing ‘holidaymakers’ who look for new experiences not only sun and sand. New generations, for instance, have taste preferences that differ from those of their parents. In addition to be a new market demand, this was popular long ago and has been part of the conventional wisdom of tourism: ‘cultural tourism is one of the growth sectors of tourism industry’.
Not taking into consideration the fact that it is a new emerging and growing market, even now we can see the further advantage is that relationship between culture and tourism being mutually beneficial. For instance, it is stated that it can create extra revenue for both and, what is more important, ‘sustains and enhances’ cultural resources that could disappear (Hughes & Allen, 2005). According to Holcomb,
cultural tourists are regarded favorably as, being ‘typically well educated, affluent and broadly travelled, and they generally represent a highly desirable type of upscale visitor’. Cultural tourism and cultural tourists today are often referred to another dimension, they have superiority over other forms of tourism. Nowadays it is a new, fast growing and premium market.20
20 Hughes, H., & Allen, D., Cultural tourism in Central and Eastern Europe: the views of ‘induced image formation agents’, 2005, p. 173-183.
There are continuous debates for at least two decades among economists, sociologists, cultural and geographical scientist that seeks clarification of the relation between destinations development and the ‘use-management-production’ of the assets on which such development is based. If we take cultural tourism, there is an issue of ‘‘wise exploitation’’ of the heritage for tourist use (Russo & Van Der Borg, 2002). Among all these issues, methods, recommendations, and restrictions generated by such discussion, there are two themes that emerged as fertile for ‘practical policy developments’:21
1. the ability to combine the development of a tourism industry and the preservation of the heritage;
2. the existing and potential synergies and even tensions between the ‘‘global’’ tourism system and the ‘‘local’’ socio-economic development.
Therefore, we should understand that cultural heritage may be considered as a precious resource for the community, rather than a financial burden for the local economy. That is why it requires balanced utilization, taking into consideration general principles and practice of sustainability, or the optimal use of non-reproducible resources.
• Case study of Taiwan as a place of cultural and heritage tourism
Let us consider Taiwan as a place of cultural and heritage tourism. As we have already mentioned there is a global trend of cultural tourism that attracts attention of countless tourists. Temple fairs in Taiwan represent Chinese traditional rituals for worshipping gods or Buddha. Millions of visitors visit such fairs annually to experience Taiwan’s folk art, local history, its customs and heritage. According to Taiwan Tourism Bureau
21 Russo, A. P., & Van Der Borg, J., Planning considerations for cultural tourism: a case study of four European cities, 2002, p. 631-637.
statistics, temple fairs are the most favorite activity for international tourists. If we consider foreign tourists visiting Taiwan, 37.66% visit a temple or temple fair. They see them as representative of Taiwanese cultures. To the Taiwanese, exhibitions are the most favorite cultural activity and temple fairs are on the second place.
According to Taiwan Tourism Bureau, each county or city in Taiwan has approximately 451 temples. To attract more tourists, temple administrators incorporate into their ritual’s dynamic activities such as dancing, plays and acrobatics. Markets as we all know sells traditional arts, snacks, antiques, calligraphy, religious products near numerous temples. Consequently, temple fairs typically cater to visitors. Therefore, using culture as marketing tool, provides more unique business opportunities for local residents and promote tourism (heritage regions).
When focusing on heritage tourism which is a field where the convergence of heritage, tourism, identity and community is even greater. Therefore, it is needed to consider the role of identities that must be explored as an important factor in the planning, management and sustainability processes of heritage tourism. Moreover, it will be important to examine in depth the meaning of ‘symbolic community’ in the social context of heritage tourism. Balcar and Pearce were studying the ‘‘identity effect’’ while working on case of heritage tourism in New Zealand, concluding that ‘‘what has driven the establishment of historic sites in the region derives more from a strong sense of local and regional identity and a wish to preserve the community’s heritage’’ (Ballesteros & Ramírez, 2007). Along these same lines, it is we need to underline that identity factors contain a clear explanatory potential when analyzing the development of heritage tourism.22
22 Ballesteros, E. R., & Ramírez, M. H., Identity and community—Reflections on the development of mining heritage tourism in Southern Spain, 2007, p. 677-687.
• Case study of West coast in New Zealand
Let us consider the case study of West coast in New Zealand that will help us realize the importance of cultural tourism. In places like Shantytown, Coaltown and the Reefton Visitors Centre heritage is presented by reconstruction, recreation and display of historic artefacts. Shantytown, for instance, recreate and illustrate a 19th century mining town. The Reefton Visitors Centre provides information and installations for many historic mining sites in this area. These reconstructions, recreations and various hands-on displays try to show what life was like in the past through experiential presentation and also containing a larger element of entertainment.
According to Prentice: “comparatively little is known in a systematic manner about the characteristics of heritage tourists”. Shantytown is the largest and most substantial of the eight sites in New Zealand and, if we do not take the Hokitika Museum, is the most well established and perfect place for heritage visitors. These features, coupled with a perfect location, a ‘tourist orientation’ and strong promotion tools, made
Shantytown by far the leading heritage attraction (Balcar & Pearce, 1996). If we look at numbers, almost 90 000 people were recorded in 1993. In contrast, if we look at the newest site, the Reefton Visitors Centre, it recorded almost 18 000 visitors in its first seven months of work and took the second place.23
These figures also show the small scale of these heritage operations and prove their secondary importance, comparing with natural attractions.
Conclusion
As we can see cultural and heritage tourism is a tool of economic development that may help to achieves economic growth by attracting visitors from outside a host community.
This type of tourists is motivated wholly or partly by interest in the history, art, science offered by a community, region, group or institution. Such travel is interesting for people because it gives them opportunity experience cultural environments, such as landscapes, visuals, performances, arts and unique lifestyles, values, traditions, and events of a particular region or place. Now more and more people are interested in heritage tourism because they want to dive into the history of this or that place. Today not only old people are attracted to this type of tourism, young people also want to combine both cultural tourism and beach holidays. As there is demand for that small heritage regions should have an offer. It is important for them because this can help them spur their economy, maintain heritage sites and protect them. People who visit those places will broaden their minds and regions will benefit from this not letting those places die unknown.
1.4. Literature analysis on tourism in small territory and synergy of neighbouring regions
Nowadays if we are talking about tourism in both large and small regions, we should take into consideration that this needs proper management. Moreover, small regions have a lot of opportunities to develop their region. It is necessary to analyze them and understand the further actions.
1.4.1. Methodology
Basing on key words and content search the author searched materials describing cases and examples of tourism management in the relatively small and medium, not of high popularity places, the ways of its promotion, the analysis of their management in general. Additionally, some examples of synergy of neighbouring regions and countries were analysed in order to see cases that can be close to our project.
Key words: nature-based tourism, cross-border tourism, synergy tourism, cooperation in tourism, Nearest-neighbour analysis, small and medium destinations;
The literature review was based on the academic magazines (online versions), that are more or less related to the area of tourism. Such resources were analysed and the articles from them were chosen as the primary ones for analysis. The newspapers with the most important articles are the following: Tourism Management, Current Issues in Tourism, Journal of Heritage Tourism, Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
1.4.2. Literature analysis
• Urban tourism
Towns and cities have always been visited by tourists and tourism was always considered as the safety pill for curing unpredictable crises that many urban areas suffered from. Nowadays, urban areas in many countries both in developed, developing as well as in small island economies, are well known as popular tourist destinations. They may include small towns and large cities, historic cities and towns where tourism is kind of a new development and towns and cities that are active in many tourism markets. Urban tourists are always attracted by cultural trips that include visiting cultural resources such as the peculiar buildings or historic sites. This is why urban areas became an important component of towns and cities, and, moreover, they form part of a city’s tourism offer. When we gave the leading role to urban areas in the tourism industry, it became important for regions to create working decision-making system. According to Robin Nunkoo and Haywantee Ramkissoon, while locals recognized the benefits of tourism, they can also express worries about negative impacts of tourism development in the city.
As urban areas of small island economies have rich culture and heritage, and there is a development of the tourism industry, they play crucial roles in developing and sustaining this development in such economies. There is also evidence that if the tourism industry has poor management, as the tourism sphere continues to develop they might appear the risk of reduction in the support for tourism development.
It is crucial for government and urban policymakers to understand residents’ attitudes toward urban tourism to analyze the factors which may influence their reactions is important because the sustainable development of tourism needs the active
participation and support from the local community (Nunkoo & Ramkissoon, 2010). If the government decides that social and cultural resources of urban areas are to be exploited in a sustainable way, they should also support local communities in such economies in order to maintain their capacities to use their social and cultural identity, following the aim of sustainable development. That is why it is also important to monitor residents’ attitudes in small island urban communities on regular basis. Development can only be sustainable under one condition: it is based on cultural and social identity.24
• Natural tourism in small regions
As we may already know there has been a boom in tourism to natural areas in the past twenty years. This pattern can be explained by growing urbanization. People no
longer have the opportunity to contact with the nature, they become disconnected with the nature (Derek, Woźniak & Kulczyk, 2019). People tend to spend more of their free time in nature, because it helps to maintain their mental and physical it is not only about protected areas, it may also apply to urban parks, for instance.25
24Nunkoo, R., & Ramkissoon, H., Small island urban tourism: a residents' perspective, 2010, p. 37-60.
25Derek, M., Woźniak, E., & Kulczyk, S., Clustering nature-based tourists by activity. Social, economic and spatial dimensions,
According to Fredman and Tyrvainen, activities that take place in natural areas usually take place in nature-based because it is the main component of enjoying
nature (Derek, Woźniak & Kulczyk, 2019). These experiences may differ and involve various outdoor activities. There is even a classification of relationships between nature and tourists provided by Valentine:26
1) activities that depend on nature (for example birdwatching), 2) activities enhanced by nature (for example camping)
3)activities for which the natural setting is a matter of incident (for example swimming).
As natural tourism is also popular all over the world the decision to develop this sphere in small region is also successful and progressive. Developing management strategies to promote the nature of a region is also a great decision if a region has appropriate natural resources.
• Being competitive in tourism sphere
According to Dupeyras and MacCallum, the definition of tourism destination competitiveness is: “the ability of the place to optimize its attractiveness for residents and non-residents, to deliver quality, innovative and attractive (e.g. providing good value for money) tourism services to consumers and to gain market shares on the domestic and global market places, while ensuring that the available resources supporting tourism are used efficiently and in a sustainable way”.27
Tourism itself is a progressive decision made by small regions. Tourism destination competitiveness 'has tremendous ramifications for the tourism industry and is
26Derek, M., Woźniak, E., & Kulczyk, S., Clustering nature-based tourists by activity. Social, economic and spatial dimensions,
2019, p. 509-521.
27Kovačević, N. D., Kovačević, L., Stankov, U., Dragićević, V., & Miletić, A., Applying destination competitiveness model to
therefore of considerable interest to practitioners and policy makers' (Kovačević,
Kovačević, Stankov, Dragićević & Miletić, 2018). Moreover, tourism is considered as one of the key sectors for economy development in many countries as it is a major source of income, jobs and wealth. It is also important in promoting the image and international perception of a destination.
Many people think that lower prices can attract tourist increase destination competitiveness. However, developed countries charge high prices and are very successful in attracting tourists. Let us take London as an example, this destination is the most visited one, even though it has unattractive climate and weather conditions, which as we may think, should reduce its competitiveness. Paris as another example is extremely popular among tourist, but it has no access to the sea and is very expensive. So, indicators can be subjective, and they depend on different groups of visitors.
• Beneficial decisions in small region tourism
Cross-border cooperation can also be very beneficial in terms of tourism. Taking into consideration the case of Russia and Finland we can have a look at pros and cons of such cooperation:28
+ Cross-border is beneficial in terms of innovation for both parties.
+ Those differences in culture and the level of technology helps to exchange cross-border knowledge.
- Different language and legislative issues are barriers for having practical cross-border cooperation.
Innovations in the tourism sector are strongly linked to other sectors. For instance, tourism firms and other tourism organisations always tend to adapt and implement
28Makkonen, T., Williams, A. M., Weidenfeld, A., & Kaisto, V., Cross-border knowledge transfer and innovation in the European neighbourhood: Tourism cooperation at the Finnish-Russian border, 2018, p. 140-151.
innovations which were produced somewhere else. Therefore, connections in particular sphere like tourism sector can result in innovations of many processes. When we take connection between tourism and non-tourism sectors, it is more likely that there will appear new products and new knowledge.
Therefore, will analyse some case studies of different small regions and see what decisions they made to develop tourism.
• Case study of South Banat
It will be very useful to analyse the cases of different small regions, for example, South Banat district in Serbia. South Banat is visited by domestic tourists mostly (around 70– 80%) 2.5 days length of stay and with minimal consumption (Dragićević & Miletić,
2018). This influences the broader economic effects of the tourism industry. It is interesting that most tourists are businesspeople, hunters or visitors of different events.
‘Gastronomy, multicultural communities, and richness of cultural and historical heritage’ were considered as the best of the following destination attributes and got the highest ratings (Kovačević, Kovačević, Stankov, Dragićević & Miletić, 2018). Moreover, connectivity to European destinations, hospitality of the locals and public transport and taxi services were considered more competitive than other chosen destinations.
However, the quality and quantity of the tourism infrastructure in the district is considered as being inadequate. A representative of the local government stated that the overall impression from local attraction is that natural resources are represented not well because of undeveloped infrastructure. Unfortunately, employed human resources did not have appropriate education in tourism and they cannot be motivated due to low salaries. However, the local government has understood this problem and started working on a solution.
Serbian economic experts consider that the main problems of their tourism industry on a national level are:29
1) reduced purchasing power;
2)decreasing number of domestic tourists; 3) disbalance of service quality and price; 4) central government's poor organization;
5) disinterest in investing money into traffic infrastructure and tourist facilities; 6) Serbia is not a recognized tourist destination on the international market
These experts think that if these problems are not solved even a good promotional campaign will not help this region.
If we take a broad conceptual model of destination competitiveness developed by Ritchie and Crouch for this small border region with rather underdeveloped tourism industry it may also enable a systematic approach to find out region's strengths and weaknesses, and, moreover, ways to improve its competitiveness.
The conclusion to this case is that this region needs to improve its destination management and make the internet use for promotion and booking better. South Banat can take advantage of current trends in Serbian tourism, the increasing number of Chinese travelers, and the increasing ability of nearby Belgrade to attract foreign tourists (Kovačević, Kovačević, Stankov, Dragićević & Miletić, 2018).
• Case study of Tolmin
If we consider another case study of small destinations it will help us realize some other beneficial decisions of small region tourism. According to case study based on ethnographic research in Tolmin, it is a town of about 3.5 thousand inhabitants in the
29Kovačević, N. D., Kovačević, L., Stankov, U., Dragićević, V., & Miletić, A., Applying destination competitiveness model to
