Serendipitous Cultural Tourist

Introduction

With technological developments, leisure time of individuals has increased as well as their disposible incomes and they desire to leave the routine has revealed the need for touristic experience. With the return of touristic experiences to routine, aslternative and special interest tourism types such as cultural tourism, sport tourism, cycling tourism, ecological tourism and agro-tourism have emerged (Yun et al., 2007).

Since the 1980s, cultural tourism has become a popular form of tourism that has a common agreement among tourism authorities to create a positive image for destinations, affirm national pride, prolong the length of stay of visitors and even rivive endangered traditions (Qi et al., 2018, p. 217). According to many studies, a significant percentage of tourists are seeking cultural experiences, such as visiting cultural attractions unrelated to the sea, sand and the sun, and participating in various cultural activities. World Tourism Organization estimates that cultural tourism currently accounts for 37% of all touristic trips, with demand having increased by 15% per year (McKercher, 2002; Richards, 1996). American Travel Industry Association estimates that two-thirds of U.S. Adults visit a cultural or heritage site or tourist destination while traveling (Silberberg, 1995). Based on these data, it has been suggested that cultural tourists represent a new type of mass tourist seeking meaningful travel experiences (McKercher & Du Cros, 2003).

Cultural tourism is a sub-set of tourism (Mishra, 2013). The range of possible uses of the term is so vast, that no single widely accepted definition of cultural tourism emerged (Dolnicar, 2002; Hughes, 2002). United Nations World Tourism Organization defines cultural tourism as “Movements mainly aimed at cultural motivations such as study tours, performing arts and cultural tours, travel to festivals and other events, visits to places and monuments, studying nature, folklore or arts, and travel for pilgrimage” (WTO, 1985).

Cultural tourism means different things to different people (Hughes, 1996; McKercher & Du Cros, 2003; Stebbins, 1996). Bonink and Richards (1992) came up with two main approaches by reviewing the current definitions of cultural tourism. The first is the areas and monuments approach, which is clearly related to a product-based definition of culture and focuses on defining the type of tourist attractions visited by cultural tourists. The second is the conceptual approach that attempts to explain the causes and meanings attributed to cultural tourism activity and are clearly related to the process-based definitions of culture. For example; cultural tourism covers all aspects of travel (McIntosh et al., 2009, p. 268). The contextual role of culture shapes the tourist's experience of a situation in general, without a specific focus on the uniqueness of a particular cultural identity (Mishra, 2013, p. 45).

Various tourist typologies appear in cultural tourism. The most common tourist typologies are explained by McKercher (2002); (1) purposeful cultural tourists are those who have a deep cultural experience and their major reason of visit is learning about culture or heritage; (2) sightseeing cultural tourists visit mainly for culture or heritage. However, their experience is shallower and entertainment-orientated; (3) casual cultural tourists are those whose cultural reason plays a limited role in the decision of the visit and subsequently they visit in a shallow manner; (4) incidental cultural tourists participate in cultural tourism activities, although cultural tourism plays little or no meaningful role in their destination decision-making process. They also have shallow experiences; (5) serendipitous cultural tourists visit cultural attractions and have a deep experience even if at the beginning cultural tourism plays little or no role in the decision making of visiting a destination.