Cultural Tourists and the Sources of Information

Abstract

The development of new technologies has rapidly changed the way of communicating, especially in this century. The virtual world brings a lot of advantages to all stakeholders in tourism. The purpose of the study was to identify the main sources of information for cultural tourists visiting Dubrovnik in the postseason, “before” visiting and once when they were at the destination. The empirical research was carried out in September and October 2015 in Dubrovnik. Survey data was collected from 211 visitors. The results show Internet as a dominant source of information. Contribution of this paper can be found in the ‘niche approach’ to the research reflected in connecting the target group (cultural tourists) with the sources of information. The results can be used in the destination marketing. The virtual environment offers huge opportunities to the marketers, especially in the process of communication when they can have feedback from the customers very quickly. It is crucial because two main factors of the quality of the modern destination product are quality of all its segments (items and people), and quality of the communication.

Keywords: The Sources of Information, Internet, Cultural/Heritage Tourists, Target Market, Dubrovnik

JEL Classification: Z10, Z30, Z33