ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the cultural tourism market, and the position of museums as major suppliers of cultural tourism experiences. Cultural tourism has been adopted as an element of tourism policy by national and regional governments in all corners of the world. Cultural tourism is popular with policy-makers because it supposedly attracts high-quality, high-spending tourists and at the same time provides economic support for culture. Increasing interest in tourists on the part of cultural attractions is to some extent due to necessity, and also due to the fact that cultural tourism is seen as a major growth market. In order to study the development of cultural tourism, the European Association for Tourism and Leisure Education (ATLAS) launched its Cultural Tourism Research Project in 1992. The ATLAS research provides a valuable tool for assessing the cultural visitors market in Europe and examining the way in which cultural visitors experience museums and other cultural attractions.
