European Cultural Tourism: A view from Barcelona Greg Richards Tilburg University, the Netherlands g.w.richards@uvt.

nl A paper presented at the workshop on national cultural tourism policy in Vienna, 2004 Cultural tourism has been seen as one of the major growth areas in European tourism over the past decade, and is increasingly being seen as a major area of product development by tourism destinations in search of diversification. The desire for quality tourism, the need to find resources to support culture and the ready availability of cultural resources makes cultural tourism an attractive option for both urban and rural areas. In spite of this, there is still little understanding of what cultural tourism is, and relatively little information about the cultural tourism market. This paper brings together some of the existing evidence about the development of cultural tourism, largely based on research undertaken by the Association for Leisure and Tourism Education (ATLAS) in recent years. Particular attention is paid to what we can learn from the experience of Barcelona, which has re-invented itself as a cultural tourism destination and has become one of the cultural capitals of Europe. Defining Cultural Tourism Because all tourism activities involve some element of culture, whether it be a visit to a specific cultural site or event, or simply soaking up the atmosphere of a destination from a pavement caf, there is a temptation to see all tourism as cultural tourism. As the World Tourism Organisation has commented recently (WTO 2004) The definition of culture is almost as broad as that of tourism itself. In addition to the obvious built heritage and the arts, some countries include in their definition for example sport, gastronomy, education, pilgrimages, handicraft, story-telling and village life. Perhaps recognising that such a broad approach to cultural tourism makes it extremely difficult to decide what cultural tourism actually is, the WTO has proposed a narrow definition, which covered movements of persons for essentially cultural motivations such as study tours, performing arts and cultural tours, travel to festivals and other cultural events, visits to sites and monuments, travel to study nature, folklore or art, and pilgrimages. The key phrase in this definition is that cultural tourism involves essentially cultural motivations. Not all cultural consumption by tourists is stimulated by cultural motivations many trips to cultural events and attractions have culture as a secondary objective. If it rains, sun and sand tourists may forsake the beach for the museum. Tourists on a city break may stumble across a local festival during an exploratory walk. These accidental cultural tourists may be very different in terms of motivation and behaviour from those culture vultures who set out f rom home with the intention of consuming specific cultural manifestations. A further complication is that our views of culture are also changing. In the past, cultural tourists might have travelled mainly to see the high culture of a destination, part icularly museums, monuments and arts festivals. These days, however, the tourism product is increasingly being enhanced with elements of popular culture, such as gastronomy, film, sport and television. In Barcelona, for example, the Museum of FC Barcelona attracts more visitors every year than the Picasso museum. These ambiguities about the form and content of cultural tourism go a long way towards explaining the widely differing estimates of the scope of the cultural tourism market. Some researchers have claimed that cultural tourism accounts for 70% of the global tourism market, or 500 million international trips. WTO estimates, however, put the size of the market at 37% of global tourism, or about 265 million international trips in 2003. The actual proportion of cultural tourists in any single destination will depend on the nature of the product as well as the definition of cultural tourism. For example, Peru claims that 93% of international tourists are cultural tourists, compared with only 3.9% in Uruguay. The Peruvian estimates are clearly

based on a broad definition of cultural tourism, whereas more conservative estimates of specific cultural tourism from the ATLAS surveys (covering those people travelling for specific cultural motivations) indicate that cultural tourism accounts for about 5-8% of the total tourism market, or around 60 million international trips worldwide. Local surveys tend to confirm the scarcity of real culture vultures. In Hong Kong, for example, about a third of all intern ational tourists visit a cultural attraction or event during their stay, and might be classified as general cultural tourists. However, only 10% of tourists indicated that culture had played an important role in their decision to visit Hong Kong. This shows that extreme caution has to be exercised in evaluating the cultural tourism market, and that it is very important to be clear what definition is being used. Very rarely do people seem to be talking about the same thing when they talk about cultural tourism. There are countless conferences and seminars being held on cultural tourism across the world, and many universities are now developing undergraduate and masters programmes in cultural tourism. But there is still no single widely-accepted definition, and still remarkably little hard data on the market. It was in order to try and find out more about the phenomenon of cultural tourism that the Association for Tourism and Leisure Education (ATLAS) developed its Cultural Tourism Research Programme in 1991. Since then, the programme has undertaken more than 30,000 interviews with visitors to cultural attractions, with the express aim of understanding more about the motivations, profile, behaviour and attitudes of cultural tourists. The programme started with studies in Europe, but in recent years has included other areas of the world as well. The latest research round covers 2004. This paper presents some initial results for 2004, based on sample of 3000 tourists at 12 cultural sites and events across Europe, Africa, Latin America, Asia and Australia. In addition, some comparisons are made with previous years, to identify basic trends in the market. The research attempts to answer basic questions about the behaviour of cultural tourists and to shed light on important issues such as marketing and management of cultural tourism. Who are the cultural tourists? One of the most important points to make about cultural tourism is that not all visitors to cultural sites are tourists. About 40% of the 2004 ATLAS survey respondents lived in the local area. Less than 20% were foreign tourists. This emphasises the point that apart from a select few sites or events where the majority of visitors come from abroad, the domestic market is of vital importance for most cultural tourism attractions. The importance of the domestic and local markets for cultural attractions is also supported by other studies. In the USA the Travel Industry Association estimated that there were 92 million US adult travellers who had visited a cultural site or event in 1998, or 46% of all domestic trips. In contrast with the traditional view of cultural tourism, younger people are a very important segment of the total audience. The single largest age group is between 20 and 29, and almost 40% of visitors are under 30. This matches the findings of other research, such as a recent study by the AFIT in France, which indicated that 40% of visitors to historic sites were under 35. In addition, research conducted on the youth tourism market by ATLAS and the International Student Travel Confederation (ISTC), indicated that discovering other cultures was the single most important motivation for young travellers. The youth market is important for cultural tourism not only because people visit cultural attractions when they are young (and many use youth discount cards to do so), but also because the cultural experiences they have in their youth may influence their future tourism behaviour as well. One of the reasons that youth travellers, and particularly students, are important for cultural tourism is because of the strong link between cultural consumption and education. Highly educated people tend to consume more culture not just high culture, but popular culture as well. One of the major reasons for the growth of cultural tourism in recent decades has therefore been increased participation rates in higher education. The visitors in general and the cultural tourists in particular are very highly educated. Over half have had some form of higher

education, compared with about one third of the EU population. Higher education levels tend to lead to better jobs and higher incomes. It is not surprising, therefore, that cultural tourists tend to have professional (32%) or managerial occupations (15%) and have relatively high salaries. One of the seemingly contradictory aspects of cultural tourism is the fact that people working in jobs connected to the cultural sector tend to engage in cultural tourism more frequently. 27% of cultural tourists have an occupation connected with culture, compared with about 3% of the EU population. It seems that people who work in museums also visit other museums when they are on holiday. This is one of the clearest cases of a busmans holiday we have come across in our research. Why do they come? One of the most important questions for the point of view of cultural tourism marketing and management is the motivation of cultural tourists. Again, it is important to realise that not all visitors to cultural sites are motivated by culture. Just over 14% of the tourists interviewed would characterise their holiday as cultural. So even the tourists visiting cultural sites would not generally consider themselves to be cultural tourists. The ATLAS surveys have consistently found more visitors to cultural sites who are on a city break (19%). When we look in more detail at the reasons why they go to a particular place, it is clear that the main motivation is a combination of atmosphere, local culture and history. People want to learn something during their visit, particularly about the unique character of the place they are visiting. The basic motivations for visiting cultural sites has changed little over the years. The most important motivation has tended to be learning new things. However, in 2004 experiencing the atmosphere of the attraction was more important for foreign visitors. It seems that cultural tourism is becoming an experiential product, in which the visit is judged in terms of all attributes of the attraction, and not just its cultural value. Where do they go? The traditional attractions, such as museums, galleries and monuments are still the most important sites visited by tourists. In 2004, almost 60% of the ATLAS respondents had visited a museum (other than the site they were interviewed at), while 30% had visited a monument and 29% a gallery. However, there is evidence of a trend towards greater dispersion of visitors among different cultural attraction types in the destination, and in particular a shift from heritage attractions towards arts attractions. The figures for 2004 show museums consistently being most important since 1997 and monuments losing share. On the other hand art galleries, performing arts attractions and festivals have all increased their share of visitors in recent years. Another area of cultural tourist choice we have studied over the course of the survey is the cities that people consider to be most attractive as cultural destinations. In terms of the cities that cultural tourists consider being attractive cultural destinations, there have been few changes in the major destinations in recent years. Paris, Rome and London are always present in the top three, in the case of London and Paris probably because of their undisputed position as world cities and in the case of Rome because of the depth of history and richness of modern culture of the Italian capital. A fairly consistent group of cities contests the second rung on the ladder, including Athens, Florence, Barcelona and Vienna. These cities in fact compete more fiercely with each other than they do with London or Paris. One of the major strategies now being used by cities to position themselves in cultural tourism markets is the staging of major cultural events. In Europe, the hosting of the annual European City of Culture (ECOC) event has become a hotly contested prize. A recent review of the ECOC programme published by the EU (http://www.palmer-rae.com/culturalcapitals.htm) shows that the programme has been relatively successful in attracting cultural visitors to the host cities, with an average increase of 12% in overnights in each city. Graz was particularly successful in this regard, attracting 25% more visitors in 2003. However, as competition to attract events

becomes stiffer, cities must be innovative to maintain their competitive edge. How do they gather information? The main source of information for cultural tourists is personal recommendation from friends or family (45%). Guide books are the most important source of published information (24%), but the Internet is rapidly becoming a major factor, already being consulted by 33% of tourists, compared with 17% of tourists in 2002. Far fewer use tour operator brochures (6%) or tourist board information (6%). More people are also booking their travel or accommodation via Internet (15% in 2004, compared with 8% in 2002). An important aspect of information gathering is the stage at which cultural tourists make the decision to visit a site or event. The ATLAS surveys indicate that almost half the tourists decide to visit a cultural attraction before leaving home, while about a quarter make the decision during the journey to a region and a quarter only decide once they have arrived at the destination. This indicates the importance for cultural attractions of attracting the attention of the tourists before they arrive in the destination. Because it is unlikely that individual cultural attractions will have the resources necessary to market themselves abroad, there is an important role for collaborative destination marketing in developing cultural tourism. How much do they spend? One of the reasons why so many nations and regions are interested in cultural tourism is because of its image as high quality, high spend tourism. This is attractive not only because of the direct economic benefits it generates, but also because this spending can be used to support the cultural sector, at a time when many governments are finding it increasingly hard to bear the costs of heritage preservation and arts subsidies. It is not surprising, therefore, that economic arguments tend to dominate discussions about the costs and benefits of cultural tourism, much to the dismay of those involved with the cultural sector. Such tensions are exacerbated by the fact that the cultural sector perceives that most of the economic benefit of cultural tourism accrues to the tourism sector, rather than benefiting culture directly. There seems to be some grounds for complaint in destinations such as Venice, where staying tourists spend only 2% of their budget with cultural attractions, compared with 45% on accommodation and 21% on shopping. The attractiveness of cultural tourists for most tourist destinations lies in their high overall spend. The image of cultural tourists as relatively rich tourists is partially confirmed by the research. The average total spend in the destination for cultural tourist groups in 2004 was over 100 for tourists, which is higher than visitors on a rural holiday (55) and beach tourists (97), but lower than for touring holidays. It should also be noted that the average stay of cultural tourists also tends to be lower than beach tourists. Summing up the results of the research, it seems that todays cultural tourists are generally well educated people with high status occupations and good incomes. These elements fit the stereotype of cultural tourists that has persuaded so many destinations to pursue them. What is often overlooked, however, is that not all cultural visitors are cultural tourists, and the level of cultural motivation varies greatly from one tourist to the next. They are often looking for a mixture of culture, entertainment and relaxation, not just traditional high culture products. It is also clear that younger tourists are much more important than has previously been recognised, and the youth market will be particularly important in creating repeat visitors for the future. Cultural Tourism in Barcelona Barcelona is one of the most talked about tourism success stories in Europe in recent years. The number of tourists visiting the city has more than doubled in the last decade, and Barcelona has successfully re-positioned itself as a cultural destination and an attractive Mediterranean city. One can argue that much of this success has been due to culture either the high culture of Gaud and Modernist architecture, or the popular culture of Barca and the Ramblas. But the re-discovery of Barcelona as a fashionable cultural capital is part of a far longer and more

complex process, stretching back well into the 19th century, and involving the physical development of the city, and its political, economic and social history. In this paper I want to briefly sketch a context for the analysis of cultural tourism in Barcelona, and consider the range of factors that have influenced its development. The Making of a Cultural Capital The physical location of Barcelona is of course one of its major assets, and this has also had a major impact on tourism. The city is one of the few major metropolises on the Mediterranean, a major port and a gateway between north and south. Because of its proximity to France, this was one of the first areas to develop tourism in the 19th century, even though most early tourists bypassed the city and headed for nearby coastal resorts. This pattern continued well into the 1980s, when Barcelona was still basically a day trip destination for tourists on the Costa Brava, or a conference and business tourism destination. However, this began to change in the 1980s, not just because of the product differentiation taking place everywhere in the Mediterranean, but also because Catalunya wanted to distinguish itself from the rest of Spain, which was still inevitably linked with a sun, sea and sand image. Catalunya was an independent state for hundreds of years before being incorporated into Spain. Barcelona is therefore in the strange position of being the capital of a stateless nation one of the most important non-capital cities in the world. Years of oppression or neglect by Madrid have had a profound effect on Catalunya, and produced a strong desire for selfdetermination, cultural identity and linguistic freedom. These feelings were particularly heightened during the Franco regime, when Catalan cultural expression was banned in public. Rivalry between Catalunya and Castille has also been reflected in rivalry between Madrid and Barcelona. This rivalry has also had a profound effect on the physical layout of the city. The Spanish refusal to let Barcelona demolish the city walls prevented it from expanding until the 19th century. However, this had the effect of preserving the old medieval city, since this was the only area which could be inhabited. When the city finally got permission to expand in the midth 19 century. Barcelona was prevented from implementing its favoured plan for expansion Cerdas plan being imposed from Madrid. Therefore Barcelona got the Eixample against its will although many would argue that it benefited as a result. The desire of Barcelona to develop independently of Madrid also led to city to embark on an ambitious series of event-led developments. The first of these was the World Exhibition of 1888, which put the city on the international map and developed the Cuitadella area of the city, there was a second World Exhibition in 1929 which developed the area around Placa Espanya and Montjuic, and probably the most famous example was the Olympic Games, which developed the Olympic stadium and other sports facilities on Montjuic, as well as creating the Olympic Village and Port Olympic, and opening up Barcelona to the sea. Pere Duran, Director of Turisme de Barcelona has argued that each major event made its own contribution to the development of the city, even if they were not all successful in developing a global profile for Barcelona. For example, the Miro year, which in visitor terms was not particularly success, was an attempt to close the Olympic chapter and establish Barcelona as a cultural city. This approach has been strengthened in recent years with the designation of the Gaudi year, the Dali year and the Forum. Barcelona, much more than many other cities, could be identified as a city created by major events. The success of this strategy has led to the staging of many more events and themed celebrations in recent years, as the city tries to recapture the Olympic effect. The latest of these is the International Forum of Cultures, to be held in 2004, which will re-develop the coast at the end of the Diagonal, arguably completing the development process put in train by Cerda in the 19th century. But in addition to this development-led initiative, there are also a series of theme years, including the Dali Year (2004), the Design Year (2003) and the Gaud Year (2002).

Such initiatives have done much to develop the high culture product of Barcelona. The Modernist movement had a major role in shaping the Eixample, notably Gauds famous buildings. The World exhibition of 1888 created the facilities for Cuitadella, the MNAC was built for the World Exhibition of 1929, and the 1992 Olympics also had a significant cultural programme. The historic development of the city has evidenced the important role of public sector leadership for the development of cultural tourism as well. The Barcelona Model Since the restoration of democracy in 1979, the city of Barcelona has been ruled by the Socialist party, which has arguably developed a specific model of urban governance which has been important in influencing the social and cultural life of the city. The most important aspects of the Barcelona Model are: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) Creating consensus between public administrations Involving the private sector in the financing of projects Creating autonomous entities to control planning and finance Supporting an architectural approach to redevelopment Introducing strategic planning Placing good ideas before large finance.

The architectural approach to redevelopment can be seen in cultural tourism in the development of new cultural facilities as catalysts for development in certain parts of the city. The development of the North Raval, for example, has been spearheaded by the opening of the MACBA and the CCCB, both of which are now established elements of the Barcelona cultural tourism product. These developments also reflect a tendency for the city to favour famous foreign architects, such as Richard Rogers and Frank Gehry. Although one element of the Barcelona Model is private finance, experience has shown that public sector leadership and public money have played a vital role in the renaissance of the city. For example, The public sector investment in the Olympic Games from 1986 to 1993 was estimated to be over $8 billion, of which the public sector contributed two thirds. The Olympic project also arguably had the effect of creating compromise within the city of Barcelona itself. There was a broad level of agreement with the programme of urban renewal. But at the same time the Barcelona Model is based on a hegemonic agenda that does not allow for the expression of social or economic issues that do not fit the aims of the council (Casellas 2002). One example private/public partnership that has had a direct impact on tourism in the city has been the creation of Turisme de Barcelona a promotional body supported by the City, the Chamber of Commerce, and Barcelona Promotions. Policy of diversifying tourism and developing new markets has been very successful. The city has shifted from being a business tourism destination to a leisure tourism destination, and the role of culture in the tourism product has grown enormously. Cultural Resurgence However, perhaps one of the most important but less visible factors has been the cultural resurgence of Catalunya over the past 25 years. One of the important aims of the Olympics was to put Catalunya on the map as a nation, and Barcelona as the capital of Catalunya, separate from Spain. The nationalist sentiments that underpin such differentiation have also been important in the development of tourism to

Barcelona. Attempts to create a distinct identity for Catalunya have been very clearly cultural, with the Catalan language as the primary feature. This has meant that the promotion of culture has been an important part of tourism development, not particularly because culture is developed for tourism, but because the development of culture provides resources for tourism. This has led to the development of a whole range of cultural facilities aimed at residents but also consumed by tourists, such as the MACBA, History Museum of Catalunya, etc. These developments have helped to underpin the image of Catalunya as a modern, innovative country. This has been backed up by developments in fields such as fashion and gastronomy. Local authorities also spend lots of money on public celebrations, such as the Forum in 2004. This cultural dynamism adds to the atmosphere of the city, as well as helping to support the tangible and less tangible elements of the cultural supply of Barcelona. Barcelona of course owes much to its physical location, and its ability to position itself as a Mediterranean metropolis. But there are many cultural factors which have also been decisive. For example, Barcelona did not develop culture for tourism tourism was a by-product of cultural development. There has been strong local support for the development of culture and cultural facilities, and the development of open space for cultural use. Three competing tiers of government have also produced a strong flow of cultural production. The results of the Barcelona investment in culture have been impressive. The city has increased tourist numbers by almost 130% since the Olympic Games, outstripping the market growth in most other European cities. Visitors to cultural attractions in Barcelona have grown by almost 150% since 1994, far ahead of the growth in leisure visits. Measures of visitor satisfaction, particularly in areas related to cultural heritage have also increased. Recent surveys in Barcelona showed that over 85% of cultural tourists characterised Barcelona as a cultural city. Creative tourism: a trend for the future? Although culture is obviously one of the key products of a city such as Barcelona, the 2004 visitor surveys also showed that Barcelona was considered to be a creative city by almost 80% of cultural tourists. This points towards the emergence of a new market or form of tourism, which we might term creative tourism. ATLAS has looked in particular at creative tourism, which is arguably a development from traditional passive forms of cultural tourism towards more active involvement of the tourist in the cultural life of the places they are visiting. Creative tourism is also about actively learning skills that tourists will take home with them. This high involvement form of tourism is the result of a value shift towards self-development rather than just the material aspects of consumption. In Barcelona, cuisine is a major attraction, particularly as Catalunya has a growing reputation as a major area of culinary innovation. One advertisement for Catalan Cooking courses emphasises the active involvement of participants, who can Learn about the variety and quality of Catalan food in a guided visit to the famous La Boqueria market after which Jaume, our active and experienced cooking teacher, will cook with the help of the group, two main dishes and a dessert based on some of the most famous recipes of regional Catalan cuis ine. Barcelona has also discovered the creative sector as attraction in its own right, as one tour operator now runs a Creative talent in Barcelona excursion, which takes you directly to the artists and craftspeople, giving you an insight into the creative process and providing an opportunity to buy at advantageous prices, before their creators become too famous. In other parts of the world this development is being taken still further. In New Zealand, the Creative Tourism Network (www.creativetourism.co.nz) is offering a wide range of courses to visitors in the Nelson region, which has a relatively small range of cultural attractions. By adding creative components to a crafts tourism or cultural tourism product, visitors can be persuaded to

stay longer, spend more and come back to the region more frequently. Creative tourism is arguably more flexible than many traditional forms of cultural tourism, requiring less capital and making more use of local skills and knowledge than museums or visitor centres. At present, in common with the Nelson area, most examples of creative tourism necessarily come from those areas which do not have much in the way of traditional cultural tourism resources; the same reason why the earliest advocates of creative cities strategies included cities such as Huddersfield in the UK (Landry, 2000). The more limited the cultural or creative resources, the more innovative people have to be in developing creative tourism. In France for example (Telegraph Weekly, 2001), you can learn to make your own Laguiole knife in the Aveyron region, under the guidance of a professional knife-maker, choosing the material for your handle horn from boxwood, heather-root, rosewood or deer antler, assembling the spring, the bolster and the blade and finally finishing off with engraving, decorating and polishing. Designers including Philippe Starck have added their creative innovation to the original Laguiole knife design over the years and visitors have the chance to follow suit, illustrating that the presence of creativity (i.e. a design icon) can be an attractive and seductive presence for the visitor). In Grasse, in rural Provence you can learn to create and make your own perfume, the recipe for which will be kept for future orders (www.galimard.com), while their claim that Grasse is the Worlds Capital of Perfume underlines the importance of the location of the perfume making experience. Other examples are a porcelain-painting experience in Limoges, accompanied by a free visit to the nearby National Porcelain Museum of France, and cultural short break ceramic workshops in Vallauris (the alleged 'home of ceramics' and inspiration for Picasso and Matisses first forays into ceramics) (Telegraph Weekl y, 2001). The distribution of creative tourism opportunities in France seems to suggest that declining agricultural and industrial areas are at the forefront of this development. In other cases the wildness and isolation of peripheral areas is used as a specific spur for creativity. The Arts in the Wild project in Ontario, Canada, for example, offers creative activities such as painting, drawing, sculpture, carving and photography. Courses are provided by a network of arts organisations, cultural sites and tourism suppliers, who base their work on the inspiration of nature. The experience is designed to be transformational: Ontario can help YOU transform YOUR desire for creative expression into a lifelong experience and a great feeling of accomplishment (www.artsinthewild.com). These developments point to a number of potential creative directions that can be taken by destinations in the future. In making these initiatives successful, two things are important. Firstly, the creativity of the tourist has to be central to the experience. The visitor has to be able to actively develop their own creativity during the experience. Secondly, the destination also has to be creative, particularly in finding ways in which the creative experience is characteristic of the destination. Why should people decide to come to your destination, rather than any other, to develop their creativity? References ATLAS Cultural Tourism Studies Richards, G. (1996) Cultural Tourism in Europe. CAB International, Wallingford, 352pp. Richards, G. (1999, ed) Developing and Marketing Crafts Tourism. ATLAS, Arnhem. Richards, G. (2001, ed.) Cultural Attractions and European Tourism. CAB International, Wallingford. 259pp. Richards, G. (2001) El desarollo del turismo cultural en Europa. Estudios Tursticos no. 150. Hjalager, A-M. and Richards, G. (2002, eds) Tourism and Gastronomy. Routledge, London. Richards, G., Hitters, E. and Fernandes, C. (2002) Rotterdam and Porto Cultural Capitals of Europe 2001: Visitor surveys. ATLAS, Arnhem.

Fernandes C. McGettigan F. and Edwards J. ed (2003) Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage. ATLAS. More information on ATLAS publications is available via www.atlas-euro.org More information on the ATLAS/INTERARTS Cultural Tourism Research Project can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/atlasproject2004 Turisme de Barcelona www.barcelonaturisme.com European Cities of Culture Report: http://www.palmer-rae.com/culturalcapitals.htm World Tourism Organisation (2004) World Tourism Trends 2002 edition. WTO, Madrid.