Cultural tourism products and experiences

This chapter examines a wide range of issues about cultural tourism products. It looks at the general concept of products, examines the idea of products as tourist attractions and discusses the need to commodify and standardize product offerings. It adopts a marketing approach to cultural tourism product development. Marketing is an overall management philosophy that seeks to link consumers with experiences to satisfy both the needs of the visitor and the financial and non-financial needs of the organization providing the experience. Tourism is driven by products, which we commonly call attractions or experiences. Attractions are demand generators that give the customer a reason to visit. If none exist, people will have no reason to visit.