The cultural vitality of cities - a premise of tourism development?

Abstract

Urban tourism is, most often, a form of cultural tourism and its development is linked to both the material and intangible heritage of cities. The classic vision of cultural and urban tourism is complemented by a more recent one, according to which the tourist seeks experiences, seeks the spirit of the place perhaps more than the place itself. And the atmosphere of a place, the experiences it offers visitors are related to its cultural vitality, the level of development of creative industries. This article aims to analyze, for county seat cities in Romania, the link between their cultural vitality (assessed on the basis of cultural vitality index) and the level of development of tourism activities (assessed on the basis of a composite indicator, which takes into account several variables). The result of the analysis shows the existence of a close connection between the two aspects, especially at the level of the cities with a regional polarization role, as in the case of cities without a tourist vocation. Types of cities were also identified according to the relationship between their cultural vitality and the level of tourism development.