United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognizes various historical sites as world heritage sites (WHSs). A historical heritage represents the cultural tradition of people, to whom it grants the essence of their diversity. In 2003, UNESCO expanded the area of cultural protection to include other heritage assets known as “intangible cultural heritage” (ICH). The Fiesta of the Patios celebrated in the city of Córdoba (Spain) was recognized as an ICH by UNESCO in 2012. The problem this research analyzes is studying and understanding whether the tourists who participate in an event registered as an ICH have the same motivations as the tourists who visit a specific WHS have. This research is thus to find out the segmentation of tourists who wish to discover ICHs using two models: Poria et al. and McKercher. On the basis of this segmentation, four groups of tourists of WHS were identified: alternative, cultural, emotional, and heritage. In addition, in this research, three motivational dimensions were detected when visitors decide to attend the Fiesta of the Patios: hedonic, cultural, and convenience.

This research aims to analyze the perception, motivation and behavior of tourists attending the Fiesta de los Patios in the city of Córdoba (Spain), declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) by UNESCO in 2012. This research has categorized tourists based on two different models: the model developed by Poria et al. (2003) and the one developed by McKercher (2002). Four different tourist groups were obtained: alternative, cultural, emotional and heritage. The main result of this research is that the behavior of different types of tourists can be determined depending on the perception that the ICH tourist has. The main practical application of this research is to provide public administration and management companies with tourism tools that allow sustainable management of this ICH event.