Structural System of Contribution of Cultural-Tourist Attractions to the Market Attractiveness of the Locality

Abstract

The estimate of market attractiveness by the local management structures shows its basic shortcoming in that it does not take the impression of visitors as a relevant criterion to a sufficient extent. The abovementioned impressions, transformed into the appropriate rating system of the offered values would allow for a more efficient analysis of current cultural-tourism offers at localities. Accordingly, in a research study conducted at the site of the Petrovaradin fortress (in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina), a testing of the modified assessment approach was performed, based on the application of the basic model of tourist valorization: Du Cross (2000). This approach is based on the conversion of quantitative parameters of assessment (numerical score on a scale) into qualitative data (attributive measurement characteristics of attractiveness). By grouping of attributive characteristics, based on the previously performed procedure of average values ranking of the scores, the conditions for creating a unique "structural list" of tourist attractions are made. The principle for grouping is the determination of direction and the size of deviation of average values from the determined arithmetic mean of ranks. Thus, in contrast to the basic model (Du Cross), in which only the position within the relevant field of the matrix of market attractiveness and robustness (MAR) is essentially determined, the possibility is offered to accurately classify the elements of attractiveness according to their importance and partially achieved contribution to the resulting /total market positioning.