Challenges and opportunities of heritage tourism for European youth – The role of memorial houses in promoting European destinations
Vlad Diaconescu – Andreea-Fortuna Șchiopu
Abstract
This research focuses on youth interest in an underexploited niche of heritage tourism, namely memorial houses. A memorial house is a small museum dedicated to a personality who lived or was created in that house or both. Thus, sometime after the departure of this person to eternity, the house was established to be visited for cultural, educational and tourist purposes. The study was aimed at young people between the ages of 18 and 26 and was conducted online between May 23 and 26, 2022. The 506 respondents were mainly students. The collected data were processed using SPSS and several statistical tests were performed. The main results showed that young people are interested in visiting memorial houses to enrich their level of general culture, learn new information in an attractive way, and better understand the past. From the results, some recommendations for action can be derived in order to raise awareness and encourage young people to visit memorial sites. These can be a link between youth communities in Europe and contribute to the consolidation of a European cultural identity.
Keywords
Heritage tourism, memorial houses, young tourists, types of culture tourists, destination management organizations.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.18267/pr.2023.kre.2490.5
Cite this paper
Diaconescu, V., & Schiopu, A.-F. (2023). Challenges and opportunities of heritage tourism for European youth – The role of memorial houses in promoting European destinations. In: 23rd International Joint Conference Central and Eastern Europe in the Changing Business Environment: Proceedings. Vydavateľstvo EKONÓM, Bratislava. pp. 63-77. https://doi.org/10.18267/pr.2023.kre.2490.5