The Perception of Romanian Tourists on the Attractiveness of the Industrial Heritage. Case Study: Municipality Of Cluj-Napoca

Abstract

The radical changes generated by the process of industrial restructuring and accelerated urban development have brought to the center of attention the industrial heritage as a valuable cultural resource, but at the same time vulnerable. Regeneration projects focused on the adaptive reuse of industrial heritage elements take many forms, from economic, residential to cultural conversions, the latter being correlated with the use of industrial buildings as tourist attractions. The purpose of this study is to identify the interest of Romanian tourists to practice industrial tourism, based on assessing the degree of knowledge and their desire to visit industrial monuments. For this purpose, an online questionnaire was applied, the results of which were statistically interpreted using the Covariance Analysis (ANACOVA). The main results of the study reflect the fact that there is a low share of Romanian tourists who know the significance of the concept of industrial heritage and who consider it attractive. Selecting 5 representative industrial buildings for the Municipality of Cluj-Napoca selected as a case study, only a third of the respondents stated that they know them. However, there is a relatively high interest of respondents to visit industrial monuments, mentioning as main motivations: the age of the buildings, the specific architecture, and curiosity or even form of reuse of industrial monuments. Almost half of the respondents stated that they would introduce industrial buildings in their travel itineraries if they were better promoted. The main conclusion of the study is that industrial tourism is not sufficiently promoted at national level.

Keywords

• industrial tourism
• architectural value
• urban regeneration
• cultural conversion
• romania