Motivations in heritage destinations of the cultural tourist: the case of Malaga (Spain)

Abstract

Cultural tourism is considered one of the most respectful segments both with the heritage preservation of the visited destination and from an environmental point of view. Not only because it is not a type of mass tourism, but also because these tourists want to know the heritage of the destination and its culture, gastronomy and way of life. The main objective of this paper is to identify the aspects that influence the tourist the most when choosing a destination from the point of view of their motivations and the services and cultural offer of the destination. The empirical study took place in the city of Málaga because it is an attractive destination for many different segments of tourists, has a great services and cultural offer and an important heritage legacy. PLS-PM models have been used since they allow to confirm the intensity and sign of the stated hypotheses. There are four latent factors included in the model: Tourist Destination, Cultural Offer, City Services and Tourist Motivations.

Keywords

• cultural tourism
• heritage destinations
• motivations
• pls-pm