THEORETICAL APPROACH TO THE PROFILE OF TOURISTS VISITING URBAN TRAVEL DESTINATIONS

Abstract

The tourist profile is a key element in tourism, being addressed both in the academic and professional area. Possessing information regarding the tourist’s features leads to market segmentation, creating adequate marketing and management strategies, providing an appropriate tourism offer, choosing the most advantageous promotion channels, obtaining tourists’ loyalty or their recommendation to others. Also, urban tourism is a form of tourism practiced by an important number of tourists. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to provide a theoretical approach to the profile of tourists visiting cities and the secondary objectives are to identify research conducted recently on this topic, the approach of this concept by stakeholders and the variables of the profile of these tourists. This research consists of a review of studies and content analysis of the papers written on this topic was realized. Research on the tourist profile has been conducted all over the world, including Romania, approaching the characteristics of tourists with various preferences regarding, for example, the chosen types/forms of tourism, travel services, motivation, satisfaction or loyalty. We identified and analyzed the socio-demographic, geographical and behavioral variables and approached the importance of data regarding tourist features for various stakeholders.

Keywords

• tourist profile, urban travel destinations, international tourists, content analysis, Romania.