Castles as an attraction basis for development of cultural tourism

S pojavom suvremenoga doba dolazi i do promjena na turističkome tržištu, te promjena u turističkoj potražnji i okruženju. Veliko značenje počinju imati selektivni oblici turizma, među kojima se posebno izdvaja kulturni turizam. Kulturni turizam kao resursnu osnovu koristi kulturno-povijesnu baštinu, ali i različite oblike nematerijalne baštine. Kulturni turizam označava idealan turistički proizvod kojemu se vrijednost sve više prepoznaje unutar zadnjih 20-tak godina te postoji tendencija daljnjeg rasta. Tema ovoga diplomskog rada je opisati karakteristike kulturnog turizma, njegov razvoj te posebnosti kulturnoga turizma u Hrvatskoj. Također, prikazat će se potencijal dvoraca za kulturni turizam te usporediti hrvatske dvorce s dvorcima zapadne Njemačke i doline rijeke Loire u Francuskoj koji imaju veliki značaj za turizam u tim zemljama. Ovaj se rad sastoji od tri poglavlja, uvoda i zaključka.Modern times brought about the changes in the tourism market, in tourism demand and the environment. Selective forms of tourism are beginning to play an important role, among which cultural tourism stands out the most. Cultural tourism uses cultural and historical heritage, both tangible and intangible, as a resource basis, i.e. a combination of culture and tourism, as well as other activities such as history, sociology, anthropology and other similar activities. Cultural tourism implies an ideal tourist product whose value is increasingly recognized within the last 20-30 years with a tendency for further growth. The topic of this thesis is to describe the characteristics of cultural tourism, its development and the specifics of cultural tourism in Croatia. Also, the potential of castles for cultural tourism will be presented and Croatian castles will be compared with the castles of West Germany and the Loire Valley in France, which are of great importance for tourism in these countries. This paper consists of three chapters, an introduction and a conclusion