Discussions about the growth of cultural tourism have ranged from the highlytheoretical to extremely practical approaches. First I want to outline one of the mostimportant theoretical issues, namely the development of culture and tourism in(post)modern societies.In theoretical terms, the relationship between tourism and culture illustrates that thecurrent cultural tourism market represents the latest phase in a long standing processof convergence between culture and tourism. In the past, culture and tourism wereseen as being separate spheres of social practice, undertaken by distinct social groupsat specific times. As John Urry (1995) has noted, however, the barriers between cultureand tourism are disappearing as a result of two parallel processes:1) The culturisation of societyEveryday life is increasingly characterised by a de-differentiation of previously distinctsocial and cultural spheres, with the emergence of an economy of signs, the
convergence of ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture, ‘art’ and ‘life’. Objects and people have becomeincreasingly mobile, and boundaries between previously distinct cultures areincreasingly being eliminated.2) The culturisation of tourist practicesTourism has attained a greater cultural content, most obviously through the growth ofcultural tourism, but also through the increasing significance of signs in the productionof tourist sites. Not only do tourists consume a wide range of signs during theirholidays, but the signs attached to travel are increasingly produced and circulated bythe cultural industries.The production and consumption of signs and symbols obviously forms an importantpart of both of these processes of the culturisation of tourism. We might therefore beable to argue that tourism itself has become a culture, or a 'way of life' to quote themost frequent usage of the term. If tourism, like other sectors of social life, is becomingmore cultural and is itself becoming a form of culture, is it still possible to talk about adistinct form of 'cultural tourism'? One might argue that all tourism is cultural - and infact some of the definitions presented later imply this is the case. If so, it is little wonderthat cultural tourism appears to have grown.However, the number of people actually visiting cultural attractions has also grown,indicating a very practical outcome of the culturisation of society. According to theEuropean Heritage Group, attendance at museums, historical monuments andarchaeological sites has doubled between 1977 and 1997 (European Commission,1998). Other estimates indicate that between 1982 and 1995, the attendance atmuseums and monuments across Europe grew by about 25% (Richards, 1996).This growth in cultural tourism can be explained in terms of both demand side andsupply side factors.