Abstract

This article presents the results of an exploratory research project on the relation between tourists and the heritage presented in a historic city. Actual visiting patterns in a historic city are related to tourists’ motivational factors in order to better understand the role of heritage elements within a historic city. The sample is composed of heritage tourists arriving at the main train station in the city of Maastricht (Netherlands). Empirical testing involved the use of a structured questionnaire using face-to-face interviews. Besides, a GPS-tracker was used to identify the visiting patterns. Tourists’ motivational factors are classified in five groups and linked to the visiting patterns.

The results of the questionnaire showed various differences in terms of tourist characteristics, their level of interest in heritage and tourists’ motivational factors. The use of the GPS-tracker revealed some general visiting patterns regarding heritage in the historic inner city. It can be concluded that the attractiveness of this, so-called, tourist-historic city is at the expense of other heritage sites, especially those on the outskirts of the city. The relation between tourists’ motivational factors and visiting patterns appeared to be rather weak in this research and it was therefore not possible to draw meaningful conclusions about whether visiting patterns are grouped in a certain way that reflect the heritage tourists’ classification.

Though the results lead to a better understanding of reasons for visiting heritage places and provide further insight into heritage tourism in general. City planners and urban-tourism developers need this kind of information on motivations and behaviour of heritage tourists to target their plans for future development and marketing of heritage sites.

Keywords: heritage, tourism, visiting patterns, heritage tourism, historic city, city of Maastricht