New Challenges to Managing Cultural Routes: The Visitor Perspective

In recent decades, cultural routes have become increasingly important in the tourism offerings of rural destinations. It is vital to identify the factors that visitors consider important to their satisfaction with a cultural route and its overall impact on a tourist destination. This paper employs Principal Components Analysis (PCA) to investigate the dimensions of visitor satisfaction on cultural routes. A survey assessed satisfaction with 37 specific aspects of a cultural route in a tourist destination, revealing three key dimensions: satisfaction with destination characteristics, tourism infrastructure, and the cultural roots offerings. The findings highlight the need to move beyond traditional models of tourist satisfaction that focus on specific experiences and instead explore overall factors contributing to tourist satisfaction with a destination. The study examines cultural routes in rural regions of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in Croatia and neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina. The scientific findings have significant implications for cultural route managers, aiding in the innovation and creation of offerings that will enhance tourist and visitor satisfaction.