SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF HISTORICAL CITIES AS TOURISM DESTINATIONS

Every single historical city is par excellence a tourism destination. This derives simply from the definition of tourism and of the tourist. As a tourist destination, every historical city does not carry the same meaning to all tourists. The aim and purpose of tourism oriented development of a historical city must be different from tourism development of other tourism destinations. Very often the cities with very rich history attract many visitors, but they do not stay in them long. This situation raises a number of economic questions and dilemmas of how to reconcile the costs of preserving and maintaining the historical monuments with the benefit of tourist consumption made by visitors who come and stay in such cities albeit just for a short time. This is a question of tourism development policy itself: how to expand a tourism offer in order to keep the visitors longer, without damaging the harmony and physical environment of historical cities. Very often it is the matter of old and modern coexisting at the same place, of ethics, tradition, culture, architecture etc., as well as of economic concerns. The paper raises more questions than it will give answers, but it attempts to highlight the problem from the theoretical side.