Cultural tourism in the digital age: where are we today? Where do we want to be tomorrow? How do we get there?

The paper has two aims. The first is theoretical and calls for examining key issues, arguments and conceptualizations in the scholarship on cultural tourism in order to better understand its transformation in the digital age. The study characterizes the changes that have taken place in cultural tourism research by reviewing both literature and case studies on the subject and analyzing the concepts that have been added or modified in the ongoing research. The second aim of the paper is to offer recommendations for development of cultural tourism in the digital era. The main research findings indicate a shift to a postmodern approach, particularly with regard to the increasingly obfuscated boundaries between different tourism types. Another change currently underway is the shift in focus from creating a “product” to creating an “experience”. The change in the theoretical foundation has involved the elimination of distinctions that were accepted in the past and a growing inability to distinguish between different conceptualizations and fields of research, which are now being integrated. Finally, the recommendations focus on three levels: where we are today, where we want to be tomorrow, and how we plan to get there.