The Temporal Dimension of Tourist Attraction

Abstract

Tourist attractions are vital sub-elements in the tourism system. Despite drawing considerable attention in the tourism literature, most studies suffer from a lack of in-depth analysis of the theoretical foundation. This research aims to analyze the temporal nature of tourist attraction, thereby linking the cognitive and organizational perspective of tourist attraction classification by its temporal dimension. From the organizational perspective of tourist attraction classification, a further purpose is to classify tourist attractions regarding their temporal dimension. This paper shows the organizational influence of time regarding when and how long an attraction occurs. The cognitive and organizational perspective typologies of tourist attractions are linked by a common unit of measurement: time. With regard to their temporal dimension, tourist attractions are classified as STA - Stationary attraction and SEA - Seasonal attractions. This study contributes to the literature by providing an insight into the temporal dimension of tourist attractions and the understanding of the cognitive and organizational perspective and their interconnection within tourist attraction typology. The defined framework can be applied in the comparison and evaluation of tourist attractions providing the basis for further discussion on the nature of tourist attractions.