Original Scientific Article
The Role of Culture in Attracting Tourists
Travelling by Low-Cost Carriers to Zadar
Božena KrceMiočić
University of Zadar, Croatia
krceb@unizd.hr
Tomislav Klarin
University of Zadar, Croatia
tklarin@unizd.hr
Gabrijela Vidić
University of Zadar, Croatia
gvidic@unizd.hr
Zadar is a tourism destination in the central part of the Croatian Adriatic coast. Its
geographical position and climatic conditions largely determine its development in
the direction of sun and sea and leisure tourism. However, Zadar is also positioning
itself as a cultural tourism destination, because of its very rich cultural and histor-
ical heritage. To attract more tourists from distant markets, the destination has de-
cided to co-finance and encourage low-cost carriers (lccs) to connect with Zadar
Airport. The aim of this paper is to determine the extent to which Zadar’s strategic
orientation towards cultural tourism is reflected in its communication through vari-
ous platforms, and at the same time to examine the extent to which tourists arriving
in Zadar by lccs are attracted by cultural heritage. The research included a content
analysis of Zadar Tourist Board’s andZadar RegionTourist Board’s socialmedia con-
tent. The results of the survey included data collected using a semi-structured survey
questionnaire on a random sample of tourists, who arrived in Zadar by lccs from
July to November 2021. Descriptive and inferential statistics methods were used for
the data analysis. The results indicate a mismatch between the strategic orientation
of the destination towards cultural tourism and marketing activities on the afore-
mentionedmedia, where culture is not really in the focus. Accordingly, tourists who
come to the destination by lccs are not significantly motivated by culture. The rec-
ommendations are aimed at overcoming the constraints, as well on further study of
the behaviour of cultural tourists who use lccs.
Keywords: culture, pull factor, destination marketing, low-cost carriers, Zadar
https://doi.org/10.26493/2335-4194.16.89-102
Introduction
The liberalization of air transport has led to an in-
crease in the use of aircraft in the tourism travel seg-
ment. Therefore, today the airplane is the first means
of transport for reaching a destination. A total of
58 of all tourists arrive at their destination by air
(unwto, 2019). Low-cost carriers (lccs) have chang-
ed a number of elements of their business models to
ensure lower travel costs (Bachwich &Wittman, 2017)
and to attract a new segment of consumers – tourists
Academica Turistica, Year 16, No. 1, April 2023 | 89
Božena Krce Mioi et al. The Role of Culture in Attracting Tourists
who want to travel more often and have limited funds
for tourist trips (Sarılgan, 2016). According to data
from Statista (2022), lccs make up 35 of the total
capacity of air carriers in the world. At the same time,
there is a strong growth in cultural tourism within
the tourism market as one of the forms of special
interest tourism that represents a shift from classic
mass tourism to tourism aimed at satisfying the spe-
cial wishes of consumers (Weiler & Hall, 1992). Cul-
tural tourism, according to the definition of unwto
(2018), implies ‘a type of tourist activitywhose primary
motivation for visitors is to learn, discover, experience
and consume tangible and intangible cultural attrac-
tions/products in the tourist destination.’ The number
of cultural tourists is constantly increasing, and desti-
nations are finding ways to position themselves in this
rapidly growing market. Cultural heritage protected
by unesco is only one of the attractive factors that
destinations use to attract tourists. From a strategic
point of view, the city of Zadar wants to position itself
as a cultural tourism destination, while at the same
time it attracts and financially supports low-cost car-
riers. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to investi-
gate to what extent the strategic orientation of the city
of Zadar towards cultural tourism is reflected in its
marketing communication through social media, and
with this in mind, to determine whether tourists trav-
elling by lcc aremotivated by culture when choosing
Zadar as their destination.
Culture as a Motivator and Driver of Tourist
Movements
Motivation is determined by a person’s emotional,
spiritual or physical needs (Dai et al., 2019). Tourist
motivation is a state of mind that in a certain way mo-
tivates an individual or a group to travel, and which
is later interpreted by others as a valid explanation
for making the decision to travel (Dann, 1981). The
motivation that drives an individual to make a tourist
trip can be different from the need to learn, get to
know new cultures, escape from reality, or the need
for adventure, etc. Culture represents one of the funda-
mental motives that drive tourists to travel (Richards,
2018; Cros & McKercher, 2015). Cultural tourism de-
velops from the need to discover new cultures, acquire
new knowledge and other cultural motives of tourist
travel. The unwto Report on Tourism and Culture
Synergies (2018) pointed out the importance of cul-
tural tourism. According to their research, 89 of
all National Tourism Administrations point out that
cultural tourism is an element of their tourism pol-
icy. The same research showed that 39 of all tourist
trips are motivated by culture. Such a share of cul-
tural tourists may at first seem extremely high, but
here, above all, the question related to the typology
of who is considered to be a cultural tourist is impor-
tant. Therefore, considering the typology of cultural
tourists, this share can be considered low. A detailed
elaboration of the motivation and typology of cultural
tourists is offered by a whole series of authors (Pulido-
Fernandez & Sanchez-Rivero, 2010; Barbieri & Ma-
honey, 2010), the most famous of which is the one
given by Bob McKercher (2002), Bob McKercher and
Hilary du Cros (2003) and Hilary du Cros and Bob
McKercher (2015; 2020) through various papers. This
classification, based on the motivation when choos-
ing a destination and the depth of experience that
tourists have while visiting cultural attractions, offers
five types of tourists. It starts from tourists who set
out on their trip solely motivated by culture and who
achieve a deep cultural experience, to those acciden-
tal cultural tourists whose motivation by culture when
choosing a destination is extremely small, but who, in
the destination, participate in cultural tourism activi-
ties and whose depth of cultural experience is super-
ficial. In this context, it can be determined that cul-
tural tourists can be categorized as tourists who have
consumed any cultural attraction or participated in
some cultural event in the destination, regardless of
whether they were aware of its existence when choos-
ing the destination, or deeply impressed by that at-
traction/event. There are a number of papers that
have explored the specific characteristics of cultural
tourists. According to these, it can be determined that
those tourists are usually of an older age, who spend
more in the destination and have an above-average
number of overnight stays (Vergori & Arima, 2020;
Cros & McKercher, 2015; Falk & Katz-Gerro, 2017).
Likewise, cultural tourists are on average more loyal
guests, and their motivation is often related to fac-
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Božena Krce Mioi et al. The Role of Culture in Attracting Tourists
tors such as satisfaction and the intention to return
(Richards, 2018).
Too often it has been assumed that a person has
one set of motivations and seeks one type of vacation
to satisfy them. Here it is important to emphasize that
tourists are usually not guided by only one, but that
there are several motives for visiting a destination, i.e.
there is a multiple motivational nature of making va-
cation decisions (Robinson et al., 2011). The findings
also confirm that travelmotives vary depending on the
nature of the trip (Dunne et al., 2007).
Destinations often force the development of cul-
tural tourism in order to valorize their cultural wealth,
but also as a response to the ever-present seasonality
in tourist movements. According to its characteris-
tics, cultural tourism should be less seasonal (Butler,
2001; Vergori & Arima, 2020; Qiang, 2020), although
some studies show that this is not necessarily the case,
especially in cultural coastal destinations (Cuccia &
Rizzo, 2011). With the aim of attracting a larger num-
ber of tourists, especially off-season, destinations de-
cide to attract lccs to nearby airports, offering them
benefits in the form of reduced fees, advertising on
their websites, etc. (Graham & Shaw, 2008; Mandić
et al., 2017; Dobruszkes & Mondou, 2013). Tourists
who come off-season are most often offered a cultural
tourism product that is less seasonally sensitive, and
cultural attractions are used as an attractive motivator
for lcc tourists who come to the destination in the
pre- and post-season (Davison & Ryley, 2010).
Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs) in Tourist Movements
Low-CostCarriers represent perhaps the biggest chan-
ge that has taken place in air transport, prompted by
its liberalization, which has also had a strong impact
on the tourismmarket. All lccs share a commitment
to the cult of cost reduction, a business model that of-
fers low fares, reduces total costs and uses resources –
both human and material – to the fullest (Graham &
Shaw, 2008). However, in addition to price competi-
tiveness, lccs have recently started to use a differen-
tiation strategy in their business (Akamavi et al., 2015;
Mandić et al., 2017). These companies, in addition to
the transport function itself, have also taken on ac-
tive engagement in the promotion of the destinations
they connect (Tsui, 2017). This also represents a con-
ceptual change in the business of airline companies,
which, in addition to the role of a carrier, also take on
the role of a co-creator of demand for a certain des-
tination. Therefore, it is expected that an increase in
the number of lcc users leads to an increase in the
total number of tourist arrivals and overnight stays
in the destination (Smith, 2009; Tsui, 2017; Pulina &
Cortés-Jiménez, 2010; Rey et al., 2011; Dobruszkes &
Mondou, 2013). The reduction in air transport prices
has enabled more tourists to reach more distant des-
tinations. lccs promote changes in the behaviour of
tourists, who now travel more often (Martínez-Garcia
et al., 2012).
A number of studies have been conducted with
the aim of determining the profile of lcc tourists
(Smith, 2009; Graham & Dennis, 2010; Clavé et al.,
2015; Krce Miočić et al., 2018; Vidić et al., 2019). It
has been established that most of the demand for lcc
services is generated by tourist movements, and when
viewed from a motivational aspect, they are most of-
ten tourists who travel for vacation and recreation,
and to visit friends and relatives (Kuljanin & Kalić,
2015; Martínez-Garcia et al., 2012; Mason & Alamdari,
2007). Research has confirmed that tourists who use
lccs are usually younger, with medium and higher
spending power and who stay in the destination for a
shorter time than average (Graham & Dennis, 2010;
Smith, 2009; Davison & Ryley, 2010; Eugenio-Martin
& Inchausti-Sintes, 2016). One of the reasons for their
greater buying power in the destination stems from
the low cost of air transportation offered by lccs, so
the total holiday budget is partially redistributed to
increased consumption in the destination (Eugenio-
Martin & Inchausti-Sintes, 2016). lccs found their
market segment of passengers in tourists who want
to travel for a short vacation (most often 2 to 5 days),
who actually represent typical mass tourists, who in
this way have the option of a more flexible choice of
travel dates and can achieve a shorter stay in the des-
tination (Smith, 2009; Pilling, 2008). According to re-
search by Eugenio-Martin & Inchausti-Sintes (2016),
the shortening of the stay of lcc users in the destina-
tion compared to tourists who did not use lccs was
1 to 1.8 days. lccs have changed travel habits, they
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Božena Krce Mioi et al. The Role of Culture in Attracting Tourists
have encouraged tourists to travelmore often, to go on
shorter trips and to use this transport for vfr (Visit-
ing Friends and Relatives) trips, but also operate for
the student population that decides to study abroad
(Dobruszkes & Mondou, 2013; Kuljanin & Kalić, 2015;
Craps, 2021).
Research conducted on tourists who visited Malta
using lccs (Graham & Dennis, 2010) showed that
these tourists are younger, wealthier and more inde-
pendent tourists than those who came to Malta by
charter flights or through tourist arrangements, and
they showed less interest in culture and history in
comparison to other tourists. This reduced interest in
culture can be seen especially in the post-season (au-
tumn andwinter), which, according to current knowl-
edge about cultural tourism, aims to reduce seasonal-
ity, and should perhaps be the most important period
for the arrival of cultural tourists. Likewise, destina-
tions often resort to attracting lccs in order to ex-
tend the season of tourist arrivals (Pulina & Cortés-
Jiménez, 2010). Smith (2009) investigated in Malta
how the introduction of lccs affected the share of
cultural tourists from the uk market. He found that
before the introduction of the lccs, this percentage
varied depending on the season – 30 in autumn and
winter, and 30 in the spring before the lcc flights
toMalta were introduced, while after the introduction
of the flights, the percentage was 24 in autumn, 27
in winter and 31 in autumn. As the intention of the
Maltese government in promoting the lccs was pre-
cisely the development of cultural tourism, these data
show that tourists who came to the destination in this
way were less motivated by historical cultural reasons.
In no segment of tourists who used lcc transport was
thismotive among the first two reasons for arrival, nor
did these tourists stay in an area with a high concen-
tration of cultural attractions (Smith, 2009).
Furthermore, research into the motivation of city
break tourists who visited Dublin (Dunne et al., 2007)
using lccs showed that there is no one-sided mo-
tivation to travel. In their research, they also do not
find cultural motives to be an important motive when
choosing a destination. Easy accessibility, ticket price,
but also a number of other motives such as relaxation,
social acceptance and escape are themotives that drive
tourists who use lccs. At the same time, destination
management organizations (dmos) encourage the es-
tablishment of lcc flights in order to attract cultural
tourists (Smith, 2009; Dunne et al., 2007), and the ex-
istence of multidimensional motives has been shown.
Vidić et al. (2019) determined that there are significant
differences in destination satisfaction between groups
of tourists with different primarymotives (a total of 37
motives).
In a similar vein, Krce Miočić et al. (2018) provide
an overview of longitudinal research in Zadar County
(Croatia) from 2013 to 2016, inwhich it was shown that
the motivation of lcc users for culture is relatively
low, and that tourists primarily motivated by culture
make up a maximum share of 2.8. At the same time,
if we look at those tourists who put cultural activities
and events as one of the first three motives, then the
share of cultural tourists in the total number of lcc
users ranges from 13.10 to 33.6 depending on the
observed year.
The lower price of air transportation does not rep-
resent a significantmotivational factor among cultural
tourists, who are less sensitive to price than tourists
motivated by many other motives (Graham&Dennis,
2010). Cultural destinations have their own attractive
power for most tourists (unwto, 2018), according to
which tourists travelling by lccs, when choosing a
destination, most often choose those with cultural at-
tractions. The links between the development strate-
gies of tourist destinations and lcc business models
point to the fact that lccs have played a key role in
the development of city destinations for short vaca-
tions, thus promoting cultural tourism (Graham &
Shaw, 2008; Davison & Ryley, 2010). Davison and Ry-
ley (2010) establish a statistically significant relation-
ship between the destination and the length of stay
of tourists, and the fact that cultural destinations are
suitable for short vacations, but that some (like Rome)
are also suitable for longer vacations. The same re-
search showed that cultural destinations have priority
among lcc users and that the most common moti-
vation when choosing a destination is rich cultural
heritage. From this it can be concluded that the seg-
ment of cultural tourists, regardless of price insensi-
tivity, still recognizes the flexibility achieved by using
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Božena Krce Mioi et al. The Role of Culture in Attracting Tourists
lccs. It was also established that cultural destinations
more often attract tourists travelling as couples, while
summer destinations attract larger groups (Davison &
Ryley, 2010).
Various studies show that these carriers strongly
encourage the segment of emigrants who travel more
often to their country of origin, so sometimes their
share in total lcc passengers exceeds 1/3 (Dobruszkes
&Mondou, 2013; Kuljanin & Kalić, 2015; Craps, 2021).
Although methodologically these travellers can be
seen as part of the tourist demand, their full contri-
bution to the destination is still questionable.
The Arrival of LCCs and Tourist Movements
to Zadar
The city of Zadar is located in the centre of Dalmatia,
on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It is the administrative
and tourist centre of Zadar County. The city of Zadar
and Zadar County are developed tourist destinations
that abound in various natural and cultural beauties.
The diversity of the attraction is the basis for attracting
different segments of tourists, among whom the lead-
ing ones are those motivated by the sun, sea and com-
fortable climate. This is why Zadar and Zadar County
are above all swimming destinations with distinct sea-
sonality. Zadar Airport is located at a distance of 8 km
from the city of Zadar, and is a relatively small airport
with less than 5million passengers. It has relatively low
landing costs and is therefore an ideal port for attract-
ing lccs. lccs base their choice of airports on the
decision that they can be 100 to 120 km away from the
city they serve (Graham & Shaw, 2008), thus Zadar
Airport highlights its advantages in easy destination
accessibility. Since 2007, theCounty of Zadar hasmade
a decision to attract lccs, primarily Ryanair as the
largest lcc in Europe, with the aim of attracting off-
season tourists with more paying power from more
distant outbound markets who will not necessarily be
attracted by the sun and sea, which is the main mo-
tive for coming to this destination (Vidić et al., 2019).
Although tourism in Zadar County is still seasonal,
the introduction of lccs has led to an extension of
the season.While touristmovements are concentrated
in July and August with small shifts towards June and
September, lccs transport takes place from the be-
ginning of April to the beginning of November. There
is an evident increase in tourists in the preseason and
postseason, and the share of tourists who came to the
county by lcc in the pre-pandemic year of 2019 was
as much as 18 of total tourist arrivals (internal data).
In the same year, Zadar County achieved 1.75 million
arrivals and 9.87 million overnight stays, with the city
of Zadar contributing more than 30 (cbs, 2020).
Encouraging the arrival of lccs took place thro-
ugh a joint advertising project in which all stakehold-
ers in the tourist offer financially supported advertis-
ing, and thus the arrival of Ryanair. The very concept
of attracting Ryanair through advertising payments
is a controversial policy that can also represent ille-
gal market competition (Graham & Shaw, 2008). It is
important to emphasize here that the payment of com-
pensation to Ryanair of eur 1.5 million (Šćuric, 2021)
represents a significant expenditure for the tourist
economy of the city of Zadar andZadar County, which
affects the reduction of other forms of promotion
of the destination. At the same time, the contracts
of Croatian airports with lcc companies are short-
term, which means that even the smallest changes in
demand can result in the cancellation of routes. For
destinations like Croatia, this is extremely important
because lccs play a significant role in attracting vis-
itors from distant developing markets in peak season
and off-season (Mandić et al., 2017). According to aci
Europe data, Zadar Airport is one of the five busiest
small airports (up to 5 million passengers, group 4) in
Europe. In the same category, this port recorded the
second highest growth of 37.6 in 2019 (Naletina et
al., 2019).
Heritage represents one of the foundations for des-
tination branding. Every place has its history and her-
itage, which will influence the image that tourists get
(Kotler et al., 2004). The city of Zadar and Zadar
County are extremely rich in cultural heritage, which
goes back over 2,000 years and is visible through the
preserved urban planning of the city and the remains
of the Roman Forum, but it is also enrichedwithmod-
ern heritage, such as the Greeting to the Sun monu-
ment and the Sea Organ. However, tourists did not
particularly express their motivation for cultural her-
itage when visiting Zadar; rather, the sun and the sea
Academica Turistica, Year 16, No. 1, April 2023 | 93
Božena Krce Mioi et al. The Role of Culture in Attracting Tourists
are the most common motive (Gluvačević, 2016). The
city walls of Zadar, as part of the Venetian defences of
the 16th and 17th centuries, along with 5 other desti-
nations in Italy, Montenegro and Croatia, have been
inscribed on the unesco World Heritage List since
2017. Encouraging the inclusion of their cultural her-
itage on the unesco list of cultural heritage repre-
sents the goal that cultural tourism destinations want
to achieve, with the aim of encouraging tourist ar-
rivals. Research has shown that the entry of a desti-
nation into the unesco list of natural and cultural
heritage does not bring an increase in the number
of tourist visits in destinations that were not attrac-
tive to tourists until then; however, in destinations
that already recorded significant tourist attendance,
the number of tourist arrivals after entering the un-
esco list increased (Cros & McKercher, 2015). Zadar
was an active tourist destination even before it was
entered on the list, so it is expected that the cultural
motivation of the tourists who come to it will grow.
Strategic documents for the development of tourism
in Zadar County and the City of Zadar (Matassi, 2013;
KrceMiočić et al., 2016) recognize the strong resource
basis of culture, and cultural tourism is one of the fun-
damental forms in which the destination’s offer should
be developed.
Research Methodology
Based on the defined research subject, and in order to
achieve the set goals of this paper, two studies were
conducted. In the first step, a qualitative research was
conducted, the goal of whichwas to determine to what
extent Zadar’s strategic orientation towards cultural
tourism is reflected in its communication through var-
ious digital platforms. At the same time, the quanti-
tative research examined the extent to which tourists
who arrive in Zadar by lccs are attracted by the cul-
tural heritage of Zadar and towhat extent they actually
consume it.
In the qualitative part of the research, an analy-
sis of the content of the posts on social media of the
Zadar Tourist Board and the Zadar County Tourist
Board was carried out, since these are two organiza-
tions whose primary task is the promotion of tourism
in Zadar and the Zadar region. An additional reason
Table 1 Number of Facebook and Instagram Tourist
Boards of Zadar and Zadar County Users
Profile Facebook Instagram
Like Zadar , ,
Zadar Region , ,
why the aforementioned digital platforms were cho-
sen is that as many as 45.3 of surveyed tourists who
come to Zadar County look for information on the
Internet, with 59.7 stating that social media is their
main source of information, and 32.8 citing websites
of tourist boards as a source (Marušić et al., 2020).
For the purposes of this research, the social media
Instagram and Facebook were chosen, since they are
two different social media where both tourist boards
have active profiles. Instagram is a content commu-
nity that enables the publication, maintenance, man-
agement and sharing of image content, while Face-
book is a social network where, in addition to net-
working and connection, it is possible to publish dif-
ferent types of content such as images, video content,
text, links, etc. (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009). It is also
important to emphasize that these two socialmedia at-
tract different target groups. According to global data,
Instagram is used by a younger population compared
to Facebook. Instagram is mostly used by users in the
age group of 16 to 34 years, while Facebook is used
more often by users over 35 years old (We Are Social,
2022).
The Zadar Tourist Board has an official profile on
the Facebook social network and Instagram called
Like Zadar. The Zadar County Tourist Board has
official profiles on Instagram and Facebook called
Zadar Region. It has 48,853 followers on Instagramand
100,966 followers on Facebook (May 2022). Although
the official Instagram profile of Zadar County Tourist
Board has more followers than that of tb Zadar, the
activity is approximately similar.
Therefore, within this part of the primary research,
social media were used as sources of information for
content analysis. For this purpose, quantitative con-
tent analysis was used. It is also called frequency anal-
ysis of content because, in addition to determining the
presence and characteristics of content, the frequency
94 | Academica Turistica, Year 16, No. 1, April 2023
Božena Krce Mioi et al. The Role of Culture in Attracting Tourists
and volume of content are quantitatively expressed
(Tkalac Verčič et al., 2013). In doing so, the frequency
of certain types of content was determined, but also
the frequency of occurrence of the dominant attribute
appearing on the content.
The contents were analysed for the period from
January to November 2021. Considering that tourists
arriving by lcc have the possibility to come to Zadar
and Zadar County from March/April to November,
when most low-cost air routes (especially Ryanair)
with outbound destinations are available, this period
was chosen for analysis. This is the period when the
largest number of potential tourists are looking for in-
formation about the destination, so it is especially nec-
essary to give attention to the communication strategy
of the destination according to the outbound markets.
On Instagram, only image content published dur-
ing the specified periodwas analysed, while video con-
tent and any other content were excluded from the
analysis. In addition, it should be noted that only im-
age content published on the profile feed was anal-
ysed, not posts in stories. On average, both tourist
boards published one image per day on Instagram
during the observed period. The analysis of Facebook
profiles of tourist boards was more demanding, since
tourist boards use this social medium to publish dif-
ferent types of content. This is also a limitation of
this research. To begin with, it was determined that
only the content on the timeline of each tourist board
would be analysed. It was determined that the com-
munication strategies of the Zadar Tourist Board and
Zadar County Tourist Board differ greatly, and that
this will significantly complicate the content analysis.
The Zadar Tourist Board uses Facebook as a kind of
‘bulletin board’ on which it publishes a whole range
of different types of content (links to websites, video
content, photos, etc.), while the Zadar County Tourist
Board uses this social media mostly for posting pic-
tures, although it also occasionally publishes links to
other websites and other content. In order to collect
relevant data, for the purposes of analysis, the initial
display of the website, which is visible to users if the
link is shared on Facebook, as well as the first display
of video content, was taken into account. The afore-
mentioned was analysed using the same methodology
as the image content, i.e. the initial dominant attribute
that was displayed on the image content was analysed.
The analysis of the image content in this paper was
carried out according to the paper of Stepchenkova
and Zhan (2013). These authors classified image con-
tent into twenty categories according to the dominant
attributes of the destination that are shown in the im-
age content depicting Peru (e.g. nature and landscapes,
traditions and customs, architecture/buildings). Given
that this paper deals with the analysis of a Mediter-
ranean destination, the categories have been slightly
modified and a total of sixteen categories have been
established. Each image content is determined by one
dominant feature that prevails over the image content
and is thus classified into categories.
The second part of the empirical research was a
survey, which was conducted on passengers using
lccs that connect the city of Zadar and Zadar County
with numerous European destinations. The aim of this
part was to examine to what extent tourists who arrive
in Zadar by lccs are attracted by the cultural heritage
of Zadar, whether they visit it, and ultimately, how sat-
isfied they are with the offer and the destination. The
research was conducted at the departure terminal of
Zadar Airport from July to October 2021. It was esti-
mated that this is themost favourable time for the con-
sent of the respondents to participate in the research,
because they are in a relatively small and closed space
and thus have the feeling of reducing the waiting time.
This research is part of a longitudinal research that
has been conducted since 2013, but for the purposes
of this paper, only the research conducted during 2021
was considered. The research was conducted using a
structured questionnaire with the presence of an in-
terviewer. Motivation testing is usually done through
surveys, on a representative sample, on an annual ba-
sis (Vanhove, 2012). The questionnaire was answered
by people over the age of 18 who spent at least 2 nights
in Zadar. Considering the characteristics of the city of
Zadar as a destination, it was estimated that this is the
minimum time to get to know the destination, as this
was an effort to ensure the suitability of tourists for
the experience and evaluation of the city of Zadar as a
destination.
The questionnaire contained a total of 35 ques-
Academica Turistica, Year 16, No. 1, April 2023 | 95
Božena Krce Mioi et al. The Role of Culture in Attracting Tourists
tions related to the respondents’ demographic char-
acteristics, travel behaviour, satisfaction with the des-
tination, etc. The question of motivation for visiting
the destination was examined with the help of an
adapted scale used in the research tomas – ‘Attitudes
and consumption of tourists in Croatia,’ which has
its origins in the research methodology carried out
in Switzerland under the name ‘Touristisches Mark-
tforschungssystem Schweiz’ (Kožić, 2009). Intention
to recommend and return to the destination was ex-
amined using an adapted composite scale with three
items according to Lam and Hsu (2006). For ease of
understanding, the questionnaire was offered in Ger-
man, English and French. Only results related to the
subject and objectives of the paper were used in the
paper. For this purpose, the characteristics of respon-
dents motivated by the heritage that is under the pro-
tection of unesco were considered, given that the
city of Zadar and other destinations in Dalmatia pos-
sess cultural and natural heritage protected by un-
esco. These respondents were considered in relation
to other respondents in order to determine possible
differences.
Results of Content Analysis
An analysis of the content of the posts of the Zadar
Tourist Board (Like Zadar) on Instagram revealed that
the local Zadar Tourist Board mostly publishes image
content in which the dominant attribute is architec-
ture (buildings, streets, squares, etc.) (35), followed
by people (dominant part of image content is concen-
trated on people) (19), nature and landscape (sunset,
sea, etc.) (18) and lifestyle (everyday activities of peo-
ple in the destination) (11). The results of the analysis
are somewhat different for the Zadar County Tourist
Board, where the image content predominantly de-
picted nature and landscape (29), while people (15),
architecture (14) and gastronomy (food and drinks,
groceries, food preparation and drinks, etc.) (15) are
almost equally represented. These are categories of im-
age content that are represented by more than ten per-
cent in the analysed content.
On the social network of Facebook, the analysis
was more demanding, as previously stated. However,
it was determined that the Zadar Tourist Board pri-
marily publishes events as content (concerts, festivals,
local events, etc.). At the same time, it should be noted
that it is a presentation of a really wide range of dif-
ferent events, from sports to cultural and entertain-
ment events. Next, the contents are dominated by de-
pictions of architecture, followed by contents classi-
fied into the ‘other contents’ category, such as the pro-
motion of products, accommodation, commercial at-
tractions, etc., followed by lifestyle. This tourist board
uses Facebook primarily to inform tourists and poten-
tial tourists about activities in the destination. In this
way, it achieves one of the basic functions of social net-
works – it connects different users. At the same time,
the Zadar County Tourist Board publishes content re-
lated to nature and landscape, architecture, people and
lifestyle. So, its communication strategy is fairly uni-
form for both social media, and it should also be noted
that it does not use the specifics and features of each of
these social media, nor the specifics of the target mar-
ket to which it communicates.
It can be concluded that the aforementioned tourist
boards have different communication strategies on the
analysed social media. This is particularly evident in
the content that is communicated, which refers to cer-
tain forms of tourism. Given that the Zadar Tourist
Board is related to the promotion of the city of Zadar
itself as an urban destination, the emphasis on archi-
tecture is not surprising. Likewise, as previously em-
phasized, it is a destination that has a rich heritage.
However, architecture is only one element through
which cultural destinations can be branded. There are
a whole range of other attractive factors related to cul-
ture that could be emphasized more on social media,
especially intangible heritage. On the other hand, the
Zadar County Tourist Board sees its attractive factor
mainly in the nature and landscape, as well as the basis
for various types of sports activities and recreation in
the destination. This is not surprising considering the
fact that for the last few years this destination has been
positioned through the marketing campaign ‘Say yes
to everything!’ in which there is a special emphasis on
just such activities and outdoor activities. However, it
should be emphasized here that Zadar County is rich
in various resources of tangible and intangible cultural
heritage, but apparently did not recognize them as a
96 | Academica Turistica, Year 16, No. 1, April 2023
Božena Krce Mioi et al. The Role of Culture in Attracting Tourists
sufficiently attractive factor for the primary branding
of the destination through social media.
The Results of a Survey Conducted on Tourists
using LCCs
A total of 517 respondents who spent at least two
nights in Zadar County participated in the research.
As stated, certain characteristics of the behaviour of
respondents whose arrival in Zadar and Zadar County
was motivated by unesco heritage were considered,
in relation to other respondents. In the total sample
of surveyed tourists, only 5 respondents (0.97) were
primarily motivated by unesco heritage, while 136
respondents (26.31) stated this as one of the three
secondary motives. So, these 141 (27.27) respondents
were considered in relation to the other respondents.
At the beginning, it should be emphasized that all
respondents in the sample were most often motivated
by the sun, the sea and a pleasant climate, and then by
new experiences. This is also the most common mo-
tive in past researches (KrceMiočić et al., 2018; Vidić et
al., 2019). The demographic characteristics of respon-
dents motivated by unesco heritage are given in Ta-
ble 2.
Respondents are experienced travellers because on
average they travel outside their country of permanent
residence 2 or more times a year (69), with 39 of
respondents using lccs 6 or more times. The demo-
graphic characteristics of the other respondents did
not differ significantly from those motivated by un-
esco heritage. The above characteristics are in accor-
dance with the data on passengers who most often
travel on lccs (Graham&Dennis, 2010; Smith, 2009;
Davison & Ryley, 2010; Eugenio-Martin & Inchausti-
Sintes, 2016).
Respondents motivated by unesco heritage re-
ceived their first information about Zadar and Zadar
County via the Internet (54), and then through the
recommendation of friends and relatives (21), which
shows that the strongest communication channel is
still the Internet and recommendations (Word-of-
Mouth). As for gathering information about the des-
tination, the respondents most often got information
via travel agency websites such as Tripadvisor (41),
followed by recommendations from friends and rela-
Table 2 Demographic Characteristics of the Respondents
Motivated by unesco Heritage
Gender Male (); Female ()
Age – (); – ()
Education Bachelor or master’s degree ()
Employment Yes ()
Income >, (); ,–, ()
Marital status Single () or in a relationship ()
Travelling with Family () or friends ()
Travelling exp.  times or more a year ()
lcc experience  times or more ()
tives (38) and social media (30). It should be noted
that only 17 of respondents got information about
the destination through the Zadar Tourist Board web-
site and Zadar County Tourist Board website, and 13
through the website of the lccs they used. The other
respondents were similarly informed about Zadar and
Zadar County. They got their information a little more
through recommendations from friends and relatives
(41), and a little less through travel websites (26).
With the other respondents, it is also evident that web-
sites of regional or local tourist boards and websites
of lccs are not significantly represented when seek-
ing information about the destination (about 10),
although Zadar and Zadar County allocate significant
funds for promotion, especially for joint advertising
through the websites of lccs.
The main or primary destination for respondents
motivated by unesco heritage was Zadar and Zadar
County (66), which is slightly more than other re-
spondents (45). However, at the same time, it is
evident that these respondents visited other places
in Dalmatia more often, such as Šibenik, Split and
Dubrovnik, which also have heritage under the pro-
tection of unecso. Also, these respondents visited
protected natural areas more often, especially Krka
National Park and Plitvice Lakes National Park (32),
which is also a unesco heritage site. Considering
the above, it can be concluded that respondents moti-
vated by unesco heritage really actually visited these
places. This is not surprising, because respondents also
mentioned cities like Split and Dubrovnik, as well as
Academica Turistica, Year 16, No. 1, April 2023 | 97
Božena Krce Mioi et al. The Role of Culture in Attracting Tourists
Table 3 Sources of Information about Zadar and Zadar County
Attitudes and behavior Motivated by unesco heritage Others
First informat. on Zadar & Zadar County Internet (); Friends & relatives
()
Internet (); Friends & relatives
()
Information on Zadar & Zadar County Travel websites (); Friends &
relatives (); Social media ()
Friends & relatives (); Social me-
dia (); Travel websites ();
Other information sources Websites of regional or local tourist
boards (); Websites of lcc ()
Websites of regional or local tourist
boards (); Websites of lcc ()
Main destination Zadar and Zadar County () Zadar and Zadar County ()
Visiting other destinations on the trip Šibenik, Split, Dubrovnik (unesco)
()
Šibenik, Split, Dubrovnik (unesco)
()
Visiting protected area on the trip NP Krka, np Plitvice Lakes (un-
esco) ()
np Krka, np Plitvice Lakes (un-
esco) ()
Table 4 Motivation and Consumption of Cultural Events and Facilities
Attitudes and behaviour () ()
Cultural events and facilities as a motive to visit Zadar or Zadar region ()  
Consumption of thematic sightseeing tours (culture, religion, gastronomy, history, etc.) ()  
Consumption of cultural events and activities (museums, exhibitions, theatres, etc.) ()  
Average personal expenditure for cultural and entertainment event and facilities ()  
Average personal expenditure for museums ()  
Notes Column headings are as follows: (1) motivated by unesco heritage, (2) others.
Plitvice National Park, as the main/primary destina-
tion on their trip. It should be added to this that all re-
spondents in the sample visited at least one protected
area.
Respondents motivated by unesco heritage were
alsomotivated by cultural events and contents in com-
ing to Zadar andZadar County (about 40of these re-
spondents), which is slightly more than other respon-
dents (10). The results on motivation and consump-
tion of cultural events and contents are shown in Ta-
ble 4.
However, it is evident that respondents motivated
by unesco heritage consumed relatively little of the
cultural offer. Only 28 of them (or 38 respondents)
consumed cultural events and contents (museums, ex-
hibitions, theatres, performances, etc.), and 22 en-
joyed sightseeing cultural heritage and themed tours.
This is also confirmed by consumption, as only 10 of
the respondents actually spent on cultural and enter-
tainment events and activities, and on average around
€75 per person. As for museums, only 3 of the re-
spondents spent on museums and on average around
€25. Other respondents are not overly interested in the
offer of cultural content, as indicated by the results on
motivation and consumption of the same.
At the end of the survey, the respondents evaluated
their satisfactionwith the elements of cultural and nat-
ural heritage in Zadar and Zadar County. They could
evaluate satisfaction with grades from –2 to 2, and the
grades are shown in Table 5. From the table, it is pos-
sible to see that respondents motivated by unesco
heritage are somewhat more critical about satisfac-
tion with cultural heritage, that is, their grades are on
average lower than the group for which this was not
the reason for coming. So, given that they were partly
motivated by cultural heritage and that they visited or
consumed it, the aforementioned elements obviously
did not meet their expectations. At the same time, it is
98 | Academica Turistica, Year 16, No. 1, April 2023
Božena Krce Mioi et al. The Role of Culture in Attracting Tourists
Table 5 Satisfaction with the Heritage and Recommendation
Category Item () ()
Satisfaction (from – to ) Maintaining of cultural heritage . .
Accessibility of cultural heritage . .
Presentation of cultural heritage . .
The beauty and preserved nature and landscapes . .
Recommendation () Yes  
Reasons for visiting in the future () Peace and the preserved environment, gastronomy  
Notes Column headings are as follows: (1) motivated by unesco heritage, (2) others.
interesting to note how the other respondents rate cul-
tural heritage highly, even though they consumed sig-
nificantly less of it. Natural heritage was rated highly
by both groups of respondents, with respondents mo-
tivated by unesco heritage being somewhat more
critical.
Finally, one can add to this that both groups of
respondents would come again to the city of Zadar
and Zadar County, to enjoy the peace and preserved
nature and gastronomy. Also, respondents would rec-
ommend the same destination to their friends, col-
leagues and relatives (90 of them). This data is not
surprising, because in addition to these, the respon-
dents were also very satisfied with other elements of
the destination’s offer. However, only 55 of all respon-
dents would return to the destination again, which is
in line with consumer behaviour in the tourist mar-
ket, especially the younger population, which is more
inclined to change destinations. Considering the ex-
treme mobility of the respondents, all these elements
related to the examination of the experience and satis-
faction with the elements offered by the city of Zadar
and Zadar County should be taken with caution, be-
cause their impression was partly influenced by the
experience of other places and attractions.
Conclusion
Previous research has shown that lccs have made a
significant shift in the air transport services market.
With their concept of low service prices, along with
a reduced scope of services, they have enabled pas-
sengers with relatively lower incomes to use air trans-
portation services.With this concept, they encouraged
the segment of tourists who tend to take shorter trips
to travel, andwhowant to travel several times a year, as
well as the emigrants of the countries that were their
destinations. Destinations competed to attract lccs
because they expected their arrival to attract more
distant markets, but also to encourage off-season ar-
rivals. Therefore, the destinations encouraged the ar-
rival of lccs through various discounts on the prices
of port fees, as well as through online advertising pro-
grammes about the destination on the lcc websites.
In this paper, it was determined that the extremely
high investment for internet advertising of lcc com-
panies is only one way to attract them. Namely, only
11.5 of surveyed lcc tourists were informed about
the destination via the website of the lccs they used.
Therefore, the above cannot justify the high expenses
that the Zadar County pays to the lccs for connect-
ing the destination with other destinations. The re-
duction of seasonality, which is the primary goal of
both the development of cultural tourism and the at-
traction of lccs, was not yet achieved in the example
of the researched destination. lccs achieve most of
their traffic in the summer months, when it is com-
mon for this coastal destination to have the highest
number of tourist arrivals and overnight stays.
By analysing the social media content, it was pos-
sible to determine that neither of the two observed
tourist boards focused their communication strategy
on digital platforms primarily on culture as an attrac-
tive element, although they have highlighted it as a
primary strategic orientation and one of the tools for
reducing seasonality. Therefore, there is no uniform
positioning of Zadar and Zadar County as a cultural
Academica Turistica, Year 16, No. 1, April 2023 | 99
Božena Krce Mioi et al. The Role of Culture in Attracting Tourists
tourism destination. This is also indicated by the re-
sults of the survey, according to which it is evident that
tourists using lccs are not significantly motivated by
culture and consume it even less. Although culture in
the broadest sense is used as a resource in destination
branding, it seems that this is not clear, nor empha-
sized enough. Although architecture is used as one of
the fundamental attributes of the content that is pub-
lished, especially when it comes to the city of Zadar,
this is also not enough when it comes to highly moti-
vated cultural tourists who are, for example,motivated
by unesco heritage. According to the results of the
conducted research, a relatively small percentage of
such tourists consumed other types of cultural activi-
ties (museums, theatres, etc.), and the satisfactionwith
the various elements of heritage is lower compared to
other surveyed tourists. It is not entirely clear from
these results whether they could find information re-
lated to these other types of cultural activities or if this
offer did not meet their expectations, and for that rea-
son they were not satisfied and did not use it. There-
fore, it is necessary to conduct additional research in
order to determine the specific behavioural patterns of
cultural tourists who travel by lccs. In addition, it is
necessary to conduct a content analysis of other digital
platforms that tourists use when seeking information
about the destination, such as TripAdvisor, the web-
sites of other tourist boards and lccs, in order to de-
termine what type of content is published and to anal-
yse tourist satisfaction through various tourist review
sites.
In conclusion, it has to be stressed that, as seen
from this research, Zadar and Zadar County did not
sufficiently utilize the potentials that lccs could bring
to the destination. This potential is especially visible
in the number of connecting flights between Zadar
and distant European outboundmarkets (https://www
.zadar-airport.hr/destinacije#zad), that are highlymo-
tivated by culture and sightseeing when visiting this
destination and which, therefore, spendmore than av-
erage on cultural activities in the destination, such as
the United Kingdom, France, Scandinavian countries,
Belgium, and the Netherlands (Marušić et al., 2020).
These are also the markets in which a very high per-
centage arrive by plane to Zadar County. So, this is a
very good basis to prolong the tourist season by at-
tracting cultural tourists with higher spending power.
Therefore, Zadar and Zadar County Tourist Boards
should focus their marketing strategies on the rich
cultural heritage and other cultural products to attract
these markets, especially in pre- and post-season. The
role of providing information about cultural tourism
offers is crucial in this sense, as has been visible from
the conducted research. This should be done through
targeted digital marketing activities on their official
digital platforms, and also other offline marketing
channels on the above-mentioned markets.
Acknowledgments
This research has been supported by Zadar County. The
authors would like to acknowledge Zadar airport for
their engagement during the data collection process.
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