TatjanaGrediak,MSc.doc

Tatjana Gredi?ak, MSc THE TOURISM FUNCTION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE ABSTRACT If we see marketing as an approach towards consumer needs, and tourism as a sociological category whose changing trends have become a subject of research, in order to satisfy the mentioned consumer needs based on the application of the social concept of marketing, we turn to those increasingly frequent visitors who expect from travel and stay abroad not only a pure vacation but also the satisfaction of their creative and cultural curiosity. Such satisfaction may be achieved only by means of an adequate marketing strategy to place tourism value on the cultural heritage monuments as part of the overall tourism offer. In this way, we have become part of new trends in tourism – the realisation of the humanistic aspect of tourism. The process of the development and creation of a marketing strategy is divided into several stages. The first stage relates to an analysis of external factors, including an analysis of the environment, the competition, the market, and consumers. In the next stage, a SWOT analysis indicates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in a market and is conducted to help bridge any strategic gap between the current and desired market position. This is followed by defining the mission, by setting the goals and applying suitable strategies to achieve them. In this case, special attention is paid precisely to the marketing strategy to ensure the tourism valorisation of the cultural heritage presented through a combination of marketing elements: the market positioning of the entire destination, the tourism product, in this case cultural goods, the target tourism markets, and promotion. The protection and improvement of cultural and historical, primarily construction, values in a market democracy are some of the primary tasks on which Croatia should build its identity. Keywords: marketing, culture, tourism, strategy INTRODUCTION