AN EXAMINATION OF VISITORS' INTEREST IN TOURIST CARDS AND CULTURAL ROUTES IN THE CASE OF A ROMANIAN DESTINATION

Although tourist cards and cultural routes have been interesting innovations when they were launched on the international tourism market, they are rarely implemented in Romanian tourism destinations, especially in an integrated manner. This paper presents a theoretical model regarding the integration of tourist cards in cultural routes, based on the assumption that tourists who are interested in both products have similar demographic and travel characteristics. The research results outline only the influence of tourists' travel characteristics on their interest to buy cultural routes and tourist cards. Leisure travelers should be the main targeted segment, as their probability to buy such products is higher than in the case of business or VFR (visit friends and relatives) tourists. These results can assist the Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) regarding the choice of marketing strategies aimed at integrating cultural routes in a tourist card.