Conceptualizing the latent visitor to heritage attractions

Abstract

This paper focuses on the attraction basis of tourism, and addresses the neglected issue of latent demand for visits to museums and other heritage attractions. It considers the existing literature on consumer decision making to be inadequate in its application to museums and other heritage attractions, and especially in terms of latent demand. Indeed, the paper argues that other literatures need to be consulted to construct a model of consumer decision making appropriate to museums and other heritage attractions, focusing on latent demand. Such a model, the 'columnar' model, is proposed, and the potential usefulness of the model in segmenting latent demand is outlined as a basis for 'product' development and promotion.