Tourist Attraction Development in Denmark

This paper presents an investigation on the definitions of different concepts within cultural, tourism and creative
industries, and experienced economy. The statistical approach is used in this analysis, both relating to the data
presentation and the application of the Danish regional model for the economic assessment of tourist attraction. The
research aim of the paper is two-fold: firstly, to discuss and highlight the development of cultural and tourist
attractions both at national and regional level; secondly to show that tourist attractions play an important role both
in destination marketing and the economic contribution to the Danish regions. The paper describes the trends of
cultural and tourist attractions in Denmark both in the economic terms and in terms of numbers of visitors at
attractions. Tourist attractions have an effect on tourists’ choice of their destination. The last part of the paper
focuses on the case studies within which the economic impacts of tourist attraction on the regions are presented.
The Danish inter-regional model is applied for analyzing the economic and employment effects of these tourist
attractions. The conclusion is drawn in the last section.

Tourism, creativity and culture-contained activities, and the so-called “experience economy” created by
these activities are observed by its growing importance in society. The trends of these activities influence both
production and consumption. From the supply-side, producers try to add the new designs and culture featured
innovation into the physical products and as well as into the services; on the other side, demand for the
innovative new products and “experience” based tangible products and intangible services continues to increase.
Tourist attraction is one of good examples to follow the development in the trends. Theme parks are often
connected with innovative products and services that give visitors unique experiences. A rise of theme parks
and other tourist attractions reflects a huge potential demand that more people are interested in participating
into such leisure activities than, for example, 20 years ago. Other cultural or tourist attractions are: for example,
museums, botanical gardens, and zoological parks.
This paper mainly focuses on the development of tourist attractions and impact of tourist attractions on the
regional economies. From a statistical and methodological point of view, it is necessary to give a clear
definition for tourist attractions—to see which concrete branches or products are included in the analysis. Three kinds of tourist attractions, i.e., amusement parks, museums, and botanical gardens and zoos are given a special
analysis in the paper. However, as tourist attractions are closely related to tourism industries, such as hotels and
restaurants, relevant data for the tourism branches and other cultural branches are also shown for the
comparison purpose.
Development in tourist attractions is shown both in the economic terms (output and employment from the
supply side) and in terms of numbers of visitors at attractions. Tourist attractions have an influence on tourists’
choice of their destination. Tourist attractions surely play an important role in tourism marketing and the
destination branding. Tourist attractions play also a role in generating the income and employment to the local
economies.
As a point of departure it presents in the second section the definitions and methods for the analysis.
Starting with a discussion on cultural activities, culture industries, and culture economy, it attempts to compare
culture activities with tourism and experience-oriented activities. It is important to give a comparison between
these terms, as these terms are the basis for making the statistical data and understanding the differences in the
statistical data. The third section presents the development in culture activities by the statistical data, showing
the trends in a 12-years period which is compared with the conventional tourism branches, such as hotels and
restaurants. The regional data are also presented here, trying to give an answer for the question regarding urban
and rural phenomenon of culture activities and tourist attractions. The fourth section presents the development
in tourist attractions by number of visitors. It shows that tourist attractions like amusement parks are more
fluctuated than the museums and other cultural institutions. This section discusses also the role of tourist
attractions in destination marketing and promotion. The fifth section presents the economic impact of tourist
attractions on the regional economies by using case studies. The final section is suggestions and conclusions
part.

Unlike the traditional industries, cultural products are not consumed as traditional products that are being

used to solve some practical problem. For Hirsch (1972) the definition of culture industries began with defining

of cultural products as “non-material goods directed at a public of consumers, for whom they generally serve an

aesthetic or expressive, rather than clearly utilitarian function” (Hirsch, 1972, p. 642). The emphasis on cultural

products as defining culture industries was shared by Lawrence and Philips (2002, p. 43), who also saw cultural

goods as “products that are consumed in an act of interpretation rather than being used”, but they opened the

definition further by arguing that cultural products are “goods and services that are valued for their ‘meaning’”.

Power (2002) saw cultural products as a good point of departure that he expanded Hirsch’s (1972) definition

even further. Power argued that culture industries consist of “economic actors” involved in the production of

goods and services whose value is primarily or largely determined by virtue of their aesthetic, semiotic, sensory,

or experiential content (Power, 2002, p. 106).

The most likely way to produce a coherent definition of the culture industries is to see the boundaries

between such symbolic, cultural production and other “non-cultural” kinds of production as porous, provisional

and relative, and to think about these boundaries in terms of the relationship between the utilitarian functions

and non-utilitarian (artistic/aesthetic/entertainment) functions of symbolic goods (Hirsch, 1972; Hesmondhalgh,

2002; Hesmondhalgh & Pratt, 2005; Scott, 1997; Power & Scott, 2004). These definitions can partly divide

those industries that produce the pure non-material goods, like museum and theater, from those that produce

only the material goods, such as agriculture. Many industries could also produce goods that contain both

material and non-material factors, such as cars, furniture, and clothes. Cars and furniture are material products,

but they also have the aesthetic, semiotic, sensory, or experiential characteristics in their contents. Clothes,

especially the fashion clothes have definitely the aesthetic, semiotic and sensory contents in them.

These definitional problems in the cultural and creative industries have caused the statistical “lag” in

relation to other industries. Taking examples from the recommendation for TSA (UNWTO, 2008), the

recommendation acknowledges that “tourism is a social, cultural, and economic phenomenon which entails the

movement of people”. The recommendation provides a concrete list for tourism products. Tourism products are

categorized by tourism characteristic products (hotels, restaurants, transport, travel agencies, cultural services,

and tourism attraction like amusement parks), and other consumption products (i.e., tourism connected products

such as tourists’ shopping on clothes, watches, etc.). For making accounts for cultural and creative industries, a

concrete list for the culture and creative products is needed.

Table 1 gives a comparison between the definitions for tourism, tourist attractions, and cultural activities.

There are 11 aggregated cultural products in the culture industry within the Danish national accounts. There are

30 tourism characteristic products including the four tourist attraction products. Table 1 provides a list of

products that are categorized into three types: (1) Tourism—the products are defined as tourism characteristic

products. These products are mostly demanded by tourists. According to UNWTO’s definition, tourists are

those who travel away from their usual environment for leisure, business or other personal purposes; (2) Tourist

attractions—the products are mostly related with the terms of tourist attractions and event tourism. All these

products are parts of cultural products within the culture industry. The consumers of tourist attractions can be

both tourists and local residents; and (3) Other cultural products—the products are culture featured and

demanded mostly by local residents.