The Cultural Parade

City tours or routes are one of the many ways to discover an unfamiliar or foreign city. This comparative case study focuses on cultural routes established by artists, gallery holders and antiques dealers, who benefit from joint marketing efforts undertaken by the governing route organization. The route organizations and visitors under examination are those of Kunstrondje in Dordrecht, Kunst- & Cultuurroute in Middelburg, and to some extent KunstKijkRoute in Amersfoort. The aim is to research to what extent visitorsʼ demographics, experience and satisfaction of their visit to the cultural routes correspond to the marketing goals of the governing route organizations in Dordrecht, Amersfoort and Middelburg in 2013. The current Western economy is characterized by the production and consumption of meaningful experiences, as is the tourist industry. As consumers basic needs are catered for, individualistic self-development is what remains. Cultural tourists are argued to be one of the main drivers behind creative tourism, as their main intent in being a tourist is developing their self-concept through actively accumulating knowledge and skills concerning their serious hobby. Meaningful tourist experiences (i.e. creative tourism) are seen as the solution to the serial reproduction of no longer unique, place-bound experiences. The tourist industryʼs role is facilitating the experience, taking a consumer-centric approach. The underlying question to the main question is how the organizations cope with the (changing) needs of their visitors in view of the experience economy. A mixed methods approach was conducted by way of qualitative semi-structured interviews with the route organizations and self-completion questionnaires among visitors. The former were analysed thematically, the latter quantitatively through SPSS. Results showed that while relatively similar in form and target groups, the governing route organizations differ in their primary goals. This directly influences their main activities. While association Kunstrondje Dordt takes on a more neutral approach based on promotion, the other two routes hold idealistic goals. Kunst- en Cultuurroute, as a foundation, organizes ancillary cultural festivals multiple times a year. KunstKijkRoute aims to be an entrepreneurial service to its participants. While Kunst- en Cultuurroute considers art an experience good, the route organizations think rather traditionally when it comes to the experience economy and active participation of their visitors. In line with hypothetical expectations, visitors to the route were mainly over 50, highly educated, averagely to intensely interested in art and culture products and frequently visited other cultural routes. As a result, a large part of the visitors could be classified as cultural tourist. Expected and actual expenditures were on the low end of the scale and most visitors were locals or came from the regional area. As expected, the majority stayed no longer than a day. While to an extent visitors recognized aspects of all four experience realms during their visit, there are still opportunities for increasing the educational experience. Additionally, many respondents indicated that workshops would make a valuable addition to the route, though in general, visitors were satisfied with their visit to the route. Concluding, the basic outline of the cultural routes carry a strong foundation for facilitating a meaningful experience. However, the route organizations do not appear to be consciously aware of their position in the (meaningful) experience economy and creative tourism, even though regular ancillary creative spectacles are being organized and the route can be considered a connection of multiple creative spaces (participants). Practical recommendations concern broadening the routesʼ visitor group in relation to two visitor types: those over 50 and those with an average to intense interest in the arts (cultural tourists). Future research on the topic of creative tourism and cultural routes could aim to find out to what extent the participants of the route can be considered vibrant, creative spaces.