DEMAND FOR CITY TOURISM IN EUROPE - TOUR OPERATORS CATALOGS

By making an inventory of the destinations offered by means of brochure by tour operators active in different European countries, some useful insights into the nature of today's European urban tourism market have been obtained. First of all it is to be noted that only 18 cities out of a total of 144 are sold in six or more countries, while 92 cities appeared in the catalogues of just one or at the most two generating countries. Larger countries tend to orientate more towards domestic urban destinations than do smaller countries. Furthermore, tour operators seem to react to the relative maturity of the tourism market: the more mature a market, the more diverse the supply of cities. Finally, tour operators in the countries that have been traditionally close to East Europe have been specializing more than others in East European urban destinations.