European Researcher, 2013, Vol.(47), № 4-3 Economic Sciences Экономические науки UDC 33 Identification and Analysis of Significant Factors Influencing Visitor Satisfaction at Heritage Sites – The Case of Serbian Medieval Fortresses 1 Ivana Blešić 1 Miroslav D. Vujičić 1 Djordjije A. Vasiljević 1 Snežana Besermenji 1 Rastislav Stojsavljević 1 Igor Stamenković 1 University of Novi Sad, Serbia Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Faculty of Sciences Trg Dositeja Obradovića 3, 21000 Novi Sad E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract. With increased appreciation of general public, heritage sites gained more attention regarding contemporary tourism and management studies. Accordingly, the assessment of visitors’ satisfaction on these sites is important tool for both financial and organization management. The aim of this research is to identify the main (statistically significant) factors that influence visitors’ satisfaction. Data was obtained by survey conducted during the visit of three medieval fortresses in Serbia, with aim to capture tourist’s expectations and perceptions on ten given attributes. The results of factor and descriptive statistical analysis indicate three factors: “regional settings”, “marketing”, “aesthetic appeal” significant for visitors’ satisfaction of the investigated heritage sites. Keywords: heritage; medieval fortresses; visitors’ satisfaction; factor analysis; Serbia. Introduction. During most of the past century, tourism and culture were on different sides of specter where cultural resources were related to education, and tourism was regarded as pure leisure (Brida et al, 2012). However, since the 1980s cultural activity has begun to merge and was viewed as a part of tourism (OECD, 2009). Nowadays, there are different opinions on how to define cultural tourism. Some of them offer very narrow approach in describing this phenomena, like visits to museums and archaeological sites, opposite to those who identifies cultural tourism as part of any given tourism experience (ICOMOS, 2002; Cuccia and Rizzo, 2011).