Tourist Valorization of Cultural Route “The Trail of the Roman Emperors“

Abstract

Cultural routes appear as a new concept that turned to be very beneficial in terms of the revitalization and presentation of cultural heritage in its broader sense -from archaeological sites to landscapes. These trails provide a unique purview into the spirit of modern countries and their inextricable connection to contemporary time. On the territory of present day Serbia 17 Roman emperors were born, which is one fifth and largest number of Roman emperors born anywhere in the world, outside of Rome. That was a good basis for developing idea of forming cultural route and starting the project " The Trail of the Roman Emperors " in Serbia. It can be one of the most important topics in the field of cultural tourism in Serbia, and the main goal of this paper is to give a proposal for its valorization and promotion for the tourism purposes. This will be achieved through the evaluation of all elements of tourist valorization on the basis of which general tourist assessment will be formed, while the purpose of SWOT analysis was to detect existing strengths and weaknesses, and provide real opportunities and risks for this cultural route. Introduction The culture has always been the main motive for traveling and one of the facts which support this statement is certainly the development of the " Grand Tour " in the sixteenth century and the other journeys organized after that [1]. However, during the twentieth century, the culture was not anymore the main reason for tourism development, but culture became tourism instead [2]. According to reports of OECD and UNWTO in 2007, the 40% of international tourism represents cultural tourism. Moreover, cultural routes appear as a new concept that turned to be very beneficial in terms of the revitalization and presentation of cultural heritage in its broader sense -from archaeological sites to landscapes [3]. The cultural routes are defined as roads that pass through one or more regions or countries, which organization is based on the specific theme such as historical, artistic or social, and which are also associated with geographical principle, due to the significance they have [4]. Several preconditions are identified as being necessary for successful tourism routes: community participation, cooperation networks, an explicit pro-poor focus, information provision and promotion, and product development and infrastructure [5]. The fact that indicates how important are the cultural routes is that in 1998 was founded the European Institute of Cultural Routes, who worked closely with the Council of Europe. Their principle aim was to ensure the continuity and further development of the cultural routes in 51 countries who have signed The European Cultural Convention. This project, run by the Council of Europe, was named Cultural Routes. The sole purpose of this project is the protection and promotion of cultural and natural heritage, as a way of improvement of the quality of social, economic and cultural development. If we take into account that the seventeen Roman Emperors were born in Serbia, which is 20% of the total number of Roman emperors and kings, as well as the largest number of imperators' children born outside of Italy, there are good basis for developing idea of forming