Tourism and learn Spanish in historic cities: A case study in Córdoba

Abstract

Spanish is the official language of communication in 21 countries. This study aims to connect the increasing internationalisation of Spanish with the increasing demand for cultural products such as tourism, cinema and publications. It also analyses the impact that the teaching of Spanish may have on tourism and the economy. To this end, data were collected from questionnaires, personal interviews and from field observations. The objective of these investigations was to emphasize the importance of language tourism can have for a world heritage city such as Córdoba. At the same time we aim to describe the profile of the typical language tourist who chooses the city of Córdoba and its university as a destination and as a place of study. The data were collected in Córdoba during 2010. The results of this study show that the language tourist stays for a longer period of time than the conventional tourist, and that the language tourist is very satisfied with his or her stay, both with the city of Córdoba itself and with the university. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.