In order to know the current reality of the tourism sector in Costa Daurada official statistics from National level (INE) and regional level (Idescat) were analysed. Once studied the official statistics, a lack of studies refered to preferences of tourists and cultural tourism data were observed. This lack of information is usual in sun and beach turism destinations. In this sense, a questionnarire (see annex I) was designed to get information about behaviour of tourists in Costa Daurada and its relationship with cultural heritage (both tangible and intangible). A survay with questionnaires was performed during July-September 2005 (highest touristic season), in hotels of 4 and 5 stars located in seaside, as well in the Reus Airport. About 2000 adult visitors were asked to apply the questionnaire. Data were analysed with SPSS statistical package.

The main data obtained through the survey carried out can be summarized in the following points (graphics and tables are included in annex II):

- Approximately half of the tourists in the Costa Daurada are foreigners, and for the national ones, 21% are catalonian, and a 30% are from de rest of Spain.

- Refering to foreing tourist, most of them are Frenh 32%, followed by British 21%, visitors from Benelux area(11%) and Germany (10%). These data, as well as former, are consistent with data provided by official statitstics.

- A big majority of tourists (66%) uses own vehicle, 19% arrives by plane, 16% come by coach and only 2.6% used train to arrive to Costa Daurada

- Curiously, only 26.5% of the tourist that arrived by plane to Costa Daurada used the Reus airport, as more than 67 % arrives through Barcelona airport.

- One of the most relevant data is than more of half of visitors in Costa Daurada has already visited it on some other trip. These data implies a freat faithfulness (fidelisation) of the tourist in this destination

- When visitors were asked about their trip motivation, 35% arrives to Costa Daurada attracted by Port Aventura resort , 30% attracted by climate and beaches, 14% expressed their interest on the culture, and 6% on the nature

- About 75% of foreign visitors expressed some sort of interest about the Catalonian culture, this la cultura catalana, percentage very similar to the number of visitors who carries out visits of cultural character, resumed in the following table


Visited site %
Roman Tarragona 21.7
Tarragona Cathedral 14
Inner Villages 9.1
Monasterys 8
Natural Park 7
Museums 7
Archeological sites 6.2
Vinery 3.9
Art Noveau 3.4
Festivals 3.3


- About half of the tourist carries out some type of visit out of the Costa Daurada, mainly to Barcelona city (63%) and Montserrat Monastery (13%)

- When asked about the appraisal of the journey, the obtained results were:


Overall 7.9
Accomodation 8.1
Gastronomy 7.9
Sign Post 6.7
Cultural Offer 7.7
Beaches 7.7
Shopping 7.1
Crafts 6.6
Cleanliness 7.7
Safety 7.9
Languages 7.1
Local Population 7.1


Conclusions

Data obtained through the survay, related to procedence and nacionality of visitors are very close to those obtained by official statistics.

About new data, in first place, it is important the faithfulness degree obtained by Costa Daurada, reflected in the high number of visitors that have already travelled two or three times to this destination, mainly with family or partner. It is also remarkable that the main motivation of the trip is Port Aventura resort, combined with climate and beach. Only a few ratio of tourist declares cultural heritage as a travel motivation; furthermore, most of them only visited Tarragona city, remaining other cultural products very low in the list of visited sites.

In this way, Port Aventura is a strong recruiter element of visitors (during 2004 more than three millions of people visited the park), and a special mention is that the ticket of the park, itsef serves also for visiting all the monuments listed on the UNESCO Tarragona City World Heritage; but only 6000-7000 peoble used the park ticket to visit these sites. Asked toursits answered that this fact is due to the little promotion that Port Aventura provides of the free offer included in the ticket.

Moreover, there is a unique company named Itinere that offers cultural excursions, but limited to Tarragona city; during high season (from June to September) only about 12000 tourists have contracted its services, and most of them were from Spain.

In conclusion, a great lack of in situ promotion of cultural heritage resources has been detected, despite the external promotion an marketing performed through brochures, websites, etc. Improve this situation is a responsability both of public administrations and touristic companies.