Cultural tourism has made a major contribution to the expansion of European tourism in recent decades, and this contribution is likely to grow still further in future. Cultural tourism has been important in the expansion of cultural facilities, in the growth of tourism employment, and in the development of pan-European tourism and cultural policies.

The book gives concrete examples from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the UK and more. One of the conclusions is that: “In order to maintain this competitive advantage in the global tourism market ... Europe will not only have to make effective use of traditional European culture, but will also have to extend her capacity to develop new cultural products from the stream of contemporary global culture, including popular culture from America, Japan and elsewhere.”