READING THE TOURIST DESTINATION: BIBLIOTOURISM AND PLACE PERCEPTION

Abstract

Bibliotourism is a recent concept and an emergent segment of cultural tourism. By providing access to data through a range of resources and services in a very inclusive and ubiquitous manner, digital libraries are an essential tool to the tourism planners and consumers, and play a strategic role for the newest tourist generations, and mainly for the Generation Z tourists. The methods used to achieve these objectives are based on bibliographic research, by confronting the term citations in the general and specialised press with its references in scientific journals, followed by the direct observation of the use of libraries by tourists, in the framework of a theoretical and empirical research model. The expected results are the creation of a new perspective about integrating libraries, cultural mediation and entertainment in leisure tourism and a contribution to the definition and description of a bibliotourism concept.