The Influence of Elements of Cultural Heritage on the Image of Destinations, Using Four Polish Cities as an Example

Abstract

Cultural heritage and its various elements are an important factor that supports the development of tourism in destinations. One of the key factors of a successful destination is its positive image that allows it to effectively attract visitors. This paper investigates the impact of selected elements of material cultural heritage on the image of four Polish metropolitan destinations. The results indicate thathistorical and cultural heritage plays a more significantrole in creating an attractive image of a city than the city’s contemporary and post-industrial facilities. Cities perceived as historical areconsideredas much more attractive to spend free time in than cities predominantly associated with industrial functions. Moreover, the presented research results confirm a relationship between the familiarity of a destination and its positive image. These features have also been observed in previous studies.

1. Introduction

The end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century created favourable conditions for the development of global tourism. As it has grown, the scale and the variety of forms it takes, it has become an important medium, and result of globalisation, socio-economic modernisation, and broadly understood cultural changes. At the same time, its rank and role in the life of modern cities have increased. Big cities are becoming increasingly popular and fashionable as destinations [1]. However, this trend is relatively new; tourists’ interest in visiting cities and the involvement of researchers in urban tourism studies started in the 1990s. The 21st century has so far been a period of surging development of urban tourism. According to Koens, et al. [2], until recently, tourism was seen as one of the most sustainable economic growth strategies for cities. As a result, tourism has become a significant force transforming cities. Objectively, however, alongside the clearly positive changes, the negative aspects of these transformations have become apparent. The changes that occur due to tourism may involve all levels of the city’s operation, i.e., from morphology and material aspects, through to the economy, culture, social life, and marketing activities of the city [3,4].

The tangible and intangible cultural heritage is of a city is among the most important objects of tourist interest [5,6,7]. It is an important asset in creating the image of an attractive destination [8]. Understanding themethods of destination image formation, which have been widely discussed in the literature, requiresresearch to assessthe content of the messages that create this image.

The study assesses the impact of various elements of cultural heritage on the image of a destination. By selecting four Polish cities for the study—Katowice, Wrocław, Łódź, and Gdańsk—an attempt was made to answer the following question: how do the historical heritage, industrial heritage, and contemporary cultural attractions affect the perception of tourist attractiveness? We aimed to distinguish the elements of cultural heritage, to be able to create the image of an attractive tourist destination more effectively. In addition, the opinions present in the literature concerning the relationship between familiarity with a destination and its positive perception, the distance between a potential tourist’s residence and the image of the destination, and including the elements of heritage included on the UNESCO list and effective image creation were verified. Thus, this article is part of three broad and frequently practised trends in research on contemporary tourism: Tourism and city development [9,10,11,12,13,14], tourism and cultural heritage [7,15,16,17,18,19], and the image of tourist destinations [20,21,22,23].

Taking into consideration the image of the cities, two mature tourist destinations were chosen—Gdańsk and Wrocław—and two other cities which are perceived mostly as industrial areas—Katowice and Łódź, which have been developing their touristic functions for several years now. The other criterion was the location. Gdańsk and Wrocław are located in more attractive regions for tourists than Łódź and Katowice. The seaside location of Gdańsk makes it much more attractive than the other chosen cities. It is both the final destination for tourists, and a place that attracts seaside visitors. Wrocław is a gateway to the mountainous area of Sudetes. It is also located on transit routes to Czechia and Germany. As a mature tourist destination, it is visited both as a final destination, and along the way to other destinations. Katowice and Łódź both have good transport links. They are located by main highways—Katowice near the A4 and A1, and Łódź near the A1 and A2. Katowice is part of the Upper Silesian urban area—the most industrialised part of Poland. Łódź is surrounded by a monotonous landscape of central Poland plains. As these latter cities are strongly perceived as industrial areas, they are not often visited along the way, nor are they final tourist destinations. Wrocław and Gdańsk have many important historical monuments. Many gothic renaissance and baroque monuments are also located in these cities. Wrocławs Centennial Hall is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. National museums in Wrocław and Gdańsk have collections of important paintings. Łódź and Katowice are developing tourism based on their industrial heritage. In Katowice, this is based mostly on old coal mines and steelworks. In Łódź, the emphasis is on textile factories. Old industrial buildings have been turned into museums, concert halls, shopping malls, and conference centres. Łódź is also known for its XIX century multicultural industrial city landscape.

Many of the prominent destination image concepts were created ten or even more years ago. Analysis of the image of destinations for specific forms of tourism has often been explored. For example, in the works by Wang, Wu, Yuan [24], Pestek, Nikolic [25], Ramkissoon, Uysal, Brown [26], Milman [27], Bové-Sans, Laguado-Ramírez [28], Remoaldo et al. [29], and HueteAlcocer, López Ruiz [30], the image of destinations related to cultural tourism is discussed. On the other hand, the relationship between the elements of cultural heritage and the image of a destination, as well as how the elements of cultural heritage are used in creating this image deliberately, have been analysed less frequently. Works in culinary traditions [25,31], and in set-jetting [8,32] are examples of this type of research.

However, there is still a lack of tourism research that shows how the image of a destination is influenced by the elements of cultural heritage connected with architecture, and how the heritage related to the industrial function of cities can also influence the destination image. Cultural heritage related to architecture embraces numerous types of buildings and zones, including castles, chateaux, and other monumental buildings, monumental zones, and historical urban layouts. The post-industrial heritage consists mainly of former industrial facilities and post-industrial areas adapted to new functions, such as tourism, shopping, dining, and entertainment. This article is an attempt to fill this gap.

2. A City’s Tourism Function

In the 1960s, in Christaller’s [33] geographical deliberations, tourism was not perceived as very important in the development of cities, and he did not recognise monuments and places attractive to tourists as central goods. More than twenty years later, Ashworth [34] claimed there had been significant scientific negligence. In their research, tourism scientists ignored cities, and researchers involved in urban issues neglected tourism development issues. The same author [35] was also one of the first to indicate clearly that research on urban tourism is necessary, because it is a different phenomenon that must be analysed independently of other aspects of tourism or other urban functions. At the beginning of this century, although the amount of literature had considerably increased, Ashworth [36] still indicated a shortage of scientific knowledge on urban tourism development. Tourism in cities should be considered not only as a complex phenomenon that consists of various manifestations of tourism activity, but should also be considered from the point of view of the role that tourism plays or can play in the broadly understood city’s operation [35]. Żemła [37] claims that the rapid increase of tourists’ interest in visiting cities [38,39] that occurred during the last decade is among the most underestimated trends in contemporary tourism.

Urban functions are activities that justify the existence and development of a city, while providing the resources needed for it to exist [40]. The city’s tourism function is fulfilled by the city in the global economic system [41]. It is also the effects and consequences of this activity for the spatial structure of the city, and the city’s economic life. A concentration of people and tourist facilities in the city leads not only to positive effects for agglomeration; it also causes negative phenomena, such as increasing the prices of land, real estate, and tourist services, communication problems, and the danger of exceeding tourist capacity [11,42]. The urban function can be analysed from various perspectives [43]: Cognitive reflection, city features, city activities (function of urban activities), relationships (structural and functional perspective), city residents’ activity, and as a place of residence/work. Assessing a city’s functions in terms of cognitive reflection means identifying a set of city features that determine its individuality as seen by a given researcher, resident or other participants of urban life, such as a tourist. The city’s description may take the form of a guidebook, fiction, or popular science or be fully scientific [44]. Understanding the city’s function as its feature refers to the material form of urban space, but, at the same time, it abstracts from the city’s social content according to the division of the urban and social subsystems [45]. In cities, in symbolic terms, isolated zones are created. In these zones, the tourist function is of fundamental economic importance (tourist districts, tourist precincts) [46,47]. They are often called ‘recreational business districts’, ‘tourism business districts’ [48] or ‘central tourist districts’ [49]. Within the concept of the city’s function as its activities, the researchers’ attention is focused on the analysis of socio-economic activities located in its area [50,51,52].

An example of the mutual interaction between tourism development and other city functions is the gentrification process. There are numerous examples of tourism gentrification in the literature, including Alfama in Lisbon [53,54,55], Barcelona [56,57], and Budapest [58]. Tourism gentrification also spreads throughout neighbourhoods in cities, as it has in Gdańsk [59,60], Łódź [61,62,63], Kraków [64], Katowice [65], and Wrocław [66]—most notably in areas with a high heritage value. Heritage, with its material and immaterial dimensions as a component of the experiential and commodification of culture, is thus a strong feature of tourism gentrification [67]. The advent of social resistance to this phenomenon can be tied to real estate speculation and rising property prices, evictions, and symbolic and commercial transformation [68].

An important challenge for researchers is the development of the methods and tools for measuring tourism function. These have been detailed in analyses of the determinants for measuring tourism activity [69,70,71], and the characteristics of gauges [72], including those relating to the supply sphere of tourism [73]. Gauges of the tourism function as a city feature are mainly those that are commonly used in measuring the state of tourism development [48,74]. On the other hand, if treating a city’s tourist function as an activity, the authors of the studies may use both basic indicators [50,75], and relative gauges [76].

3. Cultural Heritage and Tourism

For many years the most important factor enabling the development of urban tourism was the culture and cultural heritage located in cities. The concept of cultural heritage evokes various associations, so it is not easy to define unequivocally. The starting point for understanding cultural heritage is the UNESCO World Heritage Convention [77]. The records contained in this document define specific facilities and places of great value that are parts of priceless and irreplaceable resources, not only for every nation, but also for all of humanity. In 2003, the scope of the cultural heritage covered by the Convention was expanded by adding intangible heritage. In terms of intangible items, cultural heritage is defined as practices, representations, expressions, and knowledge and skills (including instruments, objects, artefacts, and cultural spaces) [78].

UNESCO presents heritage as an intergenerational legacy, a legacy from the past that we live with today and which we want to hand down to future generations. This legacy is made up of milestones that serve as benchmarks for our identity [79]. The uniqueness of the World Heritage concept lies in its universality. Facilities entered into the UNESCO World Heritage List belong to all nations of the world, regardless of the territory in which they are located. Ashworth and Tumbridge [10] indicated that the past had become the basis of the social, cultural, and political identity of individuals, groups, places, and states. Contemporary society builds heritage by choosing from the past what it wants to convey to the future. According to the authors, this leads to disharmony between the heir in general and the heritage of societies or social groups, leading to competition for heritage. This can cause conflicts, in particular when its utilitarian dimension covers symbolism. The utilitarian function of heritage does not exclude the essence of heritage resulting from the UNESCO conventions and the role that feelings and emotions play in it, because heritage is a process rather than a resource [80].

In contrast to the ‘institutional’ approach to cultural heritage as a list of objects, Gaweł [81] claimed that heritage defines our identity and builds our culture. Hence, feelings play an important role in creating the heritage resource of a region or city [82]. Based on these pillars, societies or communities build their own cultural heritage, which is for them a source of values, the legacy of artefacts, both tangible and intangible. This heritage is built through the succession of generations [83].

Cultural heritage stimulates the development of tourism. Monuments entered on the UNESCO Heritage List, which is part of a tourism product, are of particular importance. The reasons to travel include elements of tangible heritage, such as architectural monuments and architectural complexes, and contemporary facilities (bridges, buildings). There are also many elements of intangible heritage, such as the history of a site, culture, art, lifestyle of the community living in the visited region, the atmosphere of the site, the uniqueness of the site and related folklore events, festivals, exhibitions, and theatre performances. Expeditions of a cultural nature are also a very important part of sightseeing.

There is a well-established view in the literature that the development of tourism combines the trips to heritage sites, while cultural tourism is combined with tangible and intangible cultural heritage; it both uses them and revives them [18,83,84,85,86]. Mikos von Rohrscheidt [87] described tourism focused on the cultural heritage as cultural heritage tourism. Its main goal is tourist contact with monuments, complexes and sites recognised as representing cultural heritage on a different spatial scale (world, country, region). In Poland, as main destinations of cultural heritage tourism he listed: Kraków, Warsaw, Gdańsk, Poznań, Wrocław, Toruń, Przemyśl and Lublin. Moreover, it lists objects from the UNESCO Heritage List in other towns and selected historical monuments. Objects from the UNESCO Heritage List in other towns and selected historical monuments are also included in Gniezno, Częstochowa, Frombork, Biskupin, Kazimierz Dolny, Krzemionki, Ostrów Lednicki, Sandomierz, Kielce, Łańcut, Chełmno.

However, if we assume, following Gaweł [81], that anything can become a cultural attraction thatresults from the unlimited creativity of tourism organisers and from the unsatisfied curiosity of tourists, then it should be concluded that the scope of cultural heritage tourism is unlimited. Therefore, visiting objects and places that are important to tourists, to places representing the legacy which has been deemed worthy of protecting and passing on to future generations, and to everything with which tourists may become emotionally attached and with which an emotional attachment could be created during the journey, should be considered heritage tourism.

Heritage tourism is constantly expanding—it is multidimensional and complex [88], as a result of its reference to life, duration, and change from the past through the present, and into the future. The past is shown through interpretation as a specific spectacle and story, as well as by reference to a site and tangible artefacts. The importance of heritage interpretations in cultural heritage tourism is constantly growing, as through interpretation, regional distinctiveness is emphasised, and identity is strengthened [83].

In modern heritage tourism interpretation, significant attention is paid to heritage interpretation. An extensive study on the interpretation of heritage in contemporary cultural tourism was presented by Mikos von Rohrscheidt [89]. He included his original interpretation of Staiff’s cultural heritage as ‘a kind of man’s enchantment with the past which, at the same time, looks ahead for his and society’s future, as part of a process of extracting and disclosing information about a site’ [89]. This approach to interpretation differs from Tilden’s concept, which assumes that these are educational activities aimed at discovering the meanings and connections between individual content items through the use of preserved sites, direct experience, and illustrative means, rather than by simply conveying facts with words. It is an attempt to show the truths behind what is visible [90]. Referring to this definition, Nowacki [91] indicated various forms of communication (interpretation): Talk, guided tours, touch panels, and audio-guides. The author also indicated that emotions, and experiences should be considered, and tourists involved in the discourse on heritage.

In cultural heritage tourism, a tourist is a subject that interprets its resources. Hence, the essence of cultural heritage can be grasped not only by describing sites and places, but also by describing tourists’ motivation and perception [92]. From their own perspective, the tourist interprets the content of heritage resources presented by the interpreter, which enriches him/her or collides with their own understanding of nature or history [93]. In the contemporary interpretation of heritage, a tourist should not only receive the content conveyed by the interpreter, but should also form an identity around it. Thus, a new formula of interpretation emerged, defined by Silberman [94] as a collective, conscious and inclusive activity, and an expression of the evolving identity of the local community. Interpretation of the heritage of the 21st century is not limited to traditional excursions and visiting sites, but becomes a new form of social discourse [91].

4. The Concept of the Destination Image

The assets, including cultural heritage, of destinations, are important factors of the destination’s competitiveness; however, their power to attract tourists derives not directly from their real features but rather from how they are perceived. According to a popular definition, an image is a sum of beliefs, impressions, thoughts, representations, and emotions of an individual or a group about a given object (product, company, site) [20,21]. A destination image expressesall objective knowledge, prejudices, imagination, and emotional thoughts of an individual or a group about a location, as a predictor of behavioural intentions, such as destination choice and visit intention [95]. An image of a destination is a figure created by a tourist for theirown use that imitates the real place. The image reflects a peculiar simplification of many memories and information that the consumer has about the destination. However, it is not a simple, uniform belief that leads to creating stereotypes. The image is the result of processing previously recorded objective images and information in the human mind [96]. The human subconscious gives this meaning, associating the information and images with some more or less sharp representations, which are specific conglomerate composed of feelings, judgments, opinions, attitudes, and facts. Thus, the image is not a reflection of a reality that is clearly, accurately and precisely outlined, but is more a mosaic of many details, often captured randomly and in bits and pieces [97].

In multiple works published so far [98,99,100], attempts have been made to conceptualise the concept of the destination image. Several studies that analysed in detail the output of the literature on this issue have also been published to date. Among the previous systematic reviews, those by Pike [101], Zhang, Fu and Cai Lu [102], Li, Ali and Kim [103], Shankar [104], Picazo and Moreno-Gil [105], and Chan and Peters [106] should be noted.

The image of a city or other spatial unit is a complex notion, which embracesmany subjective representations of reality that have arisen in human minds because of perceptions, the influence of the mass media and informal information messages. The image is a concept that is formed through reasoned and emotional interpretation and is a consequence of the combination of two components: Perceptual/cognitive evaluations, which refer to people’s beliefs and knowledge of a certain destination, and affective evaluations, which result from people’s feelings towards the destination [29]. In this way, the total destination image is formed based on the interrelationship between the perceptual/cognitive image of the destination and the affective component, which are, in turn, the result of a function of cognitive responses [29,107,108,109].

The special role of the destination image in the process of building a competitive position results, among others, from the fact that the image is a factor of competitiveness [110,111], which is influenced by both deliberate and accidental actions of entities operating in the destination, as well as elements of the environment that are beyond the influence of these entities [112]. Therefore, understanding the essence of dependent and independent factors in the image formation process is particularly important to properly use the role of the image in building a destination’s competitive position. This process is defined in the literature as the creation of a mental imagination of the destination’s representation based on information cues provided by image formation agents and selected by a specific person [113]. In the research on the process of the formation of a destination’s image, Gallarza, Gil Saura and CalderónGarcía [21], as well as Park and Nicolau [114], have indicated there are two approaches present in the literature. The static approach links the research on the destination’s image with the research on the buyer’s behaviour, in particular the customer’s [30,115,116,117,118,119], and with the destination choice [120,121,122,123]. The subject of the research is the mutual relationships between these elements. Multiple researchers [26,30,118,121,122] have indicated a strong positive relationship between both the image of various attributes and the holistic image of a destination and the buyer’s behaviour before, during, and after a tourist trip. As a result, a direct positive relationship between the destination’s image and competitiveness, market success, and effective operation of the destination is indicated. This has been confirmed by multiple researchers [20,21,113,118,120,121,124]. However, in the literature, several conditions have been indicated that the image must meet to achieve a visible and desired impact on the buying preferences of tourists for the destination product. The basic condition is a useful balance of positive and negative elements towards the positive, which has been briefly referred to in the literature as having a positive image [121]. In addition to this necessary condition, an image must meet at least one or, according to some researchers [125], both additional conditions. The image must be strong and/or distinctive. Additionally, Pike and Ryan [126] indicated different meanings for tourists of various attributes of a destination product. Based on these attributes, a strong and/or distinctive image is built, suggestingthat it needs to be based on those attributes whose significance for recipients is at least average, and preferably large.

The second possible approach to the analysis of how the image of a destination is formed is to study its origins. This approach was described by Gallarza, Gil Saura and Calderón Garcia [21] as dynamic. Most often [23,127,128], as in this case, it refers to the popular concept developed by Gunn [129] and expanded by Gartner [107] that suggests indicates two basic image components: An organic and an induced image. This division directly relates to the process of formation of a destination’s image, because the source of information and the way of forming the image (origin) are adopted as the main criteria that differentiate the two elements of the image. The organic image is a function of non-commercial information obtained by a potential tourist through references from other people, one’s own experiences and other sources independent of the activities of the stakeholders within the destination [94]. On the other hand, the induced image is a result of marketing activities, especially promotional activities undertaken by marketers [130,131,132].

Multiple authors have indicated two or three basic dimensions of the destination’s image [101,108,126,133,134,135]. This indicates that cognitive image, affective image and conative image factors need to be taken into account. The cognitive image is the sum of what the tourist knows about the destination, regardless of the sources of this knowledge. It includes awareness, knowledge, and representations of specific features and destination attributes. So far, most studies on the destination image have focused on the cognitive image and, in particular, on the analysis of how the destination’s physical attributes are perceived, while the emotional and behavioural aspects have often been disregarded [101,135,136]. However, to form the image, the most important factors are the wishes and fears, the emotional attitudes, and the human beliefs through which the images and information are filtered. In the case of a destination, this may mean the belief that a given place is dirty/clean, safe/dangerous, interesting/uninteresting, etc. The emotional dimension of an image is related to the individual feelings and impressions evoked by a given facility [136,137]. These impressions can be both positive and negative.

5. The Research Method

To achieve the research aims, the method of the diagnostic survey was chosen, and the survey questionnaire research technique was used. The questionnaire, developed by the authors of this article, contained one open question and nine closed questions. The subjects covered the first associations and suggested terms that describe four Polish cities: Katowice, Wrocław, Łódź and Gdańsk, as well as respondents’ experiences with these spaces and an assessment of their tourist attractiveness.

This research was carried out with a group of 268 students from several Kraków universities studying tourism-related fields of study. Students are often selected as a research group in tourism research for several different reasons [138,139,140,141]. First of all, this group is selected when researchers use convenience sampling [138,140,142,143]. In many cases, relatively young and well-educated people are one of the most attractive market segments [139,141,144]. In addition, tourism students are perceived as a kind of expert sample, with special knowledge in the fields beings studied [138]. Therefore, while the obtained results cannot be extended to other social groups, they can be extended with interpretation to the context of the whole of society [138,141]. In the case of the presented research, the fact that young people’s opinions illustrated not only the surveyed destinations’ contemporary image, but also indicate their potential forms in the future, is important in considering how this target group was selected.

The study group consisted mostly of women (72.4%). The respondents had general secondary (61.9%), technical secondary (32.5%) or higher (5.6%) levels of education. The survey was conducted as a Google form in the second half of 2020. The questions in the questionnaire were focused on how attractive the cities under study were perceived to be, as well as how familiar the respondents were with the tourist offerings, and howthey were perceived. The questions were asked in various forms and covered, inter alia, selecting elements from the list and evaluating the indicated elements.

The respondents were residents of Kraków or resided in the city as students. Kraków (approx. 780,000 residents) is the second-largest city in terms of the number of residents, and a leading service and industrial centre in Poland. There are 23 academies in the city with approximately 135,000 students. The largest university is the oldest university in Poland, Jagiellonian University (approx. 40,000 students). The city is located in southern Poland, on the Vistula River, and is surrounded by a diverse landscape, as it is at the junction of the Silesian-Kraków Uplands, Małopolska Uplands, Subcarpathian Basins, and the Carpathian Foothills. It is the capital of historical Lesser Poland, and as a royal city from 1038–1596, it was previously the capital of Poland. Complexes of historical buildings on the Wawel Hill, the Old Town and Kazimierz, entered in 1987 on the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List, are a record of this period. The city’s cultural heritage and its cultural potential (including theatres, cinemas, exhibitions, congresses, and festivals) attract both domestic and foreign tourists to the city. With its well-developed tourist infrastructure and transport accessibility, the city is one of the largest tourist centres in Poland. Kraków is located on the A4 (west-east) motorway, which can be easily reached from Germany (distance to the border: Approx. 420 km), from Wrocław (approx. 270 km), from Katowice (approx. 80 km) and from Ukraine (distance to the eastern border approx. 250 km).

6. Results

The respondents were asked to express their opinion on how attractive they find the surveyed cities as places to spend their free time. A clear majority of definitely positive votes for Gdańsk and Wrocław in relation to the other two cities was noted (Figure 1). In this context, as many as half of the respondents assessed Łódź as an unattractive space, whereas, in the case of Katowice, a small percentage were ‘definite’ opinions that confirmed that they found the cities attractive or unattractive. An even clearer picture of differences in opinions about whether they found cities attractive or unattractive was obtained when the respondents were asked to indicate the most attractive cities (Figure 2). The city of Gdańsk was the most attractive city, and Wrocław was second in the order—so these are both spaces that were defined as areas attractive to tourists by the respondents.

Subsequently, the respondents were asked to indicate spontaneous associations with the indicated cities. In the initial examination of the answers to this question, the difference in the number of these representations in each city could be clearly seen. In the case of Łódź, over 8% of respondents did not indicate any association, with a small percentage indicating an association in other cities (Katowice 2.6%, Wrocław 0.7%, Gdańsk 3%). In the case of this city, the highest number of association variants was also noted (77). For example, in the group comprising 75% of all Łódź responses, there were 33 different associations (

Table 1. First association for the following locations: Katowice, Wrocław, Łódź and Gdańsk (268 people).

Percentage of Associations	Number of Associations and Percentage of Associations
	Katowice		Wrocław		Łódź		Gdańsk
	Associations
Most common associations—up to 50% of respondents’ opinions in total	1	Spodek (45.5%)	4	Centennial Hall (14.9%), ZOO (12.7%), Dwarfs (11.9%), City Market Square (9%)	6	Manufaktura (17.2%), Piotrkowska (9.3%), textile ind. (9.3%), factories (6.3%), film school (4.9%), unattractive city (3.0%)	2	Sea (33.6%), Shipyard (9.3%)
Up to 75% of respondents’ opinions in total	9	Pyrzowice airport, industry, mines, Silesia, mining, coal, Spiż club	10	Sky Tower, Panorama R. Stare Miasto, B. Fair Bridges, Ostrów Tumski,	33	Łódź Fabryczna railway station, Pacześ, Atlas Arena, concrete city, blocks of flats, festivals, graffiti, University of Łódź, central point of Poland, Museum of Cinematography, Plac Wolności, ZOO, films, Botanical Garden, abandoned factories, Park of Survivors, Planetarium, City Market, Widzew, a dangerous city	7	Crane, Old Town, Neptune’s fountain, seaport, Tricity
Total number of associations	59		58		71		45

Source: Own study.

), while in the remaining cities, the number was never more than 10.

The facilities most often associated with a given city space included Spodek in Katowice (45.5%), the Baltic Sea in the context of the city of Gdańsk (33.6%), Manufaktura shopping centre in Łódź (17.2%), and Centennial Hall in Wrocław (14.9%). In the case of Wrocław, associations based on the tourist function of the city dominated (ZOO, dwarfs, Panorama of Racławice painting, Sky Tower, the area of the old town and Ostrów Tumski, the city ‘turned towards the water’). This aspect was similar in the case of Gdańsk (Old Town, Neptune’s Fountain), but the port function was the most deeply rooted in the representations (Gdańsk Shipyard, Crane). In the city of Katowice, associations with complex, industrial threads (mines, coal, mining) could be clearly seen.

After determining the general attitude of the respondents towards the studied cities, an attempt was made to determine the nature of the respondents’ direct contact with these cities. The respondents could define their contact as passing through, staying as visitors without an overnight stay, or for tourist purposes with an overnight stay (

Table 2. Tourist experience related to the cities in the research (268 people) and their relationship with how these cities are perceived.

Tourist Experience	City
	Katowice	Wrocław	Łódź	Gdańsk
Destinations with overnight stay [%]	17.9	50.7	11.2	56.7
Destinations without overnight stay [%]	34.0	20.5	11.2	18.7
I have been there just passing through the city [%]	34.7	9.3	37.3	8.6
I have not been there [%]	13.4	19.4	40.3	16.0
Correlation between the form of contact and selection of the most attractive city (Pearson correlation coefficient)	−0.017	−0.168	0.038	−0.254
Correlation between the form of contact and opinions about how attractive a place to spend free time is (Pearson correlation coefficient)	−0.061	−0.028	-0.038	−0.048

Source: Own study.

). As many as four out of ten respondents had never visited Łódź, and another four in ten had only passed through the city. An equally high percentage of contact only in the form of passing through the city was recorded in the case of Katowice. The city’s tourist ‘experience’ in the case of Gdańsk and Wrocław concerned over 70% of the surveyed population, including over half of the respondents, who indicated the staying overnight option. Therefore, in the case of a stay in cities such as Gdańsk and Wrocław, the duration of stay for tourist purposes with an overnight stay can be interpreted as influencing the opinion of how attractive it is (Figure 3). However, no significant relationship between the form of respondents’ contact with Katowice, Wrocław, Łódź or Gdańsk, or the selection of the most attractive city was found (Table 2). These were weak negative and positive correlations. Low values of the correlation coefficient also indicated an attempt to juxtapose forms of contact with opinions of how attractive the cities in the questionnaires are (Table 2).

Additionally, the respondents’ associations with the four cities were analysed. The respondents received a list containing several potential associations with tourist cities. Eleven of them were clearly positive, and another eleven responses were clearly negative, while four were neutral. That the list of associations contained statements of both a cognitive and affective nature. From these associations, the respondents selected a maximum of five associations that, in their opinion, best characterised each of the analysed cities.

The results showed a completely different image for Katowice and Łódź than the image of Gdańsk and Wrocław. The associations with cities for a rich historical heritage were definitely more positive. In the case of Wrocław, the first ten most popular associations were of a positive or neutral nature, and the most frequently indicated negative association was ‘overcrowded’. This was indicated by only 2.8% of the respondents (the thirteenth most frequently indicated association). The results were similar for Gdańsk. However, in this case, as many as 5.7% of respondents (the fifth most frequently mentioned association) noted that the city is ‘distant’. Additionally, slightly more people indicated the ‘overcrowded’ association in this case (4.6%, the eleventh most frequently indicated association). It should be emphasised that both cities were seen within the framework of the same associations. Both cases were dominated by the same three associations (although in a slightly different order). According to the respondents, both cities are ‘full of energy’, ‘cultural’ and ‘historical’. In both cases, these three associations were the only ones that received more than 10% of the responses, and also, in both cities, the subsequent associations received clearly fewer responses.

The results for Katowice and Łódź, were completely different. In both cases, clearly negative associations were often indicated. In the case of Katowice, five of the first ten most popular associations, including the three most popular, were negative, while in the case of Łódź, as many as eight of the most popular associations, including four among the first five, were negative. In both cases, the dominant association was ‘dominated by industry’, and in the case of Katowice, this was by far the most frequently indicated association. In the case of Łódź, however, the responses were particularly heavily varied. Łódź was the only city examined where the most frequently indicated response was selected in less than 10% of cases. This may suggest that this city is relatively the least familiar to the respondents, and their answers may be more likely to have been chosen at random. In the case of both cities, subsequent negative terms were related to being perceived as industrial, i.e., respondents often associated them with being ‘dirty’ or ‘made of concrete’. The term ‘uninteresting’, which was relatively popular, was also a considerable burden to the image of both cities. This association was indicated by over 5% of respondents in both cities, and was among the ten most popular terms for these cities suggesting that these cities are perceived as not worth visiting for tourist purposes.

The next step after considering the perception of the cities as a whole was to assess familiarity with particular tourist attractions located there. The results of this study of familiarity with tourist attractions which are elements of cultural heritage or are related to it, were based on three criteria: (a) I have been there, (b) I have never been there, but I have heard about it, (c) I have never heard about it (

Table 3. Familiarity with selected tourist attractions in cities.

City (Number of Tourist Attractions)	I Have Visited the Attraction	I Have Not Visited the Attraction, but I Have Heard of It	I Have Never Heard of the Attraction
	Average Response Rate for Familiarity with Tourist Attractions
Katowice (10)	16.6	41.9	41.5
Wrocław (12)	38.2	39.9	21.9
Łódź (14)	7.2	37.3	54.9
Gdańsk (16)	30.2	40.2	29.6

Source: Own study.

). The largest group of respondents had visited the tourist attractions of Wrocław and Gdańsk. The tourist attractions in these cities are also the best known. Familiarity with Wrocław’s tourist attractions was also indicated by the smallest percentage of respondents, who had also never heard of the tourist attractions mentioned in the survey. The tourist attractions of Łódź were the least known. They were visited by the smallest group of respondents, and the largest group had never heard of them.

The most famous element of Katowice’s cultural heritage is the Sports and Entertainment Hall, known as the ‘Spodek’, and facilities located in post-industrial areas, including the ‘Silesia’ Shopping Centre, the Silesian Museum and the International Congress Centre. The ‘Wujek’ Coal Mine is also well known as part of the recent history of Poland. On the other hand, the post-industrial heritage is poorly known, including the facilities on the Industrial Monuments Route of the Silesian Voivodeship: The ‘Giszowiec’ and ‘Nikiszowiec’ historical workers’ colonies and the ‘Bogucice’ Porcelain Factory (

Table 4. The most familiar and unfamiliar elements of cultural heritage among the respondents.

City (Number of Selected Elements of Cultural Heritage)	I Have Visited It (Percentage of Responses)	Known Only by Hearsay (Percentage of Responses)	I Have Never Heard of It (Percentage of Responses)
Katowice (10)	Spodek (37.4%) ‘Silesia’ Shopping Centre (31.0%) Silesian Museum (20.2%) International Congress Centre (14.8%)	‘Wujek’ Coal Mine (59.1%) Silesian Museum (57.6%) International Congress Centre (53.2%) Spodek (50.2%) ‘Silesia’ Shopping Centre (43.3%)	‘Giszowiec’ historical workers’ colony (62.1%) ‘Nikiszowiec’ historical workers’ colony (60.6%) Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra building (59.1%) ‘Bogucice’ Porcelain Factory (56.7%) Industrial Monuments Route of the Silesian Voivodeship (56.2%)
Wrocław (12)	Zoological Gardens (59.1%) Panorama of the Battle of Racławice Museum (57.6%) Botanical Gardens (54.7%) Grunwaldzki Bridge (51.7%) Cathedral (49.3%)	Music Theatre (54.7%) Sky Tower (49.3) Town Hall (45.3%) AulaLeopoldina (43.3%) The Centennial Hall (42.4%)	Ossolineum (51.7%) AulaLeopoldina (49.8%) Music Theatre (35.5%) Piasek Island (33.0%)
Łódź (14)	‘Manufaktura’ Centre (19.2%) Piotrkowska Street ‘Pietryna’ (18.2%) Museum of Cinematography (8.9%) Poznański’s Palace (7.9%) Centrum EC1 (6.9%)	‘Manufaktura’ Shopping Centre (66.0%) Piotrkowska Street (53.2%) Museum of Cinematography (51.7%) TeatrWielki (42.9%) Film Tourism Trail (38.9%)	‘Dętka’ Canal Museum (79.8%) Art Inkubator (78.8%) White Factory (72.9%) Prawosławna cerkiew św. Aleksandra Newskiego (72.9%) OFF Piotrkowska (61.6%)
Gdańsk (16)	Neptune Fountain (53.7%) St Mary’s Church (49.3) Town Hall (45.3%) Crane (41.9%) Golden Gate (40.9%)	Museum of the Second World War (53.7%) Polish Post (51.2) European Solidarity Centre (48.3%) Cistercian Abbey in Oliwa (42.9%) Great Armoury (42.9%)	Road to Freedom (49.3%) Cistercian Abbey in Oliwa (41.9%) European Solidarity Centre (40.4%) Great Armoury (39.9%) Artus Court (39.4%)

Source: Own study.

). A large group of respondents had never been to the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra building, which is adjacent to the most famous facilities in the Katowice Cultural Zone.

In Wrocław, the group of cultural heritage elements known to respondents included the Zoological Gardens, the Botanical Gardens and the painting Panorama of the Battle of Racławice. The Centennial Hall, entered into the UNESCO World Heritage List, was outside of this group. Less than half of the respondents indicated this building as familiar, and only from hearsay (Table 4). Among the historical facilities, only the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and the Grunwaldzki Bridge had been visited by almost half of the respondents. The City Hall was familiar to the respondents mainly by hearsay, and the Ossolineum and Piasek Islands were unknown to a large group of respondents. Almost half of the respondents had not heard of Aula Leopoldina, or knew it only from hearsay.

The most popular tourist attractions related to the cultural heritage of Łódź and familiar to respondents are part of the tourism canon of this city (Table 4). Among them, the largest group of respondents indicated awareness of ‘Manufaktura’ Shopping Centre and Piotrkowska Street. The respondents know film from Łódź, due to the Museum of Cinematography from hearsay and the Film Tourism Trail. Poznański’s Palace and the Centre for Science and Technology EC1 were much less known. The group of attractions unknown to the respondents included museums and cultural institutions in post-industrial facilities, such as the Central Museum of Textiles, unique on a national scale and located in the former L. Geyer factory (White Factory) and the ‘Dętka’ Canal Museum. This group also includes successful and original projects that have adapted post-factory buildings for both cultural and service purposes, namely, theArt Inkubator and OFF Piotrkowska.

The tourist attractions of Gdańsk, known to the largest group of respondents, are concentrated on the Royal Route or in its vicinity, in the area of the Main Town (Table 4). On the other hand, the Royal Route is poorly recognised as an element of cultural heritage. For about 40% of the respondents, it was known only from hearsay or was unknown (32%), like the Artus Court, the Golden House, and the Green Gate located next to it. Elements of heritage related to World War II and to the recent history of Poland were known to respondents mainly by hearsay. Almost half of the respondents had not heard about the Road to Freedom. The European Solidarity Centre was also poorly known.

Elements of cultural heritage are perceived as tourist attractions in the analysed cities in a various way. This was seen both in Wrocław and Gdańsk, tourist cities with a well-developed tourist function and, perceived as tourist destinations, and in Katowice and Łódź, cities that are developing a tourist function. In Wrocław, the largest number of respondents had visited tourist attractions other than those with historical and cultural heritage. Except for the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, the respondents knew the historical buildings or places by hearsay. The group of respondents that had heard about Sky Tower and the Music Theatre was larger than the group that had heard about Aula Leopoldina or the Centennial Hall. On the other hand, Ossolineum, Piasek Island, and the aforementioned Aula Leopoldina were not seen as tourist attractions. In Gdańsk, most elements of historical and cultural heritage are tourist attractions that were known (visited) or known by hearsay by 40–55% of respondents. The second group contained Gdańsk’s cultural heritage. They were not always perceived as tourist attractions. These were the Royal Route, Artus Court, Golden House and Road to Freedom (

Table 5. Tourist attractions are poorly known among the respondents.

Katowice	Wrocław	Łódź	Gdańsk
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra building ‘Giszowiec’ historical workers’ colony ‘Bogucice’ Porcelain Factory Industrial Monuments Route of the Silesian Voivodeship	Piasek Island Ossolineum	KsiężyMłyn Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Church ‘Dętka’ Museum White Factory OFF Piotrkowska Art Inkubator The Łódź Fair	Royal Route Artus Court Golden House Road to Freedom

Source: Own study.

).

In tourism promotion, Katowice and Łódź highlight the post-industrial heritage, the new functions of former facilities and industrial areas, and the new facilities built on them. In the case of Katowice, the buildings that were built in former mining areas are usually recognisable tourist attractions in Łódź, on the other hand, most of the facilities within the walls of former factories remain unknown (Table 5), although ‘Manufaktura’ is an unquestionable tourist attraction.

7. Discussion and Conclusions

The issue of a destination’s image has been of interest in research on tourism for many years [20,101]. There is a relative agreement in the literature as to how these images are formed and the types of messages that influence them. While the issues of image formation methods and types of sources that influence the image of a destination have been explained in detail [23,108,129], the issue of the content and meanings of image-forming messages requires further research. Decision-makers in many destinations are querying particular leitmotifs, which can have a role in focusing the process of formation of an attractive destination image. Certainly, one such motive may be the cultural heritage present in a destination. It is natural to consider cultural heritage, as it is one of the most important objects of tourist interest [6,7]. The research results presented here are a step towards shedding light on the question of what elements of cultural heritage support the creation of an image of an attractive tourist destination more effectively.

The presented study underlines the holistic nature of the destination image combining cognitive, affective, and conative elements. According to San Martín and Del Bosque [145], cultural heritage creates the cognitive structure of a destination’s image, through factors, such as the natural environment, tourist infrastructure, or atmosphere. An even bigger role of cultural heritage in destination image creation was detected by Aksoy and Kiyci [112]. In their research, factors labelled as ‘historical and cultural heritage’ were found to be the most important factors (together with ‘shopping and food’, and ‘peaceful environment’) affecting the image of Amasra in Turkey. What is more, the authors found that the perception of cultural heritage expresses the beauty of historical and cultural heritage and the emotions evoked by the perception of this beauty, which clearly indicates that cultural heritage affects not only the cognitive but also the affective part of the destination’s image. This was confirmed in this paper. Respondents answering the question about cities’ connotations pointed out not only typical cognitive statements like ‘dominated by industry or ‘historical’, but also typical emotional statements like ‘world-famous’ or ‘full of energy’. Connotations from both groups were indicated with relatively equal frequency.

This research analyses the role of different forms of tangible cultural heritage in a destination image formation. The presented research results make it possible to identify the diversified influence of various elements of cultural heritage on a destination’s image. They let us conclude that historical heritage has a more positive impact on perceived attractiveness than industrial and other types of contemporary cultural attractions (e.g., entertainment and sports halls). Wrocław and Gdańsk, cities with outstanding monuments and a rich history, were very highly rated by the respondents. At the opposite extreme, Katowice and Łódź, relatively young cities with a rich industrial heritage and popular modern facilities as their main advantages, were assessed as being not very attractive to tourists. This conclusion also stands for the most important managerial outcome of the research.

The results also confirm the relationship between destination familiarity and its positive perception, which has been seen in scientific research for many years [130,134,146,147,148]. We noted that the more familiar the elements of the cultural heritage of individual destinations are, the more positively it tends to be rated in terms of tourist attractiveness. In line with this, respondents not only rated Wrocław and Gdańsk as more attractive assigned them much more positive associations, but they also indicated the most important elements of the cultural heritage of these cities were much more familiar to them. This familiarity can be seen across almost every dimension. In the practical dimension, more people indicated that they knew these elements from personal experience, and in terms of knowledge, fewer people had never heard of them. Katowice and Łódź, compared with Gdańsk and Wrocław, clearly showed how big of a challenge it is to build an attractive image of a previously unrecognised destination with poorly known basic attractions, as it tends to be underestimated by potential tourists. The visible link between the high familiarity with Wrocław and Gdańsk and their positive image also suggests a positive estimation of the destination experience in the case of these two cities.

There is an agreement in the literature that the distance between a potential tourist’s place of residence and the destination significantly affects the image of the destination [21]. Our research results did not confirm this relationship. On the basis of the obtained results, distance played only a minor role in how the tourist attractiveness and familiarity with the elements of cultural heritage were assessed. In the case of the examined cities, it seems that other elements affect their image much more significantly. At the same time, such factors may have impaired the impact of distance. Gdańsk, located farthest from the respondents’ place of residence, turned out to be not only much more positively assessed than Katowice and Łódź, which are located much closer, but also elements of cultural heritage located in Gdańsk turned out to be much better known to the respondents, and more often from their personal observation, than those located in the industrial cities. The attraction power of the recognised destination of Gdańsk, as well as Wrocław, located a bit closer to Kraków, turned out to be so great as to encourage a significant proportion of the respondents to visit these cities. The opposite conclusions can be drawn by analysing the results of Katowice, a city located in the immediate vicinity of Kraków. Almost all respondents indicated that they had visited the city while passing through, but since they assessed its attractiveness as low, a relatively small number of them visited the city for tourist purposes, which also translated into a low level of familiarity with the city’s cultural attractions.

The low impact of elements of the cultural heritage of individual cities being entered into the UNESCO lists may be a surprising conclusion of this research. Although most studies to date [149,150,151,152] have shown quite different effects of entering individual sites into various UNESCO lists, such studies have indicated that tourism in mature destinations was weakly affected by this fact, when the measurement for this was the impact on the scale of tourist traffic [151]. It is also worth noting that the research to date on the impact of UNESCO lists on tourism development has referred to foreign tourism, at least to some extent, whereas, based on the presented results, a very small impact of the UNESCO lists on domestic tourism was seen. Although Wrocław, the only city entered into the World Cultural Heritage list, was assessed by the respondents as very attractive, there was not a significant difference in how this city and Gdańsk were perceived as a result of being entered on the list. Moreover, the Centennial Hall, a specific facility in Wrocław which was entered on the list, did not turn out to be particularly attractive or particularly known to the respondents compared to other attractions in Wrocław. The impact of Katowice being entered into the UNESCO list of Creative Cities as the City of Music seems to have been even smaller. Even though this entry was partly due to the large number of renowned musical events aimed at young people, the number of associations for this city with features that may be associated with this entry (creative, global, cultural) was extremely small.

The research results confirm common-sense assumptions, as well as common observations, and do not seem to be controversial. Nevertheless, the conclusions resulting from this research requires confirmation by further research, which will need to primarily consider urban destinations located in other countries, and even on other continents.

Although the presented results are very clear and unambiguous, it cannot be ruled out that there were a number of disruptions that may have hindered the construction of a clear translation between the cultural heritage and the way a tourist destination’s attractiveness is perceived. One example is the effectiveness of the marketing activities of individual cities to date. A very large difference in how the attractiveness of Wrocław and Gdańsk is assessed compared to Katowice and Łódź may have resulted from the fact that these cities are traditionally important destinations and the income from tourism has been important for their development for many years, so their authorities have been caring for the destination’s, image for many years. On the other hand, industrial cities that have undergone a rapid transformation are only just building their positions in the tourism market. In their case, not only the relatively low experience of local authorities in attracting tourists, but also the real and image-related issues resulting from this transformation may be the problems that affect their contemporary perception. Despite the enormous changes that have taken place in Łódź and Katowice in recent years, it is still possible to find neglected places in these cities located relatively close to the city centre. However, for many years, these cities were associated only with the textile industry (Łódź) and with heavy industry (Katowice). This perception was naturally accompanied by a partially justified belief that the natural environment and landscape of these cities must have been affected by extreme degradation. Modern research shows that the influence of this perception is not only still alive, but is even still being perpetuated, for instance, in school education, as part of geographic classes, Katowice is still presented almost exclusively as an example of a typical industrial place, associated with numerous social and economic problems, as well as environmental problems resulting from the transformation of the main economic function of the city [96].