Vol. 18, 1/2010 MoraVian geographical reports 45 the iMportance oF historical MonUMents For DoMestic toUrists: the case oF soUth- Western BoheMia (cZech repUBlic) Josef NAVRÁTIL, Kamil PÍCHA, Jaroslava HŘEBCOVÁ Abstract Cultural tourism is increasingly important in the Czech Republic. A survey of 1,584 domestic visitors at nine historical sites in south-western Bohemia, in summer 2008, revealed some interesting differences between five groups of visitors, largely differentiated by sex and age. These five groups were used for further analysis in studying length of stay, type of holiday, general interest in history, and in 15 recreational behaviours: statistically significant differences are reported. These visitors ranked many cultural-historical attractions as ‘important’, but the highest ranked was a small number of extraordinary monuments. Shrnutí Význam historických památek v domácím cestovním ruchu: jihozápadní Čechy (Česká republika) Kulturní turistika je v České republice stále na vzestupu. Analýza odpovědí 1 584 dotazovaných tuzemských návštěvníků na devíti historických lokalitách v jihozápadních Čechách v létě 2008 odhalila některé zajímavé rozdíly mezi pěti skupinami návštěvníků diferencovanými především věkem a pohlavím. Byla analyzována délka pobytu, důvod pobytu, všeobecný zájem o historii regionu a 15 typů rekreačních aktivit; prezentovány jsou statisticky signifikantní rozdíly. Návštěvníci v dotazníku vyjmenovali řadu kulturně-historických objektů, ale jako velmi významné jich zařadili jen velmi malý počet. Key words: cultural tourism; historical attractions; domestic visitor characteristics; segmentation analysis; south-western Bohemia, Czech Republic 1. Introduction Cultural and national heritages are important parts of the tourist industry in many countries. In the Czech Republic, cultural and national heritages comprise the most important segment of the tourism business. They are a unique material base for tourism development in the Czech Republic (Vaško, 2002). Sufficient numbers of cultural monuments and their good condition are one of prerequisites for the development of tourism and for the interest of tourists in particular destinations and regions. Of high importance for tourism development are museums and galleries. The Czech Republic registers approximately 40 thousand buildings, representing a set of historical monuments, monumental objects and ecclesiastical buildings (NPÚ, 2009a). A substantial part of general interest is concentrated on 200 palaces, 60 well-preserved castles, 100 ruins (not all of them accessible) and 40 urban conservation areas (Hrala, 2002). Cultural tourism is, however, quite difficult to strictly classify and separate from other complementary forms of tourism and ways of spending leisure time. In a broader sense of the word, every aspect of tourist travel is a certain form of cultural tourism, because during this travel, people gain knowledge of foreign cultures, habits and ways of living. Within the tourist industry, even in economic theory, is cultural tourism – sometimes as “cultural and municipal” or “cultural-cognitive” tourism – cited as one of the main forms of tourism, together with beach tourism, winter tourism, rural tourism and business/congress tourism (Kesner, 2005). Cultural tourism is a form of tourism where participants are motivated first of all by the possibility of getting to know the cultural heritage and culture of a country and its citizens. The aim of visitors is to visit cultural attractions, particularly historical buildings. In practice, cultural tourism has the form of visits to museums, galleries, exhibitions, cultural landmarks