Attitudes Towards Communist Heritage Tourism in Bulgaria

Abstract

• Purpose: This paper aims to identify the attitudes of Bulgarians towards country’s historical monuments, communist heritage, communist heritage tourism and their willingness to participate in communist heritage trips.

• Design/methodology/approach: The sample includes 359 respondents recruited via online survey. Mann-Whitney U-test is used to identify the differences in the respondents’ attitudes towards communist heritage tourism in Bulgaria on the basis of their age, gender, frequency of visit to historical monuments, attitudes towards country’s communist past, prior visit to, familiarity with and attitude towards communist monuments, and identification of communist monuments with country’s heritage.

• Findings: Respondents who visited historical monuments more frequently, had more positive attitudes towards communist past of the country and its communist monuments, those who had visited and were very familiar with the communist monuments were more supportive towards donating money for the restoration of communist monuments and their inclusion in tourism supply. • Practical implications: The paper reveals that domestic communist heritage tourism demand exists in Bulgaria and tour operators need to focus on including communist heritage in tourism supply.

• Social implications: Communist heritage is controversial and different social groups perceive it differently, depending on their attitudes towards communism as a political, economic and social system.

• Originality/value: The paper compares the attitudes towards historical and communist monuments and revealed that communist monuments received less support for inclusion in tourism supply than historical monuments, respondents were less inclined to participate in trips to them and to donate money for their restoration.

Keywords: communism, communist heritage, communist heritage tourism, Bulgaria