Flâneur or fast food culture? Issues on typologies of cultural tourist

In cultural tourism two trade-offs are present: a traditional one describing preservation and valorisation effects and a second one about the different levels of quality that can be experienced during a visit. The latter emerged recently over a renewed popularity of the "lone traveller", the flâneur, who searches for the Aura (Benjamin, 1936) away from crowded museums where globalization of tastes may turn them in a sort of "fast food" places. The aim of this work is to describe possible types of visitors and their related economic effects (mostly the crowding out). The various dimensions to the value of heritage in contemporary societies (community values versus the rule of fashion, Musgrave, 1956) will also be discussed. The conclusions drawn here will suggest that the trade offs arising among different types of visitors, make more complex the management of cultural sites, as well as much more problematic the current debate on the relationship between democracy and opportunities for cultural experiences.