Hughes (1996) argues that cultural tourism "tends to be applied to trips whenever cultural resources are visited regardless of initial motivation. The term is limited, too, by a failure to include 'entertainment' (707). He classifies those tourists who want to "experience 'culture' in the sense of a distinct way of life" as "ethnic tourism" (707). However, I do not find this distinction particularly useful, at least for my limited purposes here.

I prefer the definition that Stebbins (1996) uses. He writes, "Cultural tourism is a genre of special interest tourism based on the search for and participation in new and deep cultural experiences, whether aesthetic, intellectual, emotional, or psychological" (948). I find this to be a useful definition, as it incorporates a variety of cultural forms, including museums, galleries, festivals, architecture, historic sites, artistic performances, and heritage sites, as well as any experience that brings one culture in contact with another for the specific purpose of that contact, in a touring situation.