Cultural tourism resource base: traditions, current status

The paper reviews the main issues of defining the concept of cultural tourism in the context of its historical and sociocultural significance. Cultural heritage sites are classified according to the material and spiritual historical and cultural values. The study defines the objects of cultural tourism including the peculiar, one-of-a-kind and original world of the person generated through the awareness of the development of the people's unique original culture (architecture, sculpture and painting, archaeological findings, man-made aesthetic, ethnological and anthropological creations). The research reveals the incentives of popular cultural tourism related to the need for broadening the outlook, promoting cultural relations and international cooperation which form a holistic view of culture, customs and traditions of other peoples. The author's definition of cultural tourism is presented.