„NEMESI” TURIZMUS HÁROMSZÉKEN?

Abstract

In the communication manifestations of tourism destination marketing promoting Covasna
County in Romania, we occasionally come across the terms noble tourism, aristocratic
hospitality, mostly in contexts which describe the use of former noble mansions or aristocratic
castles as a tourist attraction or accommodation. In our study, we first interpret the theoretical
(product development) interdependencies of castle tourism in the context of cultural heritage
tourism and the management of the specialty-based hotel products. As a second step, we focus
on the situation of the mansions and castles in Háromszék, presenting recent development
efforts and attempts to engage them in tourism. The third part of our paper contains the results
of an exploratory research, during which we examine the communication of the owners and
operators of castles and mansions, through various online and other channels. Our aim is to
explore what contents (images, texts) and messages are published, how coherent they are and
what contradictions can be discovered between the objectives of the tourism actors and the
visible content, as well as against the marketing efforts of the region. Finally, we make
suggestions, in a more normative approach, in which we explain what communication policy
we think there should be pursued by the various tourism actors in the region.