ABSTRACT
Building on the work of the sociologist Dean MacCannell, Leiper (1990: 370) defined a tourist attraction as a system comprising three elements: a tourist, a nucleus or attraction, and a marker. Each plays a fundamental role in explaining how places attract tourists and how tourists consume sites. The tourist is the central part of the system, for without tourists places would not be thought of as attractions. He explains that the essence of touristic behaviour involves searching for satisfying experiences away from home, which can be achieved through consuming suitable attractions. This issue is critical for it reminds us that successful attractions must be meaningful to tourists. Many cultural attractions fail as tourism products because tourists do not understand their significance, consider them common and easily substitutable, or cannot relate to them. The nucleus itself represents the second element of the attractions system. A nucleus is defined as any feature or characteristic of a place that a traveller contemplates visiting or actually visits. The use of the word ‘nucleus’ rather than ‘attraction’ is intentional, for it deviates significantly from accepted definitions of attractions as specific, named places that are managed for tourists. Instead, a nucleus is a broader term which captures the touristic experience more fully. Enjoying streetscapes, wandering through historic neighbourhoods, eating different foods, or participating in activities that are developed primarily for the benefit of local residents (such as local festivals) are legitimate and highly sought after tourism activities that do not fit the standard definition of an attraction. It is also important to appreciate that tourists rarely travel for the exclusive purpose of seeking a singular experience that can be satisfied by one nucleus. Instead, most people seek a combination of nuclei to satisfy their multiple needs and wants. Thus, the idea of the ‘nuclear mix’ emerges to reflect the role that different attractions, activities, and experiences play.
