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Fantastic Creatures and Their Valorisation in Tourism : Example of Istria

Modern tourism is a global phenomenon undergoing constant change. Tourism is now turning away from the classical concept of "satisfaction industry" and focusing on the concept of "experience industry". One of the new motives behind travel has become the need to escape, fantasise, undertake "mental and spiritual journeys into other worlds", expressed as an interest in experiencing the mystical, the fantastical and as fear of the unknown and of other possible worlds and beings. By applying a multidisciplinary approach, this paper intends to further the valorisation of these precious elements of traditional heritage – mythical creatures, fantastic beings, folk legends and myths – in tourism, thereby opening up possibilities of creating new, original, genuine tourism products. The authors illustrate their hypothesis on the example of Istria. This region has a highly developed tourism in the classic sense of the word, but has also enormous potential to develop special interest tourism, based especially on its cultural wealth, which is reflected in various elements of (im)material cultural heritage. This paper singles out fantastic figures from folk tales, such as Jure Grando – the vampire from Kringa, the "oldest vampire in Europe recorded by full name". This paper intends also to encourage further research in this direction and in this respect advises the use of a multidisciplinary and trans-disciplinary approach.

fantastic creatures and their valorisation in tourism ; preservation of traditional immaterial cultural heritage through tourism ; cultural tourism

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