Specialised hotel as a tourist attraction

Purpose – The paper researches aspects of specialised hotels in culture and tourism destinations and their perception as tourist attractions. The goal of the research is to determine in what measure cultural and historical characteristics affect specialised hotel competitiveness and in what way and to what extent hotel management includes cultural and historical heritage in the tourism destinations' total product. The paper examines aspects of organisation of hotels as tourist attractions, the level of their attractiveness, as well as their positioning among tourism destinations. Methodology – Using scientific quantitative and qualitative methods, the aspects affecting the positioning of hotels as tourist attractions are researched in the paper; international examples are presented using analytical methodology, hotel management's attitudes are examined using the interview method, while tourists' opinions on hotels as tourist attractions are researched using survey methodology, accompanied by statistical methods. Conclusions which point to new scientific knowledge are formed by combining the creative thinking technique with different scientific methods. Findings – The research results have an impact on the formation of scientific knowledge in the area of organisation of specialised hotels as tourist attractions, as well as on the identification of key core competences such facilities should possess in order to be perceived as tourist attractions in tourism destinations. Contribution – The paper represents a valuable contribution to the investigation into the impact of organisation and marketing activities of hotel and destination stakeholders in tourism destinations. The concept of considering specialised hotels as tourist attractions is a new approach to designing the destination offer and requires further research and development.