Cultural tourism is nowadays considered the fastest growing market in tourism. The research was obtained to gain further insight about cultural tourists. The study explored cultural tourists in Portugal through investigating the profile, motivation and level of interest of cultural tourists, in the specific case of Silves. Silves is a small town in the Algarve region, and as the former Capital of the Algarve in the period when the Arabs were ruling, the town is left with Arabic Heritage.
The literature of cultural tourism revealed that further research is needed about the relation between the dependent variable of socio-demographics/trip characteristics and motivation and preferences for behavioural items of the cultural tourists.
A combination of primary and secondary research has been applied in order to examine the topic, achieve the objectives and test the hypotheses. For the primary research, a survey was carried out at the site of Silves in Portugal, whereby altogether 196 valid surveys were obtained.

Laura Duhme, M.A. was born in 1984 in Cologne/ Germany. After finishing high school she decided to study in the Netherlands, completing a study in Business Administration. During her study the author meet people with many different cultural backgrounds. The curiosity drove her to travel to many countries and even to study, work and live in seven, including Guatemala, Canada and Portugal. In England, she enjoyed an excellent university education, which she completed with distinction. Six years abroad has shaped her and given an extensive knowledge about different cultures, but also about travelling and the tourism industry.