Cultural Heritage: Its Components, Role and Importance in Cultural Tourism Development - The Specific Case of Kosovo

This paper aims to address the components, role and importance of cultural heritage in the cultural tourism development, analyzing Kosovo and its cultural heritage as a specific case.The favorable geostrategic position and natural resources have made Kosovo, although a small country, stand out with its rich cultural heritage.Currently, Kosovo has (23) cultural heritage assets under permanent protection and about 1590 more under temporary protection.A study has been carried out regarding the impact of Kosovo's potential for the cultural tourism development and knowledge of cultural heritage on the frequency of tourist visits for cultural purposes.The findings of this study have shown that Kosovo's potential for the cultural tourism development has an impact on tourist visits for cultural purposes and the higher the level of knowledge about Kosovo's cultural heritage, the more frequent the tourist visits for cultural purposes.It turned out that Kosovo has sufficient potential for the cultural tourism development and the level of knowledge of the respondents about the cultural heritage of Kosovo is sufficient.Also, it was found that in 70.0% of cases, the frequency of visits to monuments of the cultural and historical heritage of Kosovo is 1-5 times a year.