Festival Tourism of Folk Group Dancers from Selected Countries of the World

Introduction. Artistic trips and tourism are inseparable parts of the activity of folk groups associated in CIOFF® . Folk festivals organised around the world give folk groups a chance to learn about traditions and customs and to come into close contact with indigenous people. The correlation between tourism and activity of folk groups is visible mainly with regard to selected forms of cognitive tourism. The aim of the work was to present the destinations and frequency of artistic trips of CIOFF® folk groups from selected countries of the world. Trips to dance festivals abroad and their connection with heritage tourism were analysed. Material and methods. The study with the use of a diagnostic poll including a questionnaire, interview and document analysis was carried out in July and August 2010. 243 dancers and 16 instructorschoreographers of dance groups from 12 randomly selected countries of the world participated in the study. Results and

conclusions. Folk festivals under the auspices of CIOFF® are organised on all the continents. Artistic trips of folk groups from 12 selected countries were most frequently organised on the “old continent”. A small percentage of dancers from European countries had an opportunity to participate in festivals outside Europe. Artistic trips of the groups were connected with heritage tourism, while travelling became one of the reasons for participating in folk dance classes.