The topic of this thesis is the experience economy in cultural tourism. Through the paper I tried to bring closer and explain the basic concepts and components of this thesis, namely: experience economy, which is actually the last dominant phase in development of the economy, tourism, not only as one of the most recognizable concepts of the economy, but also of the modern world, and cultural tourism as a form of tourism that is extremely important today and whose popularity is constantly growing. The thesis itself consists of seven chapters, of which, apart from conclusion, each has its own subchapters. The paper begins with an introduction that introduces the topic of the economy of experience in cultural tourism. The basics and general direction in which this thesis will go are given, the problem and subject of work are defined, then the goals and hypotheses are set and sources and methods of collecting data are listed. The introduction is followed by a chapter on the economy of experience, where I will define what is the economy of experience and what is actually an experience. Next I will present historical aspects of development of the economy of experience, measurement models and elements of experience in tourism. The topic of the next chapter is the basics of tourism, and here I will explain the definitions of tourism, list the selective forms of tourism and present the tourism purposes and motives. This is followed by a chapter on cultural tourism where I will clarify the concepts of cultural tourism and cultural tourist, list their typologies and characteristics, list the motives of cultural tourists and end the chapter with a review of culture and cultural heritage. With the last theoretical chapter on the development of cultural tourism and the economy of experience in the Republic of Croatia, I will put all of the above in the context of Croatian tourism and look at its development opportunities in the Republic of Croatia. The penultimate chapter forms the backbone of the work and presents an empirical research conducted with a questionnaire with two basic hypotheses. The results of this research are discussed with a note on the limitations of the research itself. The paper ends with a conclusion in which I will give my final review and a conclusion of the topic.