The main purpose of this research was to examine the impact of cultural tourism on the tourist development of the city of Split. The first part of the paper presents the problem and the subject of research, hypotheses, goals and contributions of the work, and the methods used in the work. Theoretically, the concepts of culture and cultural tourism and the history of cultural tourism have been analyzed, and then the cultural tourism situation in Croatia has been specifically elaborated through cultural strategies and trends. The cultural tourism market in the area of Split-Dalmatia County was further explored, and a detailed analysis of the city of Split as a cultural center represented through the prism of material and immaterial cultural resources. After completing the theoretical part, two questionnaires were compiled by the local population and business entities of the city of Split. The results of the survey through the survey questionnaire were processed in the SPSS statistical program. Four out of five hypotheses are accepted according to the results of the research, which means that cultural tourism has a positive impact on tourism development and the image of the city of Split as a tourist destination.