engleski

Intensity of exploitation and quality of seaside (coastal, island) and inland tourist destinations in Croatia: An empirical insight

Longitudinal data collected during the seven-year of empirical evaluation (2007–2013) within the project The flower of tourism – Quality for Croatia (conducted by Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences in collaboration with Croatian Chamber of Economy and Croatian Television) enabled comparison of the Croatian tourist destinations on 11 dimensions of the tourism supply chain. Destinations were judged by trained evaluators (two per destination) during peak summer season, using standardized rating protocol. Quality ratings enabled answer on two research questions stated in this paper: first, does Croatia’s general orientation toward seaside tourism reflects in higher quality of seaside (coastal and island) destinations in comparison with inland ones ; second, is this orientation sustainable, i.e. does high tourism intensity causes any negative effects on quality in tourist destinations, as a by-product of the overcapacity. Results showed that answer to the first question is positive: seaside destinations are better evaluated on each of the 11 dimensions, as well as in general. In addition, results also showed that too intensive exploitation diminish quality of seaside destinations ; this is not the case with inland destinations, which are still under exploited.

tourist destination, Croatia, quality, exploitation

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