engleski

Sustainable Rural Tourism at the Mediterranean’s Doorstep: A Case Study of the Lika Region (Croatia)

The key objective of this paper is to detect and explore potentially sustainable forms of rural tourism in Croatia’s traditional region of Lika. Primarily by using secondary (the desk method, which implies the use of already existing, available data) and, in particular, primary (semi-structured interview) data sources, efforts were made to explore, first and foremost, the social context of the initial stages in the development of sustainable rural tourism. The main purpose of data gathering and analysis was to identify the social actors in the current stage of sustainable rural tourism, the developmental potential for sustainable rural tourism and the potential problems in the further development of sustainable rural tourism. The primary findings of the paper may be summarized as it follows: firstly, rural tourism in Lika functions in synergy with other economic activities in the rural area and does not represent the backbone of the local economy, but rather an additional source of income for its communities, as well as a way of distributing local products ; secondly, the private actors in tourism have assumed their ideas from other (developed) countries, as they put cooperation and synergy ahead of innovation and competitiveness in first place in order to achieve the successful development of sustainable rural tourism. In conclusion, the traditional region of Lika is a sort of testing ground for the implementation of sustainable development and tourism in this early stage. The presented developmental actors in Lika do not significantly change the tourism map of Croatia. These actors do not have particular economic significance at the county level, but are examples of sound, sustainable practices. They are a viable alternative to mass tourism.

local communities, sustainable development, sustainable rural tourism, traditional region

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