engleski

The role of forests in view in coastal destination attractiveness

Croatian coast and the islands are the most popular and the most developed tourism destinations in Croatia. More than 80% of all registered overnights in Croatia is realized along that area annually. Several research results have shown that rest and relaxation on the seaside is the main motive for the majority of guests to come to destinations along the coast and on the islands. The main activity of guests in those destinations is swimming and bathing that is enabled by mild and pleasant climate and weather conditions. But besides enjoying in the sea and marine environment, enjoying the beauty of the landscape have also been ranked high among guests&#8217 ; ; motives to visit coastal destinations: at the second place in 1997 and at the third place in 2001. The landscape of the area consists of sea and land. The land, both coast and the islands, is characterized by the specific Mediterranean scenery - stone and greenery that is represented by forests, dense evergreen underbrush and agriculture areas like vineyards and olive-groves. The importance of the greenery of the area in destinations&#8217 ; ; tourism attractiveness is confirmed by the research focused on content analysis of promotional brochures of the Croatian coast and islands. The analysis resulted with the motive of sea as the most represented motive on the photos, followed by motive of forests and greenery as the second represented one &#8211 ; ; forests were represented on 68% of all analyzed photos. The image of &#8220 ; ; green coast&#8221 ; ; , that comprises to the some extent the comparative advantage of the area over the competitive destinations on the Mediterranean, is also recognized by the tourists &#8211 ; ; following blue and white color and the fragrance of sea, the majority of tourists stated green color and the fragrance of pine wood as their image of Croatian coast in general. Unfortunately, that &#8220 ; ; green&#8221 ; ; factor of natural beauty and attractiveness of the area is today the most endangered part of the Mediterranean landscape and ambient in Croatia due to frequent forests fires that happen each year. In those fires annually disappear huge areas of forests and other greenery. In addition, those forests, due to type of species that dominate, do not have any timber or industrial value. In order to justify the expenses for their better protection, their value should be primarily recognized in their ambient value valorized through the tourism of the area and in the other non-market goods such as biodiversity, prevention of soil erosion, humus creation, positive influence on microclimate, etc. The research that confirmed the ambient value of those forests was conducted under the World Bank and Croatian Government &#8220 ; ; Coastal Forests Reconstruction and Protection Project&#8221 ; ; that lasted several years. Because of various forms of forested landscape along the area due to forest types, terrain types that cause different visibility of forests etc., the focus of the research had been &#8220 ; ; forests in view&#8221 ; ; defined as any forests more than 300 meters away visible from tourist destinations. Tourists are usually not using those forests other than enjoying in their visual perception as a part of the local landscape. This paper will present the research conducted throughout the 1995-2001 period in order to assess the role of forests in view, i.e. forests outside destinations, in Croatian coastal tourism. Besides the qualitative analysis of the position of forests in view among other factors of coastal destination attractiveness assessed through the extensive survey among tourists and in-depth interview with hotel managers, the paper will also address the influence of relative increase of forests in view on hotel room rates using a hedonic price method. The survey on coastal destination attractiveness factors was conducted on 1330 tourists staying at three main types of accommodation facilities (hotels, campsites and private accommodation activities). The survey was conducted in 26 tourist destinations along the Croatian coast and the islands. The respondents were evaluating the importance of seventeen different factors of overall tourist destination attractiveness on the 4-point scale (very important, important, not quite important and unimportant). In addition, tourists were ranking five factors of destination picturesqueness, as one of attractiveness factors. The analysis showed that beauty of natural landscape is the second most important factor of coastal destination attractiveness for tourists, while the first one is climate and weather. Although coastal forests are inseparable part of the natural landscape and its visual perception that is characteristic for the Croatian coast, they were not recognized by themselves as the important factor of destination attractiveness. Out of 17 attractiveness factors, the visibility of Mediterranean forests was ranked thirteenth. When asked to more precisely define the picturesqueness of a destination, that was ranked sixth among all destination attractiveness factors, the high majority of the respondents (86%) considered the beauty of sea and coast as the most important factor of destination picturesqueness, but again, the importance of forests in view for the picturesqueness of a destination was put on the last, fifth place. The similar results were obtained through the in-depth interview with hotel managers. Interviewed were 71 three-star hotel managers in 33 destinations along the coast and on the islands. The interview addressed the most important factors that influence hotel room rate, and specifically the role of forests in view in the overall attractiveness of a hotel. Although forests in view were recognized as a factor that may influence the attractiveness of a hotel, their influence on hotel room rate was not stated. The hedonic price method was conducted on the same set of hotels used in the in-depth interview with hotel managers. The dependent variable, hotel room rate, was defined as room rate per person per night in a double room (based on a one-week stay) with half-board, during main season (July, August). Collected were separately hotel room rates for the rooms facing sea (rooms with sea view) and facing &#8220 ; ; park&#8221 ; ; (rooms without sea view). The independent variables were describing: (1) hotel facilities, (2) condition and maintenance of a hotel, (3) outside look of hotel, i.e. how hotel fits the environment, (4) micro location of a hotel, (5) hotel services, (6) green areas around hotel and (7) forests in view from hotel. In order to assess the visibility of forests from the hotel, two different variables were defined: (1) forests in view when facing sea and (2) forests in view when facing inland. Those variables were describing the relative &#8220 ; ; amount&#8221 ; ; of visible land that was under forests. According to the percentage of forested area visible from the hotel there were three possible categories: 0-10%, 11-50%, and >50% forested area. The hotels were altogether described with 42 different variables. The set of independent variables was identified based on the experts&#8217 ; ; assessment of the Institute for Tourism Zagreb, and on the information that are usually listed in brochures presenting resort hotels. The values assigned to the most independent variables describing hotels were subjective judgements by the researchers, assessed through several iterations. The univariate analysis of hotel room rates showed a significant influence of forests in view on room rates, both for the rooms with and without sea view. Hotels with more forests in view had significantly higher room rates. The multivariate effect of relative increase in &#8220 ; ; forest in view&#8221 ; ; areas on hotel room rates was estimated using double-log form of hedonic price function. The analysis resulted with the significant impact of the ambient value of those forests on hotel room rates and showed that the improvement of the ambient value of forests could bring better business results. The conducted research confirmed the present role of forests in Croatian tourism supply but also recognized their greater possibilities that should be taken much more advantage from &#8211 ; ; from the creation of new tourism products and increasing the competitiveness of destinations to the extension of main season.

tourism; forests; destination attractiveness; Croatia

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