engleski

Residents' response to tourism development: a case study of Varaždin

With increasing tourism activity in a destination the possibility arises of adverse impacts on the local residents, and this in turn is likely to create a hostile social environment for visitors. Accordingly, to develop or re-invent a destination, residents must be brought into the destination planning process. Conversely, a host community positively disposed to tourism is likely to enhance tourists&#8217 ; ; ; satisfaction with their visit and increase destination attractiveness (Fredline and Faulkner 2000). While destinations need to regularly monitor these impacts and manage them accordingly, emerging tourism destinations with a relatively low number of visitors can accommodate residents&#8217 ; ; ; views and preferences from the very outset of tourism development. Such was the case of the Croatian town of Varaždin, where evaluation of residents&#8217 ; ; ; attitudes to tourism and their tourism development preferences was an integral step in developing a tourism vision for the town. Varaždin is known in Croatia as a baroque capital possessing an attractive historic core, a castle, and a cemetery well known for its landscape architecture. Its citizens are proud of their town as it is nationally recognised for its rich cultural life, school of classical music, festival of baroque music, and a number of museums and galleries. Also, several well-know artists originate from Varaždin. It is a popular destination for school excursions, related to its educational value, while close proximity to the major urban centre of Zagreb ensures a steady flow of weekend visitors. Overnight visitors are mostly business travelers and hunters, the former due to strong industrial and financial sectors, and the latter attracted by rich hunting grounds in the surrounding countryside. In 1991, just before the outbreak of violence in Croatia, 70, 000 bed-nights were recorded in Varaždin (Institute for Tourism 2002). Following cessation of independence-related hostilities in 1995, tourism has been recovering slowly. By 2001, 15.5 thousand overnight visitors stayed in Varaždin, realising 32, 000 bed-nights. The population of Varaždin is about 50, 000, but it is mostly an ageing population that lives in the old baroque centre that is the major focus of tourism, commerce, education and retailing. Although it is, after the capital of Zagreb, the second most popular tourism destination in the continental Croatia (as opposed to the Adriatic coast), Varaždin has difficulty meeting visitor needs. In this context, the town&#8217 ; ; ; s tourism officials considered it important to have any future tourism development planned and coordinated so that all participants in the process work from a common platform. This led to the commencement of research concerning resident attitudes and preferences, in support of a visioning exercise to determine appropriate tourism developments. The Institute for Tourism - Zagreb, a government-sponsored organization, was contracted to undertake this work. Specific research objectives were to ascertain the following: (a) attitudes towards tourism development in the town ; (b) residents&#8217 ; ; ; opinions of the various elements of town&#8217 ; ; ; s tourism product ; (c) what tourism development options are preferred among residents, and (d) to investigate any variations in residents&#8217 ; ; ; responses. Method In May 2001 a face-to-face interviews of 400 residents were conducted within the boundaries of the town of Varaždin. Households were sampled using stratified, random sampling, wherein the town was divided into ten zones with approximately same number of households to ensure that each household had an equal probability of being selected. Of the 400 households approached, 301 surveys were completed successfully, representing a response rate of 75 per cent. The survey instrument consisted of several sections of which three are reported here: (1) nineteen statements, based on the Weber et al (2002) scale, to evaluate residents&#8217 ; ; ; opinion&#8217 ; ; ; about various aspects of Varaždin&#8217 ; ; ; s tourism product ; (2) opinions about eleven tourism development options derived from a focus group with tourism sector representatives , and (3) eleven statements on tourism&#8217 ; ; ; s socio-economic impacts selected from a scale developed by Tomljenovic and Faulkner (2000 For all statements a five-point Liker-type scale was used, with 1 meaning complete disagreement and five meaning complete agreement with the statements ; the mid-point indicated no opinion on the issue. Data and Analysis In general, the aspects of Varaždin that most residents agree to be &#8220 ; ; ; excellent&#8221 ; ; ; were the town&#8217 ; ; ; s attractiveness, its cultural attractions and personal safety. They considered cultural manifestations, friendliness of locals, quality maintenance of public spaces, and gastronomy to be very good. However, what they considered to be very poor or poor were entertainment and shopping opportunities, quality of accommodation and information provision, parking and signage. When asked about further development of the city, only 7 per cent responded that they would like to restrict tourism development, as opposed to 49 per cent who wanted to halt further industrial development. As well, 44% wanted to see urban development restricted. Therefore it is likely that investment in improvements of the facets of tourism product that residents thought were inferior would meet with their approval. In the second section of the survey, respondents were presented with a list of tourism development options in order to measure their level of support for each option. This was considered important as various types of tourism development have different levels of impingement on the quality of life of residents, and because residents are more likely to support tourism that is compatible with their aspirations and preferences. Thus, reflecting the strong cultural tradition of the town of Varaždin, residents&#8217 ; ; ; support for developing Varaždin as cultural and educational destination was strongest. There was also considerable support for developing it as a family destination, festival city, and gastronomic centre. However, a third of respondents opposed developing it as an entertainment destination, and an additional third did not have a clear opinion on this option - perhaps indicating that any development in this direction is likely to be opposed by a sizeable proportion of residents. Finally, majority of residents agreed that tourism is an important contributor to the economy of the region, and a generator of employment. Even though only 8 per cent of respondents reported deriving direct economic benefits of tourism, almost half agreed that tourism should become a leading economic activity in Varaždin. Respondents also supported investment in tourism infrastructure as well as tourism promotion. It is considered important that 70 per cent strongly agreed and an additional 23 percent agreed with statement &#8220 ; ; ; I would like to see an increase in the number of visitors.&#8221 ; ; ; Variations in residents&#8217 ; ; ; responses were then investigated, following a framework advanced by Faulkner and Tideswell (1996). Those researchers proposed that besides an extrinsic dimension relating to the characteristics of a destination, residents&#8217 ; ; ; reactions also depend on intrinsic factors, such as length and place of residence, tourism involvement and socio-demographic characteristics The Varaždin analysis revealed that, contrary to expectations, residents living in close proximity to tourism activity were even more prone to acknowledge the economic contribution of tourism and wanted to see larger numbers of visitors. Likewise, they were more likely to support development of the town as an entertainment centre, including nightlife, as well as a shopping centre. This was surprising because these residents are likely to be the most affected by the associated noise, congestion and possible unruly behaviour of visitors. As expected, and consistent with results of similar studies (Ap 1992) those deriving direct economic benefit from tourism tended to agree more that tourism made a substantial contribution to the economy and employment. Finally, there were minimal variations in responses related to length of residence. This is likely explained by the fact that population of Varaždin is quite stable, with 61 per cent of respondents having resided in town more than thirty years. Conclusions The insights derived from this study provide essential information for tourism planning purposes, as the research indicated what residents think of existing tourism product and how they foresee the contribution of tourism to the economy and quality of life of Varaždin. Given that many destinations throughout the world are facing the issue of repositioning themselves on the tourism market or changing their image, knowledge of residents&#8217 ; ; ; reactions to development options should become an integral part of their tourism planning process.

tourism; tourism development; Varaždin

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