engleski

Destination, an important topic of the EU tourism policy

First and foremost the authors summarize main aspects of a contemporary concept of tourist destination starting from a historical retrospective and deriving the relatively recent term from its classical paradigm &#8211 ; ; ; the tourist resort. Any kind of locality suitable to meet, by means of its own resources a specific demand thus building a commercial unit on the market can be called a tourist destination. The authors then present a theoretical framework of the so-called destination research and point to a classification of destinations and their choice. Those interested in visiting them are permanently influenced by various trends, which change rapidly and have to be carefully monitored. Quite a number of destinations cope with the image problem due to different risks that stop the influx of visitors for a shorter or longer period causing serious other difficulties on local, regional and national levels. In the following chapter, an overview of basic EU documents on tourism is given citing them and briefly describing their contents. They have been quite frequent in the last two decades and will no doubt be promulgated also in the years to come. Europe, as the leading generating and host macroregion, particularly member states of the European Union, has an outstanding position in global tourism. Therefore they cannot neglect the manifold importance of tourism in their economies and society in general. Tourism assumed also a very specific mission as an inevitable factor in the unification process and in the creation of the common European identity. The Union nowadays has a tourism policy of its own although numerous obstacles in its evolution have been noticed. That&#8217 ; ; ; s why some of the principles and achievements of that policy have also to be emphasized and explained in the paper. An important step forward was taken with the establishment of some bodies within the European Commission with responsibilities in the field of tourism, which took various initiatives in setting a framework for common actions. Special measures were introduced including programs in tourism and related sectors together with their funding systems, respectively implementation mechanisms. In general, many EU programs and policies affect tourism due to its overall importance to growth, earnings and employment. Furthermore, some of priority subjects in different medium- or long-term work programs include tourist destinations directly or indirectly. The European Commission aims particularly to foster tourism&#8217 ; ; ; s competitiveness, sustainability and quality. In that context, the authors have chosen a couple of topics, which illustrate an increased interaction with destinations. They will therefore concentrate on the environment, regional development, quality concepts and cultural policies, all elements with strong links to resorts, their resources and management. There can be no future&#8211 ; ; ; oriented tourism policy without a sustainable approach which includes both a sound natural and man&#8211 ; ; ; made environment and a total quality for all marketed products and services. The paper points to some strategic tourism development patterns, also with regard to third countries in their efforts to comply with the standards of the European Union and eventually join her as associate or full-fledged members.

tourism policy; tourism destination; EU; Croatia

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