engleski

The Significance of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Croatian Tourism Supply

The transition period in Croatia started at the beginning of the 90's. The change was followed by a transformation of the country's whole economy. The most important task was probably to privatize and disintegrate state property and strengthen private property. As a result of this, the total number of hotel and restaurant enterprises increased 3.5 times over the last ten years. Business recession conditions at activity levels enhanced the real boom of small enterprises. The increased market shares of small enterprises was realized exclusively on the basis of the market share of large enterprises, whose drastic decrease was influenced by transformation and privatization. Although SMEs have serious problems (lack of capital, loan problems, unsuitably trained workforce, complex regulations, etc.), there future lies in a globalization world. SMEs are able, due to their small size, to act flexibly and to find a niche market where they can provide personal services, which is a key point in the tourism industry. Tourism SMEs cannot overcome the obstacles presented by the process of internationalisation of demand on their own. Therefore, the paper explores the current situation as the basis for determining future directions of development for this important part of the Croatian tourism supply, and the manner in which small and medium-sized enterprises can counter threatening trends and developments under competitive pressure.

Croatia; transition; SME; tourist sector; globalisation

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