engleski

Tourism and Quality of Environment: towards the Sustainable Development

The topic of the paper is the analysis of the existing and potential tourism development impacts on the environment in Croatia, the country where the tourism is a dominant economic activity. Tourism development of Croatia is been seen in the context of sustainable development concept, with the main aim to significantly improve the welfare of the local residents. Unique landscapes and a wealth of diversities in a fairly small area – the islands, the coasts, woodlands, and mountains – provide for shaping a tourism offer capable of meeting the differing interests and desires of tourists of the twenty-first century. With regard to the environment, comprehensive efforts are being made to protect and preserve nature, and the necessity of development in accordance to the principles of sustainable development has been embraced across all levels. In the competitive world tourist market the quality of natural environment, its' preservation and attractiveness, i.e. ecological value of the Croatian tourist product will have a great importance. Therefore, the ecological values of Croatia are analyzed from two points of view: as a prerequisite for future tourism development and as an integral part of tourist product. The purpose of this paper is to point out the advantages and necessity to implement the set of environmental protection measures in order to preserve the uniqueness of the environment and long term economic success of tourism industry in Croatia. In order to measure the expectations and satisfaction of tourists in protected areas the survey was made in all national parks in Croatia, results of which will be presented in the paper.

sustainable development; serive quality; SERVQUAL; national parks; Croatia

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