engleski

How changing lifestyles impact the development of some special interests of tourism : The case of SPA tourism in Croatia

Over the last decade, economy has been witnessing many changes (more sophisticated, more demanding customers, new life style patterns, increasing competition, etc.) in all areas, from production to service sector. The purpose of this paper is to present the impact of those new trends in the sector of tourism which was reflected through the development of some special interests of tourism. Among them, health tourism and spa tourism play important roles due to inadequate life conditions and modern diseases. One of the objectives of this paper is to investigate the influence of the market orientation on the development of spa (thermal) tourism in Croatia. Other goals of the paper involve the quality of hotel services, the quality of services offered out of hotels, etc. The paper reports the findings of the study conducted on the sample of 159 spas customers in continental part of Croatia ; the spa thermal centres of Hrvatsko zagorje region. Among many important findings, the paper suggests the need for repositioning of those thermal centres from traditional healing destinations to tourist and recreational centres with prevention and rehabilitation.

Hrvatsko zagorje ; spa ; quality ; offer ; lifestyle

Rad je prezentiran kao predavanje na skupu The fifth International Conference for Consumer Behaviour and Retailing Research (Circle) ; održanomu od 26.-29.03.2008.g., Nicosia, Cipar ; uz međunarodnu recenziju objavljen u Zborniku radova ; Claudio Vignali, ur. ; Darwen, Lancashire ; 2008. ; Access Press UK ; Special Issue: 5th CIRCLE Conference.