engleski

Assessment of opporutnities and assumptions of the Croatian health tourism development

The purpose of this study is to point out that the possibilities of health tourism development in Croatia are not yet sufficiently explored, which raises the opportunities for entrepreneurship to be more involved in the global health tourism business network. Design / methodology / approach: The paper seeks to capture the main elements of competitiveness of health-tourism destination business, highlighted in the general literature, applicable in good practice and identified during the research survey. The research was conducted in 2011, in the “Kvarner” county, one of the most developed tourist destination in Croatia which has natural resources and long tradition in health tourism. The sample included 4016 participants, of whom 1989 tourists, 1770 inhabitants and 257 managers. Data will be compared with research results of a related study conducted in 2006. Croatian resources and potential for development of health tourism will be assessed on the basis of globally accepted standards. Findings: Research results show that basic resources for development of health-tourism in Croatian tourist destinations exist, however these opportunities are not used enough and they offer a significant area for the development of entrepreneurship. Research limitations/implications: Future research should be focused on deeper investigating the relationship between entrepreneurship and principles of sustainability in health tourism, without which it cannot be competitive in the global tourism market. Practical implications: Outcomes of this research have great implications for the practice of tourism development in Croatia, and its position in the world tourism market. Health tourism provides a higher degree of capacity utilization in tourist destinations by prolonging the season, but also provides development of other destinations that have significant natural resources or other factors. This may have substantial economic impacts. Social implications: Impact of this research can be significant for improving the life quality of local people, based on the assumption that it contributes in changing the way they take care of their bodies, minds, spirit, the society and the planet. The development of health tourism contributes significantly to preventing illnesses and raising overall employment. Since health tourism can be developed only in tourist destinations that adhere to the principles of sustainable development, it can contribute to introducing a sustainable development policy in other related industries and change the behaviour of stakeholders at the destination level. Originality/value: The original contribution is in assessing the Kvarner tourism offer as a basis for modelling entrepreneurship goals of increasing the health-tourism offer and enabling Croatia to become a part of global business network of the health-tourism cluster.

Health Tourism; Tourist Destination; Entrepreneurship; Croatia; Kvarner

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