engleski

Eco-tourism in function of increasing competitive advantages of the Republic of Croatia as a tourist destination

The tourist product of the Republic of Croatia is still based exclusively on the mass offer principle. Significant efforts have been invested recently in the creation of a new tourist offer which has to contribute to the recognisibility of the Republic of Croatia on the world tourist market, as an eco-tourist destination with a unique offer, oriented towards preserving the environment, climate, sea, and the traditional way of life of the local community. The Republic of Croatia has to base its tourist product on selective forms of the tourist offer, which fulfill the needs and desires of modern guests, and provide the possibility for faster adjustement to modern tourist movements. The Republic of Croatia has well-preserved natural and ecological resources, especially in rural areas, which have so far been economically undeveloped. It has a well-preserved natural basis, which is the basis for ecological tourism development. This will enable economic prosperity of the Republic of Croatia, and preserve the existing natural spatial resources. An ecologically aware tourist is a person who devotes big attention to nature, and influences the environment, local community, and cultural- historical heritage of the visited area to the smallest possible extent. Special attention in all future development strategies has to be placed on ecologically sustainable traffic infrastructures. In order to provide analysis of development potentials of the eco-tourist offer of the Republic of Croatia, SWOT analysis, secondary statistic databases, and global practical examples will also be taken into consideration. A possible strategy of development of eco-tourist offer of the Republic of Croatia will be developed through the creation of standards and valorisation of the eco-tourist offer, while upholding all the particularities of the Republic of Croatia, which have not been used sufficiently in its tourist offer. The new tourist product has to be based on the 3E principle - ethics, ecology, environment. Sustainable development mechanisms have to be implemented, without them, there is no ecotourism and eco-tourist offer. The purpose of the paper is to present positive effects of ecotourism as unavoidable factor of modern tourist offer. The goal of the paper is through the suggestion of possible strategy of development of ecotourism to build more dynamic and more successful tourist offer of Republic of Croatia as a tourist destination.

ecotourism ; eco-tourist ; Republic of Croatia ; tourist destination ; tourist offer

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