engleski

CONVERTING SURVIVING BUILDINGS INTO HERITAGE HOTELS: THE CASE OF CROATIA

The growing importance of tourism’s cultural function within the area of tourism demand has motivated numerous accommodation service providers to create an offer that would attract the members of this increasing segment of the tourism market. The Republic of Croatia boasts an exceptionally valuable cultural and historic heritage that renders itself as a platform for tourism development. However, until the present moment this exceptional cultural and historic resource has not been adequately valorised in many destinations in Croatia. Nevertheless, in the recent decade numerous deserted and seedy buildings in old town centres have undergone revitalisation processes to be converted into hotels. These heritage hotels have been designed in accordance with the legal stipulations and to reflect the traditional furnishing. By creating a new tourism product based on authentic experience, small heritage hotels can formulate true answers to the demands of the modern tourists. The paper examines and analyses the position and the role of small heritage hotels in Croatia within the framework of total accommodation offer and their role in the development of the areas with lesser tourism development and assess their contribution to sustainable development in the already developed tourism destinations. For that purpose, case analyses, comparative methods and descriptive statistics have been used, as well as in-depth interviews with the owners or directors of the selected heritage hotels in the Republic of Croatia.

heritage hotels; small hotels; sustainable tourism development; Croatia

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