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Identifying the Impacts of NPOs on Tourism in Order to Increase their Financial Sustainability

NPOs as associations of citizens gather individuals with the same or similar interests who come together to solve some present social problem. While having positive impact on life quality of a particular community, in a tourist destination they potentially improve the diversity and quality of tourist offer. Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the direct and indirect impact that NPO’s activities have or may have on tourism, to point out the possibility of funding their work through tourism and that way increase the level of self- earned funds and decrease their dependence on public funds. Methodology – Direct and indirect impacts of NPOs on tourism have been delimited according to the scope of activity by Register of Associations (NPOs). Data of the number of registered NPOs were compared with the tourist traffic in four major Croatian destinations by using a simple linear regression model for each of the four destinations. The four models were estimated using the OLS method. Findings – The results show that the number of NPOs has a significant influence on tourism traffic (tourist arrivals). Future research should focus on the defining the models of NPOs’ funding trough tourism in order to increase their financial sustainability. Originality of the research – This paper improves the existing knowledge with new theoretical contribution about the influence of NPOs in the field of tourism. The linkage between NPOs and tourism traffic was empirically tested on the sample of four major tourist destinations in Croatia. The paper provides the basis for NPO’s board members for reconsidering their positon within the tourism system and finding innovative and creative ways of connecting their activities with tourism for funding purposes.

NPOs, tourism, NPO funding, direct and indirect impact of NPOs

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