engleski

Estimating Patterns of Golf Tourism Development in Continental Part of Croatia

Although Croatia is widely known for its sports achievements and a very long tradition in tourism development, golf in Croatia is still not recognized as an attractive means of leisure activity or as a valuable option for tourism product diversification, particularly when it comes to the continental part of the country. The purpose of this research was to assess the potentials of golf tourism development around traditional spa tourism destinations that have adequate natural resources and sufficient tourism infrastructure that could meet the high standards of contemporary golf tourism development. Two traditional spa tourism destinations with hot springs, namely Varaždinske Toplice in the north-western part and Bizovac in the eastern part of continental Croatia, have been selected as case studies for promoting the idea of integrating spa and golf tourism products among other spa tourism destinations in continental Croatia. In selection process, a special attention has been paid to the applicability of golf tourism offer to the existing spa tourism product in these destinations as well as the improvements that need to be done in order to provide high-end golf tourism experience. The methodology used in this research includes a conceptual modelling as well as secondary data and SWOT analyses. The majority of findings in this research go in favour of golf tourism development in these areas, especially when it comes to measuring economic benefits that outweigh the social and environmental concerns. The main limitation of this research lies with lack of reliable data and references to the literature. In spite of the fact that the concept of spa & golf tourism product is proven to be successful in the practice, from the body of available literature it is clearly evident that this area of research is still in the initial stage of development.

golf tourism ; spa destination ; tourism product diversification ; continental Croatia

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