engleski

THE ROLE OF STAKEHOLDERS IN CREATING NEW VALUES OF PRIVATE SECTOR ACCOMMODATION IN CROATIA

The accommodation capacity in private accommodation facilities in the Republic of Croatia accounts for half of total accommodation capacity and encompasses 470, 000 registered beds in about 60, 000 households. The disorganization and lack of mutual cooperation between stakeholders in the field of private accommodation combined inadequate professional skills significantly restrict competition in general and business performance of these facilities. The paper analyses historical development and context in which this segment of tourist supply emerged. Furthermore, modality of private accommodation regulation and governance in Croatia is focus of the research. This is one of the most active parts of the Croatian micro- entrepreneurship where citizens themselves for many years were forming new values for their families and future generations as well. The importance of private accommodation as an equal stakeholder in the national tourism was acknowledged only in the last few years when this sub-sector finally obtained appropriate segment in the Croatian Development Strategy of Tourism by 2020. Benefits of association and collaboration may be best seen on the example of the micro and small entrepreneurs in tourism. In order to explore the challenges facing the key stakeholders involved in the private accommodation supply in-debt interviews with 15 major stakeholders from the destinations with a share of private accommodation of over 70% were conducted within this research. Structure of the interviewed subjects is following: five private renters, two subjects from the public authority, one representative of tourist board system, intermediary in the sale of private accommodation and other service providers including the citizens' associations in the area of professional associations and private renters. The study also seeks to demonstrate that within unfavourable conditions for doing business and in a situation of economic crisis of the national economy micro entrepreneurs in private accommodation represent a significant, but still under-exploited, potential of Croatian tourism. Visibility and competitiveness of the entire Croatian tourism product can be improved significantly within this segment of the supply under precondition of the improvement in the quality of service and by active cooperation of all stakeholders.

competitiveness, cooperation, Croatia, private sector accommodation

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