Naslov
Evolution of tour operators' sustainable practices: From neglecting responsibility towards embracing policies

Autori
Čavlek, Nevenka ; Krajinović, Vanja ; Vlahov, Antonio

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u zbornicima skupova, cjeloviti rad (in extenso), znanstveni

Izvornik
Tourism in the VUCA world: Towards the era of (ir)responsibility / Marković Vukadin, Izidora ; Krešić, Damir - Zagreb : Institut za turizam, 2020, 14-25

ISBN
978-953-6145-45-4

Skup
International Tourism Conference: Tourism in the VUCA world: Towards the era of (ir)responsibility

Mjesto i datum
Dubrovnik, Hrvatska, 06.11.2019. - 09.11.2019

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
sustainable tourism development, tour operators, tourism destinations, tourism development

Sažetak
The concept of sustainable tourism development nowadays is faced with numerous challenges. Despite it being extensively researched, it nevertheless provides insufficient amount of answers when it comes to the stage of implementing sustainable practices into destination’s policies. Sustainability as a concept seems rather straightforward and therefore easily implemented into development strategies. However, if this was the case, destinations would not be faced with deteriorating quality of resources and declining quality of life of the local communities. On the contrary, despite the significant progress made in the filed, the process of implementing sustainable practices is still not completely defined and elaborated. The ever-growing impacts of tourism development in different destinations have escalated and resulted with the emergence of the concept of over tourism, indicating that the limits to growth and accessible change have been exceeded. As tour operators have rather significant impact on the overall tourism flows in majority of most visited destinations worldwide, their role in ensuring sustainability seems to be crucial. Their interest for taking part in that process has been changing significantly. Nowadays it is twofold – to participate in the process of ensuring sustainability in destinations of their interest and to build an image of sustainable business entity, that would have positive impact on demand during the process of products production and delivery. The overall sustainability of destinations is in the focus of tour operators’ interest as it has a direct impact on the quality of experience of their customers. Even though sustainability is dominantly researched from the supply side perspective, it is directly related to the demand side, as tourists consume destinations’ resources and are influenced by the hospitality of local community. Therefore it is in tour operators’ interest to ensure sustainable environment that would bring prospect to the local community and high quality products and services to their customers, bearing in mind that tour operators’ products are increasingly becoming demand-driven. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to determine phases of evolution of tour operators’ sustainable practices and their role in inducing those practices within tourism destinations.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Ekonomija

POVEZANOST RADA