Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.22522/cmr20200153
Sustainable Tourism – Self-Deception, Idea or Reality?
Sara Melkić
orcid.org/0000-0001-8538-328X
; Institute for Tourism, Zagreb, Croatia
Izidora Marković Vukadin
orcid.org/0000-0002-6598-5360
; Institute for Tourism, Zagreb, Croatia
Lucija Roknić
; The Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb (student), Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The long-term competitiveness of tourist destinations is directly related to their sustainable development. An extremely important starting point for tourism management, with an emphasis on sustainable management, is the recognition of the state of sustainability based on indicators. Only by assessing the situation, but also by continuously monitoring sustainability, is the necessary information base created for effective development management in the desired, sustainable direction. With the intention of establishing Croatia as a sustainable destination, the intention of destination management organisations to turn to the sustainability of tourism, through concrete activities and measures, and not just declaratively, is important. For this purpose, the situation in local tourist communities in Adriatic and Continental Croatia was analysed with the aim of determining to what extent the state of sustainability is monitored, activities in the sphere of sustainability (and green tourism) are carried out, and whether planning and management documents provide clear guidelines for the sustainable development of destinations. Based on the analysis, we can conclude that there are five basic types of destinations with regard to the attitude towards sustainable tourism: destinations that use sustainability only as a term with no basis (1), destinations that have conceptual solutions, but do not implement projects (2), destinations with a series of activities in one dimension of sustainability (3), destinations with implemented projects in all dimensions of sustainability (4) and destinations that perceive sustainability as part of the image and reality of the destination and measure the effects of tourism on sustainability and, based on the measurements, implement projects in all dimensions of sustainability (5).
Keywords
sustainability, destination, tourism, inclusion, activities, indicators
Hrčak ID:
238220
URI
Publication date:
25.5.2020.
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