Pregledni rad
Empowerment of communities for sustainable tourism development: Case of Croatia
Lidia Petrić
orcid.org/0000-0002-2210-480X
; Faculty of Economics, University of Split, Split, Croatia
Sažetak
This paper deals with the possibilities of enhancement of the concept of empowerment of tourism oriented communities leading to participatory and hence sustainable tourism development. Although the term 'empowerment' is used by different disciplines, in the context of tourism development it is regarded as a multi-dimensional process that provides tourism oriented communities with a consultative process whose outcomes directly benefit the community and its members. The paper is based on the presumption that there are socio-political, legal, administrative and cultural limitations to empowerment enhancement in most of the developing countries. Although these limitations may vary among countries due to different contexts of their development, general framework can be outlined, which will be explained by the case of Croatia as a developing country.
Hence the paper has set out to address the question of how to realize the potential of Croatian communities to participate in a meaningful way in deciding options for tourism as sustainable development, taking as its point of departure the concept of community empowerment. In constructing this framework it will be crucial to explore theoretical background of the concept of empowerment and its relationship with the sustainable development concept. Also the questions whether Croatian socio - political framework enables empowerment to be embedded in the local communities and whether it supports sustainability other than theoretically will be discussed. Second aspect of this research is focused on the local communities and their ability to initiate and undertake the processes leading to empowerment.
Ključne riječi
empowerment; social capital; tourism communities; sustainable development; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
24673
URI
Datum izdavanja:
22.12.2007.
Posjeta: 3.135 *