engleski

Reinventing a tourism destination &#8211 ; what can we learn from a life cycle?

In an environment dominated by extremely fierce competition and rapid technological development, every destination must consider the product development issues. Ability to adapt to the changing competition determines the life cycle of every competitor. The concept of product life cycle draws an analogy between the biological life cycle and the form of sales growth for a successful product. This concept and various tourism typologies were the basis for the formulation of the cycle in evolutional model of a tourism destination (Butler 1980). The serious of phases, which follow one after another, describe the evolution of a tourism destination through time or through the sequential stages (introduction, growth, maturity and decline). Many studies have demonstrated the general validity of observing tourism development within such evolutionary framework. Most time studies have suffered problems in the operationalisation of the concept (Foster, Murphy 1991) in the search for appropriate indicators of development and concrete historic data to define the various phases. Butler&#8217 ; s article (1980) on the evolutionary cycle of a destination stimulated much discussion and empirical testing. Wall (1982) and Haywod (1986) discussed difficulties in gathering sufficiently suitable data to test the models, and the operational problems involved in defining and distinguishing the individual phases. In operationalising a model it is necessary to determine the relevant markets, the unit of analysis and measurement and the period of observation, and identify the shape of the curve or phase in the life cycle. Most research projects carried out (Cooper and Jackson 1989 ; Hovinen 1982 ; Meyer-Arendt 1985 ; Strapp 1988 ; France 1991) support the general principles and give suggestion for modifications to improve and further their explanatory power. The emphasis in these studies was placed on the physical volume, i.e. numbers of visitors. The problems most frequently encountered are that of comparability of spatial units and that of interpreting transition points on the curve where the end of one phase and the beginning of another must be identified. The main aim of this paper is to determine and investigate the life cycle stages of Opatija, one of the leading Croatian coastal destinations. Opatija started to develop its tourism in 19th century as a winter destination for European aristocracy of that time. Proclaimed as a health resort with many sanatoriums Opatija was ideal for escaping bad winter weather and for those who wanted to improve their health or recuperate after illness. Tourism flows were stagnating between the wars. Continuous growth (recorded from 1883) was halted by the First and Second World War. Under Italian dominance, Opatija was reoriented to develop as a summer destination as Italians did not want Opatija to compete with their famous spa resorts. After Second World War Opatija, like all other Croatian destinations, developed mass &#8216 ; sun and sea&#8217 ; product and did not really use its competitive advantages &#8211 ; pleasant climate, sea and tradition of health tourism. After reaching its maturity at the end of &#8216 ; 90s and after recent armed conflict in Croatia, Opatija is entering its &#8216 ; rejuvenation&#8217 ; phase, trying to differentiate its product and develop congress and health tourism. After various phases of tourism development, and learning from its rich history, Opatija of today is trying to reposition on the international and domestic market by (re) inventing its image. The simplicity of the product life cycle is sensitive to criticism (Cooper 1990) , especially when it is used as a model for anticipating events. One of the criticisms, which question the usefulness of this method, claims that the product changes over time and no longer represents variations of the original but completely different products (Ryan 1991). This criticism only partially confirms the opinions of other authors that the form and function of the curve of a destination are also affected by many other factors. The most important conclusions drawn from the product life cycle concept are that earlier decisions affect later growth options and that changes are inevitable. The case of tourism development of Opatija confirms these conclusions and investigates the usefulness of the method and methodological issues concerning its implementation.

tourism; tourism destination; life cycle

nije evidentirano