engleski

Croatian maritime story as a opportunity for development of sustainable cultural tourism

Thanks to its natural and geographic characteristics, one of the most beautiful archipelagos in the world, indented deeply into the European continent, Croatia nurtures a centuries old experience of a tourist receptive country. The aristocratic experience of country-living during the rule of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy recognized a significant potential of the Croatian Adriatic region, and it based the affirmation of Croatia as a tourist destination primarily on the natural beauties of pristine environment, as well as a pleasant Mediterranean climate. Cultural tourism in Croatia is not a well explored topic, especially since its base is non-material cultural goods. Non-material traditional heritage is a vital part of the cultural tourism offer, and it must be properly interpreted in order to serve a purpose as an additional asset to the cultural tourism offer. Non-material maritime heritage can help with the development of sustainable tourism along the Croatian coast and on the islands, as well as encourage full participation by local people in creating an authentic experience and preservation of the unique aspects of tradition in coastal destinations. This paper will point out a model that can popularize the maritime cultural treasure, which would otherwise remain unused and familiar only to a handful of people, in an innovative way. In such a way, cultures are brought together, cultural anathemas are crushed, and people are united. Respecting the aforementioned, the execution, or implementation, has been recognized as a critical step in managing sustainable tourism, because sustainable cultural tourism will, in practice, only be as effective as the implementation itself (Go i dr. 1992). The results of this paper will provide guidelines for including this heritage into a tourist destination product, with a goal of realizing an income from tourism, whilst managing the sustainable development of tourism in which cultural goods are converted into economic goods without changing them significantly.

non-material maritime heritage; sustainable tourism; local population; authentic experience; tradition

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