engleski

Marketing Analysis of Food as a Component of Croatian Tourism Product

There is an increasing interrelation between tourism and food. This fact can be illustrated by the fact that food and beverage expenditures amount to one-third of overall tourists expenditures of the global tourism turnover (Meler and Cerović, 2003). Despite this importance, the role of food in tourism in general, its relation to the image of tourist destination and its potential to create value– added tourism product has not received much of scientific attention in contemporary studies. According to Tikkanen (2007), it is only recently that food has been recognized by governments, researchers and food and related industries as an important factor in enriching tourism product. The aim of this paper is to provide marketing insight into the value that food can contribute to tourism in Croatia. Three possible positions of food in tourism have been analyzed: food as necessity, i.e. a part of a standard tourist package, food as a tourist attraction, and food as a souvenir. A survey on the expert's opinion on supply side was conducted with representatives of local and regional tourism boards, hotel and restaurant managers, tourist agencies and souvenir shops’ managers. Their opinions have served as a starting point in contemporary situation analysis, identification of potentials and problems as well as marketing implications, taking into account the fast growing trend of gastro tourism development. The general conclusion is that there is a high potential to develop food tourism in Croatia, both in continental and seaside tourism. There is identified interest on both supply and demand side, but for the time being the potential is being realized mostly in individual cases (Istria Gourmet project, for example), but we still need the systematic marketing approach.

food, tourism, marketing, Croatia

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