APPROACH TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF DESTINATION MANAGEMENT IN CROATIAN TOURISM

Croatian tourist destinations are present in the networked international tourist market and should adjust to such market conditions by means of improving the competitiveness of their own tourist offer. An important precondition for such offer improvement is an efficient system of management of a specific tourist destination, i.e. destination management. This is particularly important in uniting partial interests of destination's multiple stakeholders, in order to create an integral tourist product for a specific destination. Implementation of the destination management principles in Croatia is at an insufficient level of development. In this study, the authors wish to emphasise the importance of an efficient and functional destination management for the development of tourism competitiveness in Croatian destinations. They, therefore, propose that it is necessary to start the process of definition and implementation of the DMO model in Croatian tourism and to reduce the existing gaps in the competitiveness of the tourist offer. This study should stimulate the Croatian scientific and professional public to further consider the need for development of the model of tourist destination management development.