TOURISTIC DESTINATION OF ISTRIA - PERSPECTIVES AND MANAGEMENT IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Tourism destination management is a complex challenge requiring a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach, synergy and coordination of all tourism entities, leading to the same result. This dissertation provides detailed information on the existing management style as well as findings resulting from the multi-month long field work based on the future of managing Istria as a tourist destination. Furthermore, based on obtained research results, methods of tourism destination quality management have been offered. If tourism destination management is organized and synergistically conducted under agreed guidelines, more quality tourism results in line with those achieved by top destinations in our competitive regions can be expected. The authors analyse the Leader Programme function, its principles and implementation in practice, comparing the European countries' experiences with the development trends in Istria / Croatia. In a realistic way, they show the management issues, but they also point out the paths of rural area development according to other countries' experience. Though the Istrian region has been recognized as a quality tourist destination for years, its possibility for a bigger and better step forward must be pointed out in terms of managing the destination itself To achieve optimal solutions, professional management modules and innovative guidelines set by world tourism trends must be followed in order to adjust them to our needs and requirements. A certain reorganization of some management branches as well as permanent staff education is essential for tourism in Istria and Croatia as a whole.