STAKEHOLDER COLLABORATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR IMPROVING TOURIST DESTINATION MARKETING ACTIVITIES

In order to establish a high quality tourist experience and create the ideal destination product, it is important to ensure a good collaboration between stakeholders, especially among hotel businesses and tourist boards, as well as to coordinate their marketing activities. The aim of this paper is to research the attitudes on stakeholder collaboration in the process of planning and executing the marketing activities of a tourist destination. Empirical research was conducted on hotel businesses and tourist boards in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar and Istria Counties. This empirical study provides useful insights into the nature of collaboration between stakeholders in conducting marketing activities in the most developed tourist regions in the Republic of Croatia. This research resulted in useful implications for marketing management of hotel businesses and tourist boards in order to contribute to improving the quality of the tourist offer and thus respond to the challenges imposed by modern tourism. Management of hotel businesses and tourist boards should primarily collaborate regarding strategic marketing planning of tourist destinations. The synergic effects of collaborating in this area can enable stimulating the growth of developing new products. By achieving synergic collaboration effects it is possible to establish modern destination tourism development and be(come) competitive on the tourism market.