THE ROLE OF MARKETING INNOVATIONS IN TOURIST DESTINATION RASTOKE

Tourist destinations are an integral part of the wider tourist system and should interact with all elements of the system. A tourist destination is observed as a cohesive network space that encourages and accepts innovation with different dynamics. Modern tourists create their identity through tourist consumption, thus gaining an unique experience and developing feelings that they can transfer to others. Therefore, nowadays tourist market requires specialized and adaptable experiences for which it is necessary to introduce different types of innovations that will contribute to sustainability and strengthen the competitiveness of the destination. The subject of this paper is the role of innovation in the management of tourist destinations with special emphasis on marketing innovations in the tourist destination Rastoke. The general objective of the paper is to present the importance of innovation in sustainable destination management, and specific objectives are: to analyze the role and importance of marketing innovation in visitors' decision to visit Rastoke and to analyze the role and importance of marketing innovation in Rastoke product development from the perspective of local stakeholders. For the purposes of the paper, a reconnaissance descriptive research was conducted using a deliberate sample (destination service providers as local stakeholders and visitors). Data were processed by descriptive statistics. The limitation of the research was in conducting research during the pandemic and the conditions of suspension of work for the employers in tourism and hospitality. For the future research it is necessary to increase the number of sample units.