THE ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN TOURIST DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT

Organizational culture is a success factor for each organization, including a tourist destination. It has a crucial role in the success and competitiveness of a tourist destination that includes a large number of stakeholdersfrom the public and private sectors. The research is based on the role of organizational culture in tourist destination development. The main purpose is to determine whether there is a connection between the main stakeholders' organizational cultures and how they affect the success of a tourist destination management. Tourist destination management based on a cluster model introduces multiple advantages for the stakeholders, thereby implying some organizational changes as well. The research results indicate that common targets, basic values and symbols of the stakeholders lead to the development of a recognizable, successful and competitive tourist destination. The cooperation of stakeholders in a tourist destination requires a continuous, multi-year work and effort to maintain a tourist destination brand. Human resources have the key role particularly in implementing destination projects, promoting basic destination values, strengthening brand identity and increasing guest satisfaction with the tourist destination offer. Higher level of employee motivation to achieve common targets at the level of tourist destination influences a more open and flexible approach of employees to organizational changes. The qualitative research was conducted on the example of the Northwest Istria tourist cluster (Croatia) using the method of interviewing the formal stakeholders' representatives and the survey by a questionnaire applied for the other main offer holders within the Cluster. This research contributes to a better understanding of the role of organizational culture in managing tourist destination development.