Image Redesign as a Tool for Safeguarding a Destination’s Market Prosperity: The Case of Dubrovnik
Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: The city of Dubrovnik, particularly its historical core protected by UNESCO and the space in its immediate vicinity, has been exposed to an excessively growing tourist demand for more than a decade.This is especially true in the case of one-day transit visitors originating either from cruise ships or from organized tourist groups.As a consequence, the historic city centre is experiencing growing tourist congestion.This is accompanied by a constant decrease in the quality and structure of food and beverage and other tourism related services, which are adapting themselves increasingly to a less demanding transient tourism demand.The above developments not only severely undermine the local population's quality of life, but also have important implications for the long-term image of Dubrovnik on the tourism destinations market.Following a critical examination of Dubrovnik's prevailing tourism development policy and its viability, not only from its socio-economic perspective, but in the context of its long-term impact on the city's market prosperity as well, this paper, based on qualitative research insight, proposes changes in the City's unique selling proposition in order to decrease the problem of tourist congestion and sustain Dubrovnik's competitiveness on the tourism destination market in the years to come.
Source: Sociologija i prostor
DOI: 10.5673/sip.55.1.3
Author: Kunst, Ivo
Institution: Institute for Tourism
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2620147262