The role of local government in planning of sustainable tourism of coastal destination

Draženka Birkic (), Ida Cubelic Pilija () and Jelena Kljaic Šebrek ()
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Draženka Birkic: Karlovac University of Applied Sciences

Tourism and Hospitality Industry from University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to support the hypothesis The local government insufficiently uses strong mechanisms of influence in creation and implementation of sustainable development concept in the coastal destinations. Design – The special focus in this paper is given to the role and the responsibility of the local government and key stakeholders in the coastal destinations, since the local government is considered to be the most responsible for the coordination of tourism development at local level and support of sustainable development approach. Methodology – The desk research was used in this paper and the relevant literature was studied, publicly available planning strategic documents were collected and analyzed by the assessment instrument developed by Simpson (2001). Semi structured in depth interview was conducted in with representatives of local government researching the role and attitude towards the implementation of the sustainable development principles. Approach – The research was conducted in 44 coastal tourist destinations whose strategic planning documents were assessed by the dimensions developed in assessment instrument: Strategic indicators of planning documents - goals and objectives, Physical, ecological and economic situation analysis, Stakeholder participation, Vision and values, Implementation and review. Findings – The results of the research prove that local government has the irreplaceable role and responsibility in the tourism development at the local level but insufficiently knows and implements concept of sustainable development in strategic planning documents. Originality – The originality of this research is in the fact that assessment instrument developed by Simpson is for the first time used to assess implementation of sustainable development principles in the strategic planning documents of the coastal tourist destinations.

Keywords: sustainable tourism development; coastal destination; local government; planning documents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-tur
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in 22nd Biennial International Congress Tourism & Hospitality Industry 2014, May 2014, pages 16-32

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