Organising for community-based tourism: Comparing attitudes of local residents and local tourism entrepreneurs in Ravna Gora, Croatia

Abstract

Community-based tourism was developed as holistic and comprehensive approach to local sustainable tourism development with emphasis on all-inclusive community participation at all levels of development. If developed well, community-based tourism can significantly improve state of local communities through empowerment and promotes greater economic and social benefits to individuals and organisations. One of the important characteristics of community-based tourism is the establishment of an organising mechanism in charge of involving various community members and ensuring their active participation. The purpose of this paper is to contribute understanding of community-based tourism and local community participation by addressing issues associated with establishing new local community-based tourism organisation, more precisely, examining attitudes of key local tourism stakeholders towards the very idea of the establishment of a new community-based tourism organisation, its potential characteristics and their personal involvement. Mixed methods have been employed for the purpose of gaining deeper insight into attitudes of local residents and local tourism entrepreneurs in the region of Gorski kotar in Croatia – focusing specifically on Ravna Gora. Research findings reveal important differences between more socially oriented local residents and profit-seeking local tourism entrepreneurs in terms of personal involvement as well as the characteristics of hypothetical new community-based tourism organisation.