Stakeholders' Perspectives on Post-Pandemic Sustainable Tourism Development - The Case of Vrsar, Croatia

This paper presents research focused on the post-pandemic opportunities of special interest tourism development, through the elaboration of the stakeholders' perspectives on the sustainable valorisation of local natural and cultural heritage in the changing global context. The main goal of the research was to analyse the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on key stakeholders' activities and their attitudes towards future sustainable tourism development. The empirical research has been realised in the Municipality of Vrsar, a typical Mediterranean tourist destination characterised by mass tourism and high seasonality. The research was based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, including a literature review, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders' representatives and a tourists' attitudes survey. The conducted research indicated that the current pandemic could be seen also as an opportunity for all key stakeholders to reflect on the sustainability of the existing tourism practices and develop products which will be more nature-friendly and respond to new needs and expectations of changing tourist demand. The new, more sustainable, post-pandemic model of participatory governance in cultural and tourism development should involve all interested stakeholders, by developing a distinctive offer for special interest tourist segments which could disperse demand in time and space and prolong the tourism season.