Tourism Product Clubs: Theory, Added Value and Practical Implications Jakominić Marot, Meštrović & Stipanović University of Rijeka; Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Croatia natasa@uniri.hr, dmestrovic@uniri.hr, christis@fthm.hr www.fmtu.hr

Tourism Product Clubs: Theory, Added Value and Practical Implications Introduction Theoretical Determinants of Tourism Product Clubs (TPCs) Culture-related TPCs and their potential for Cres-Lošinj Methodology Results Conclusions Suggestions for future research

Introduction Constructs questioned + Ferceived benefits Contribute to expanding the scope of existing research by: reviewing the current practice investigating the practical potential of TPC implementation of a culture and creativity based TPC on the Cres-Lošinj archipelago Constructs questioned Quantitative Qualitative Ferceived benefits + Feasibility Main expected funding authority Willingness to fund the TPC

Theoretical Determinants Tourism product clubs (TPCs) are an emergent form of stakeholder networks on the tourism market First established in Canada in 1996 a joint formalized effort of public and private stakeholders aiming at improving an existing or creating a new tourism product Common in practice but research on the topic is scarce Competition = Cooperation Top-down: methodology and funding Croatia: unrecognised and financially unsupported

Culture and creativity-related Tourism Product Clubs and their potential for Cres-Lošinj archipelago Sources: www.volimlosinj.com; www.croeu.com; www.visitlosinj.com; www.kvarnernews.hr

Methodology The research hypotheses are the following: H1 The benefits of TPCs are obvious to the Lošinj archipelago tourism stakeholders H2 The establishment of a culture-based TPC on the Lošinj archipelago is feasible H3 Stakeholders think that the public authorities such as national, regional or local tourist boards should cover major cost of operation of a TPC H4 The largest company on Lošinj is willing to fund a tourism product club

Methodology Qualitative research is used to contribute to the synthesis of new findings about TPCs Qualitative research the basis for quantitative research

Methodology Census method: population of 32 top and middle managers of Lošinj’s largest company Entire population considered in all analyses Self-administered, anonymous, online questionnaire Cronbach's alpha was used to assess the scales’ internal consistency (α=0.81&0.91) Descriptive statistics

Methodology Data moderately or highly skewed Leptokurtic distribution = Inter-Quartile Range

Results H1 The benefits of TPCs are obvious to the Lošinj archipelago tourism stakeholders * Added by authors

Results H2 *FC: Focus Company Mdn IQR Q1 TPC is feasible in terms of the ease of collaboration of members of the TPC 3 1 Overall feasibility of the TPC 4 FC shall initiate a culture-based TPC FC should make part of the TPC FC shall benefit from being a member Join if the TPC is initiated by another institution

Results H3 Partially supported : the first five ranked Ss are public entities the national and regional tourist boards were ranked fourth and fifth respectively but local public authorities such as local tourist board and the local municipality, ranked first and third respectively perceived most important! H4 not supported: FC willingness to fund a TPC unconfirmed Results H3&H4

Conclusions Three research hypotheses were either fully or partially confirmed H 4: the largest company on the island would be willing to cover major costs of operation of the culture-based TPC on Cres-Lošinj was not supported Respondents’ favourable opinion on TPC benefits was confirmed besides for the increase in tourists’ expenditure. Positive stakeholders’ attitude and interest to join a culture-based TPC was confirmed… … but they are reluctant to embark this journey without support  feasibility unsupported in the current framework

Suggestions for future research: feasibility of a culture-based TPC on Cres-Lošinj in terms of the funding potential role of TPCs in the creation of added value for the enterprise, destination and society TPCs open access to new market segments and customers to non-tourism entities (e.g. wine or food producers)  benefits for the development of tourism-dependent destinations? role of TPCs for sustainable development of destinations and their innovation potential

Thank you for your attention! Nataša Jakominić Marot University of Rijeka E-mail: natasa@uniri.hr Dunja Meštrović University of Rijeka E-mail: dmestrovic@uniri.hr Christian Stipanović FMTU E-mail: christis@fmtu.hr