Managing sustainable urban tourism development: The case of Ljubljana

Abstract

The interest in sustainable urban development and sustainable tourism development is growing. Yet, according to our knowledge, only a limited number of studies combining those two areas exist, and the holistic model for sustainable urban tourism development has not been introduced. Our study aims to integrate sustainable urban development scientific area with sustainable tourism development scientific area and to integrate and advance the existing models for sustainable urban tourism development. As a method for analyzing the results of 322 interviews, we used content analysis. Based on the analyzed data, the conceptual sustainable urban tourism model is proposed and applied to the case of Ljubljana. The results show that Ljubljana needs more emphasis on sustainable urban tourism development by considering different dimensions of sustainability, stakeholders, as well as types of tourism. Specifically, respondents took into consideration social, environmental, as well as economic sustainability. The most often mentioned stakeholders were local communities and companies; meanwhile, according to their opinion, Ljubljana has the greatest potential in cultural, green, and sports tourism. Finally, the study integrates sustainable urban development and sustainable tourism development scientific areas by providing a conceptual model and taking into consideration the need for proper management, ranging from planning to education and policy-making.