Overview of management approaches in the regional tourism development

Abstract

Tourism is considered globally an important tool for regional development. Through its activities and interconnections with other industries it has a strong impact on the whole environment of the destination in the form of different effects on bodies and objects in that environment. Therefore, it appears necessary to manage tourism strategically, with awareness of its effects and impact assessment, under the principles of sustainable development. Tourism development is strongly associated with the overall concept of regional development and especially with the policy of regional development and tourism policy. Good practice examples show that the unregulated and self-acting tourism development has negative impacts to the destination environment that could be appropriately eliminated, or at least regulated, by appropriate management. That is why the principles of management come to the fore, especially the principles of strategic management of destinations. These should bring positive effects in the tourism sector in the form of strategically planned activities based on relevant data, information and knowledge. Also involving regional stakeholders should lead to the sustainable and competitive destination development. These approaches are based on general management overall, however it is often necessary to adapt them in many aspects because of the tourism market specifics. This paper provides an overview of major developmental trends over the past two decades in the field of strategic destination management as an integral part of regional development. Its aim is to identify the main research directions in this area for a defined period, emphasizing the focus on applying strategical managerial approaches and methods in managing a tourist destination. In the concretization of selected approaches deals primarily with the approaches to the management of destinations in relation to the effects resulting from tourism. Using in-depth resources research on tourism effects and impacts, tourism planning and stakeholder engagement in this planning, it focuses on that part of strategic management, which is ranked among relatively newer planning principles for managing a tourist destination. This is also becoming more and more important in emerging tourist areas. The paper summarizes the main directions of research in this area and points out the focus that researchers, academics and managers themselves are interested in.