PERCEPTION OF ISLANDS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT APPLICATION – THE VIEWS OF RELEVANT CROATIAN ISLAND STAKEHOLDERS

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Purpose – Research objectives are to identify important dimensions of sustainable development of an island destination that are directly observable by the stakeholders and to empirically validate those dimensions as well as to determine the level of application from the perspective of stakeholders on Croatian islands. Design – In this study, experts in the field of sustainable development of island tourist destinations were surveyed. Experts include tourism professionals, representatives of executive and administrative bodies of local self-government units and prominent island residents. To understand their perception of the application of the concept of sustainable development on islands, four important dimensions were observed, identified based on a review of relevant literature: financing sustainable development on islands, respecting the socio-cultural authenticity of the local community, educating the local population about the concept of sustainable development, and establishing competence centers for effective cooperation on development projects and research on sustainable tourism on islands. Methodology and approach– A highly-structured questionnaire was used for data collection and the data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, analysis of variance, correlation analysis and examining the relationships between variables using the chi-square test. Findings – Results show different points of view, primarily from the aspect of achieved tourism development. When it comes to the respondents’ attitudes towards the key elements of sustainable development of islands, the results are following. The average rating of attitudes on socio-cultural authenticity of the local community is the highest compared to other elements of sustainable development and it is quite consistent across all island categories. In contrast, the existence and role of centers of competence is rated the lowest. In the context of continuous education of the local population and the existence of an adequate system of f inancing sustainable development, respondents from the category A islands, gave these two elements the highest ratings, especially compared to respondents from category C islands. When comparing three groups of relevant stakeholders, the differences were found regarding the level of respect for the socio-cultural authenticity of the local community. The greatest discrepancy is found between the representatives of the local government and the islanders. Regarding education, respondents who perceive their islands as developed, believe in greater extent that this type of education is present in their area. Originality of the research – Given that research in this regard is generally focused on the perception of tourists, this research aims to illuminate the perspective of local stakeholders. Also, the study identified important dimensions of island sustainable development concept application based on previous research. These dimensions are in-common for all stakeholder groups and directly observable which is important both for research and for the development of local and national development strategies and policy.