Tourist Clusterisation of Small Entrepreneurs in the Tourism of the Republic of Croatia in the Framework of the European Union Cluster Policy

Abstract

The European Union cluster policy significantly changes the ambitions and effectiveness of the EU Member States to stimulate and strengthen their national cluster policies. The interest for strengthening the cluster policy in the European Union has significantly increased after the new Member States had entered the EU in 2004.Their significant characteristic is research and innovation, and the clusters are based on the Lisbon Strategy which points out strengthening of economic growth and increasing employment. It especially points out the task to promote and support clusters in the framework of regional, industrial and innovation policy. By clusterisation, the EU Member States will strengthen their competitiveness in the framework of strong European and world competition, initiate an even stronger cooperation within the region, but also on the entire EU territory.Clusters are the critical moving force of open innovation and the key source of competitive advantage in the global economy. An increase in competitiveness of the Croatian economy must be achieved by strengthening the clusterisation process, and this especially refers to small economic entities. Small and medium-sized enterprises joined in a cluster primarily have the following advantages: increase in employment and manufacturing, innovation boost, strengthening of expertise and the know-how, and an increase in the quality of products and services, as well as an increase in export. As regional concentration of specialised companies and institutions linked by multiple connections, and transfer of relationships between these connections, clusters form a favourable environment for innovation by creating and perfecting new ideas in the networks in which various companies and institutions co-operate.Over the last century, there was a sudden increase in the interest for industrial clusterisation, and the growth of globalisation inevitably imposes the necessity to develop tourist clusterisation as the only possible survival of global tourism, which includes any tourist destination. Tourist destinations develop more quickly by using the cluster concept, apply contemporary working methods faster and draw the maximum from the market environment, by which the destination gains competitive advantages in relation to others. Competitiveness of local small entrepreneurs in tourist destinations which operate in the global business environment will increasingly depend on the ability to co-operate and form partnerships on the local level, and competitiveness of any tourist destination in relation to others will in depend in the future on the effectiveness of its tourist clusters.