The Stakeholders Role within Tourism Strategy Development: the Local Residents Viewpoint

The aim of the paper is to present the importance of the stakeholders for successful tourism development. A successful tourism development depends greatly on excellent cooperation and communication between all stakeholders involved in the tourism system, thus the tourism is a complex social system. The stakeholders in tourism destination are: local residents, local companies, media, employees, government, competitors, tourists, business associations, activists and tourism developers. The paper aims at analyzing and segmenting destination’s citizens according to their attitudes towards tourism. Analysis revealed that there are a strong supporters and neutrals among 601 local residents. Living environment, job position, living environment and education are important factors influencing individual’s attitudes towards tourism development.