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LECTURE at the Global Hospitality and Leisure Summit

LECTURE at the Global Hospitality and Leisure Summit

Jasna Čapo has participated online at the Global Hospitality and Leisure Summit: Megaprojects, integrated resorts and diversification in the era of AI (Dubai – online, March 5, 2024).

In the lecture titled Detrimental Effects of Tourism in a Small Mediterranean Town dr Capo presented and discussed effects of tourism in the Croatian island town of Hvar.

The presentation discusses a case of mass tourism in a small island town (3,500 residents) in Croatia, Hvar. After more than a century-long history as a mostly elite and upper middle class destination, the town has recently evolved into a mass tourism destination appealing mostly to party (the destination offers after-beach and night parties from 5a.m. to 5p.m.) and nautical visitors/tourists (2-2,500 big and small boats dock daily in the season, bringing an unknown number of visitors). Adverse impacts of overtourism in Hvar include: irregular construction impinging on urban space and materiality; loss of public space and urban functions; loss of community and urban identity; detrimental effects on ecology; strains on local infrastructure; rising real estate prices and cost of living; overall quality of life deteriorating. The harmful scenario of mass tourism that is happening in Hvar today is strikingly similar to the experience of other Mediterranean (and global) destinations a few decades ago.

Based on ethnographic research methods (participant observation, in-depth formal and informal interviews with various tourism actors), the presentation delves into reasons that prevent the town authorities to successfully curb negative effects of tourism, and manage and reinvent the destination in a sustainable way. The research privileges the voices of „ordinary“ citizens (their opinions, imagination, engagements, capacity for striving toward sustainable tourism and urban future) while weighing them against established socio-political structures (local, regional and national) and their ideas about tourism development and how to manage it. It introduces new aspects into examining the effects of overtourism on a locality: local demographics and space (face-to-face community, smallness), socio-economic variables (economic dependency on tourism, 80 percent of tourist industry is in private hands), local and national politics (nepotism, political favouritism, corruption). Altogether, these factors exacerbate overtourism and preclude that it is managed, down-sized and/or redirected. 

Project is funded by Croatian Science Foundation

Project is funded by Croatian Science Foundation

www.hrzz.hr
Project is funded by Slovenian Research Agency

Project is funded by Slovenian Research Agency

www.arrs.si
Faculty of Humanities University of Primorska

Faculty of Humanities University of Primorska

www.fhs.upr.si/sl
Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research

Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research

www.ief.hr
Institute of Contemporary History

Institute of Contemporary History

www.inz.si
ZRC SAZU, Institute of Slovenian Ethnology

ZRC SAZU, Institute of Slovenian Ethnology

https://isn2.zrc-sazu.si/sl#v
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology

www.ffzg.unizg.hr/etno