Attitudes of citizens of Dubrovnik towards the impact of cruise tourism on Dubrovnik

The purpose – to analyse the attitudes of the local population and population from the surrounding area on cruise tourism and its further development in the Dubrovnik area. Design – in the first part the paper gives an overview of the features of cruise tourism in the world, followed by the development of cruise tourism in the Mediterranean. Further, the paper analyses Dubrovnik as a cruise destination and the social impact of cruise tourism on the destination. The results of an empirical research are presented in the last chapter as well as therecommendations for further research. Methodology – A questionnaire was used as the research instrument, and the research was carried out in Dubrovnik and the suburbia in the period May – June 2011 on the purposive sample of 350 respondents. Approach – Cruise tourism, due to its positive effect on the local economy, has become a crucial factor in development strategies of the city of Dubrovnik. Due to the strong development of cruise tourism in Dubrovnik, a continuous market research and analysis is necessary in order to find better solutions of the existing and upcoming problems of this most dynamic sector of the leisure industry. Findings – Research results indicate that majority of the citizens are aware of the positive effects from cruise tourism as well as the fact that the traffic jams, created by a large number of cruisers calling the port in the same day, are the main problem the local community is currently facing. It has been ascertained that there is a difference in attitudes between the citizens on the influence of cruise tourism on the quality of life according to where they live and employment in tourism. Originality of the research – Further development of cruise tourism will depend exclusively on the dynamics of solving the existing issues, organisation of demand management and destination product.