Familiy hotels as a development opportunity of Croatian hotel industry

Modern tourists during their stay in the tourism area expect hospitality and direct relationship with its host. The purpose of this paper is to point out the fact that the needs of modern tourists can be satisfied especially in the atmosphere and ambience of the family hotels as more significant form of Croatian tourism offer. Design – The paper consists of comments, research and research results. The methodology of this paper is based on field research on the islands of Brac, Vis, Hvar and Šolta. Attitudes and a possible model for the development of family-run hotels as important factor in the development of tourism on these islands and Croatian are defined through interviewing foreign tourists and local people. The approach in this paper is based on the research results, which are the basis for defining development model of family hotels as a special form of tourist offer. Findings – The paper confirms the basic hypothesis of work that there are significant opportunities for the development of family hotels and for which there is significant demand for this form of tourist offer. Originality of the work lies in the fact that it is based on the research of family hotels, a relatively new form of tourist offer with a strong growth tendency in tourism demand. Based on the research results development model of family hotels as a substantial part of Croatian tourism offer is proposed. This paper proposes also the organizational development of family hotel industry model as a precondition of incentives for development the Croatian hotel industry and its valorization on the international tourism market.