HERITAGE TRAILS THROUGH DOLENJSKA AND BELA KRAJINA IN SLOVENIA TOURISM ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Abstract

One of the beneficial methodologies for growing and developing a level of tourism which is sustainable and enhances the totality of local and regional environments is a multi-stakeholder approach to tourism development. In this paper, we present the case of the “Heritage trails through Dolenjska and Bela krajina in SE Slovenia” by which sustainable rural development takes an integrated approach in terms of start-up, implementation and development and is supported by and benefits from the notion of a core of multiple stakeholders.
It is clear that:
• Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills, harnessed in a bottom-up model of development, will have a huge impact on rural and agri-tourist micro-economies at a local community level. The effect in driving wealth creation and expanding employment is measurable in a very tangible and transparent way
• Furthermore, multi-stakeholder tourism projects benefit the ownership transformation process by forcing public, private
and social ownership agents and enterprises to work together for common benefit. Because of the bottom up
approach the measurable value at an enterprise or agency level is also more tangible and obvious
• We can also see that by engaging local public agencies, the dimension of environmental planning and protection can be
assured. In this way the sustainable nature of tourism and its impact on the local environment can be assessed and given
due priority
• At the same time, in such integrated projects, individual entrepreneurs begin to comprehend and understand the value of co-operation as well as of competition. A key feature is often the need for small-scale tourism entrepreneurs to develop a promotional mechanism to market their product or service at a wider national and international level. Individually the costs of such an activity are too great for micro-enterprises, but they are possible for groups of enterprises. This evidences how an integrated model enables participants to benefit from the totality and complexity of resources and skills held by all stakeholders
Clearly the model we are referring to, as demonstrated in the Case Study utilised in this paper, has a very precise local/regional orientation. The Heritage Trail of Dolenjska & Bela krajina Case Study has a rural base and is profoundly affected by the necessity to attract tourism inputs without damaging the sensitivities of the rural environment. It also has astrong multi-st akeholder approach which in many ways illustrates the impact in EU-funded programmes of the concept of subsidiarity - aiming at seamless connectivity between EU supranational policy and funding, member state objectives in macro-economic harmonisation and stabilities and local micro-economic needs.