You are on page 1of 9

2012-2016 SLOVENIAN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

(summary)

Introduction
Pursuant to Article 5 of the Promotion of Tourism Development Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of
Slovenia, No. 2/04), the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology has been charged with the drafting
of the proposal for the Slovene Tourism Strategy. To this end, the Ministry of Economic Development and
Technology prepared a draft of the 2012-2016 Slovenian Tourism Development Strategy.
The objective pursued by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology in drafting the document for
the period 2012-2016 was to design an efficient development model of Slovene tourism for the defined period
that would provide an optimum method for evaluating all key attributes and potentials of Slovene tourism.
In drafting the Tourism Strategy, all principal stakeholders and the relevant interested public in Slovenia are
included in the process. In its final phase, this document should represent a harmonised text from all
participants of tourist interests in the country, i.e. from the public, private and civil sector.
The proposed development strategy of tourism in the envisaged period from 2012 until 2016 is based on a
detailed analysis of the internal and external environment, and on the consideration of the latest trends in the
development of tourism. From this analysis, the vision, fundamental objectives, corporate and business
strategies, as well as policies with the envisaged measures and activities for the achievement of the basic
strategic objectives were derived. For the purpose of continuously monitoring the implementation of basic
strategic objectives, this document also anticipates the establishment of an efficient evaluation and
implementation supervision system covering the Slovenian Tourism Development Strategy.
The 2012-2016 Slovenian Tourism Development Strategy is the key strategic document in the field of tourism
development and sets out the role and the importance of individual stakeholders in this field, defining them
as true bearers or participating parties in the implementation of particular tasks.

The 2012-2016 Partnership for the Sustainable Development of Tourism


The 2012-2016 development and marketing strategy for Slovenian tourism is built on the foundations and
realisation of goals written in the 2007-2011 Development Plan and Policies of Slovenian Tourism and upgrades
them in line with the bases of the desired development of Slovenian tourism in this strategic period.
The working name of the new Development Strategy for Slovenian Tourism is 2012 2016 Partnership for the
Sustainable Development of Slovenian Tourism and is based on experiences from the past two decades and
discoveries from at least a century before that, on the theoretical knowledge and findings from the fifteen
years of the STBs operations, the cooperation between the Ministry of Economic Development and
Technology, the STB and stakeholders from the private and civil society sectors and, especially, on a very clear
image of what we wish to achieve in the future.

MISSION
Slovenian sustainable tourism creates an important part of economic and socio-cultural well-being, revenues
and jobs and is an important contributor
to Slovenias international reputation;
it is based on intensive marketing of tourist products of
internationally recognised brands and high added value.

THE 2016 VISION AND PARTNERSHIP COMMITMENT


In 2016, tourism in Slovenia will be entirely based on sustainable development and will be, as a very
successful industry of the national economy, a major contributor to our countrys social welfare and
reputation in the world.
Slovenia will be a developed tourist destination with a modern, diverse and top-quality tourist offer, based on
innovative and quality integral tourist products and high value-added services aimed to satisfy tourists. With
attractive and diverse tourist products, Slovenia will also become the desired destination for tourists coming
from remote markets.

OBJECTIVES
The objective of the Development Strategy for Slovenian Tourism in the period from 2012 to 2016 is:
to increase the volume of tourist activity (tourist traffic: revenues and profits from catering
and tourist activities, number of tourists, number of overnight stays):

number of overnight stays: 2% (annual rate of growth),

number of tourists: 4% (annual rate of growth),

receipts from the export of travel: 6 - 8% (annual rate of growth).


In order to achieve the general objective, it is required that:
the principles of the sustainable development of tourism be successfully enforced,
a favourable business environment be ensured,
higher quality be achieved and conditions be established that will lead to greater
competitiveness of Slovenian tourism,
efficient and innovative marketing and promotion of Slovenia as an attractive tourist
destination be planned and implemented.
We highlight the sustainable concept of tourism development in all areas and levels.
Roughly, we are speaking of three development areas, whereby the task of the national tourism strategy is
to achieve synergy between all of them:
increase competitiveness,
favourable business environment,
efficient and innovative marketing.
These areas of development, by all means, also comprise of investments in quality and innovations, climbing
the international ladders of competitiveness in both tourism in general as well as its components and areas,
developing strategic partnerships within the sector and external stakeholders, eliminating obstacles for a more
efficient development of tourism, developing measurement methods and various statistics and indicators,
including tourist satellite accounts, raising the culture of evaluation and competency, and so on.
In short and put somewhat differently, the main content-related objectives of the new strategy are deemed
to be:
competitiveness (innovativeness, quality, success, knowledge, safety, added value, traffic, receipts,
tourist satisfaction, destination management, consumption per visitor, deseasonalization, etc.)
quality of life and welfare (the well-being of the local population, regional development,
cooperation in tourism development, employees satisfaction, quality of life, etc.)
reputation and development of Slovenian tourism (the priority of tourism, partnership for
development, public-private partnership, the image of tourism in the eyes of other activities, etc.)
recognition and reputation of Slovenia in the world (stand-out on foreign markets, market brand,
image of Slovenia, internationalisation, etc.)
All these objectives are accompanied by the basic orientation towards sustainable development, the concern
for the economic, socio-cultural and natural environment, environmental impact management and quality of
the environment, transfer to a low-carbon society, etc.

As expressed, it is sustainable development that is the strategic basis dictating the steps and projects to be
taken next and which will allow the international expert and wider community to identify us as an excellent,
green, pleasurable, active and healthy destination to visit and do business with.

Importance of tourism in Slovenia


Based on Article 2 of the Promotion of Tourism Development Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of
st
Slovenia, No. 2/04), the Government of the Republic of Slovenia at their 81 regular session, dated 11 May
2010, under item 1, adopted the following decision:
The Government of the Republic of Slovenia defines tourism as one of the most important economic or
strategic sectors that generates new jobs and has an extremely positive impact on balanced regional
development.
In the years to come and in light of the present level of development of Slovenian tourism and the existing
development potential, tourism will become one of the leading industries of the Slovenian economy and will
hence make a significant contribution to the attainment of Slovenias development goals and, within this
frame, to the attainment of its economic objectives, such as competitiveness, GDP growth, employment
growth, sustainable development, regional development, greater quality of life and well-being of its
population, reinforcement of cultural identity and increase of Slovenias recognition in the world.
Tourism is and will be an important economic activity with a number of multiplicative effects.
According to the estimate of the World Tourism and Travel Council (WTTC), tourism in Slovenia creates as
much as 12.1% of GDP. At the same time, tourism is a very important export activity that represents a good
8% of total export and over 40% of services export in Slovenias balance of payments (source: Bank of
Slovenia).
According to the data provided by the Bank of Slovenia, the receipts from the export of travel in the first ten
months of 2011 increased by 9.46% compared to the same period in 2010. The growth trend, however, was
slightly more moderate than the growth of the number of arrivals by foreign tourists, which indicates that the
crisis still affects the results in tourism and is also reflected in the new guidelines of tourist demand. Tourists
plan their holidays more thoroughly, searching for the most suitable ratios between price and quality. Spending
outside boarding houses has also decreased.
In the past decade, Slovenian tourism has shown extremely positive growth trends, both regarding the growth
of the number of tourists and overnight stays as well as the growth of receipts from tourism. The economic
recession in 2010 did influence the growth of turnover in tourism, but the situation is already nearing that of
the record-breaking year of 2008. The number of tourist arrivals increased in 2010 by 0.7% with respect to
2009 (3,006,272 arrivals in 2010), whereas the number of overnight stays decreased by 1.2% compared to 2009
(8,906,399 overnight stays in 2010) (source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, hereinafter SURS).
Compared to 2009, 2010 saw 7.3% (1.935 billion) more receipts from the export of travel (source: Bank of
Slovenia).
In the first ten months of 2011, the receipts from the export of travel amounted to 1,835 billion, which,
compared to the same period last year, implies a 9.46% growth.
According to the data provided by SURS, the total number of tourist arrivals in the first ten months of 2011 rose
by 7.3% compared to the year before, whereby a 9.1% growth of the number of foreign tourist arrivals and a
4.2% growth of domestic tourist arrivals was noted.
The number of overnight stays in the first ten months of 2011 rose by 5.6% compared to the year before,
whereby a 9.6% increase in the number of overnight stays by foreign tourists and a 0.3% increase of overnight
stays by domestic tourists was noted. By the end of September 2011, there were 59% of overnight stays by
foreign tourists.

Therefore, tourism is indeed a stimulator of the quality of life and welfare in Slovenia.

Identified obstacles in achieving greater competitiveness of Slovenian tourism


Based on findings, we identified the following obstacles in the process of attaining greater competitiveness:
1. MEANS FOR DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING OF SLOVENIAN TOURISM
limited amount of financial means intended for tourism in light of the significance it has on the
Slovenian economy (in the fields of investments, development and promotion),
2. ACCESSIBILITY OF SLOVENIA
a small number of direct flight connection with the key markets of Slovenian tourism,
poor and outdated railway infrastructure,
poor road connections from motorways to some most important tourist centres,
the vignette system unfriendly to visitors and tourists,
unorganised visa policy on promising markets of Slovenian tourism,
3. PROMOTION
inconsistent use of the national brand I FEEL SLOVENIA within the frame of promotional
activities on foreign markets (primarily by other sectors and economy aiming to achieve the
synergy effects of Slovenias standing-out),
low level of recognition of Slovenia on target markets,
4. TOURIST OFFER
lacking competitive tourist products,
lacking added value or attained price of tourist products,
non-cooperation of tourist providers and unconnected tourist offer,
unsatisfactory situation and insufficient action in the field of green or sustainable development in
tourist and other sectors,
gaming poorly integrated in the tourist offer,
5. HUMAN RESOURCES IN TOURISM
lack of quality, qualified and motivated human resources in catering and tourism,
rigid labour legislation,
6. BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
discouraging investment environment for capital,
inadequate business environment that fails to facilitate innovations and competitiveness
properly,
inefficient inter-ministerial coordination for the needs of faster development of tourism,
7. LEGISLATION
- Inconsistent implementation of the Gaming Act in terms of ensuring the earmarked use of funds from
special games of chance concession fees,
- ministerial regulations important for tourism that do not follow the interests and needs of this area
adequately.

Basic strategy
The objectives set in this period will be achieved by continuing or following the policies from the previous
strategic period, i.e. enhancement of connecting and cooperating in joint planning, shaping and marketing
Slovenian tourism at all levels, from the local and regional to the national level, and enhancement of
excellence in all areas and at all levels of Slovenian tourism.
In this strategic period, greater attention will be paid to efficient marketing and promotion of Slovenia as a
tourist destination and creating an improved business environment for
the development of tourism,
with a stress on raising the quality of tourist products and services.
In the previous strategic period, there were plenty of funds, both EU funds as well as national, intended for the
renovation, construction or modernisation of tourist infrastructure. The majority of funds were intended to
stimulate private sector investments, which had a major contribution to the rise in the level of tourist
capabilities, both in light of quantity as well as quality. Incentives were primarily aimed at tourist infrastructure
in the narrow sense and succeeded in lessening the bottlenecks in the field of accommodation capabilities,
skiing capacities and the wellness and congress offer. Aided investments will directly create 1.6 million new
overnight stays annually and a total of 1,200 new jobs. Considering the multiplicative factor of tourism on other
activities, positive effects will naturally be much greater.
In the field of investment policy, this strategic period will place more emphasis on
public tourist infrastructure that will generate an additional tourist offer and enable
a faster development of individual tourist destinations.

Business strategy
In light of the situation in Slovenian tourism, it is most appropriate that we continue to pursue the business
strategy from the previous strategic period. The basic reason for the above-average long-term success of
tourism lies in its competitive edge, which will be possible in Slovenia through the development strategy of a
market niche or market void.
The point of this strategy is to focus on a smaller segment with our tourist offer. It makes sense to continue
performing a detailed segmentation of markets, mostly regarding the criterion of value our tourist offer has (or
is supposed to have) on a target tourist, regarding specialisation and market dispersal. The main advantages of
selecting this strategy for Slovenian tourism are:
o the strategy requires small-scale investments in sources (mostly promotion) compared to strategies
that are aimed at the entire market,
o the strategy allows a specialisation and greater understanding and knowledge of the target tourist.
In order to implement this strategy successfully, several activities need to be carried out that are stated in
areas of development. These activities include:
o further development of destinations (also through the active and efficient role of regional destination
boards),
o continuous collection of information on tourists and application of this information in further business
operations,
o concern for quality,
o concern for employees.

Levels of organisation, tourist destinations and basic guidelines of the tourist offer
In forming or creating tourist destinations, we borrow from the objectives already set in the previous strategic
period, i.e. to develop recognisable destinations with stories. Deriving from the fact that there are 13 regional
destination boards established at present, with the fourteenth being established, we wish to distance ourselves
from the debate regarding whether there are too many regional destination boards at present or not. We
definitely wish that tourist destinations would connect in order to form top-quality and interesting tourist
products and act jointly on foreign markets (both in the field of promotion and marketing as well as forming
integral tourist products).
National level
The Slovenian Tourist Board takes care of the marketing and promotion of Slovenia as a tourist destination and
to this end it performs the function of promotion, distribution and development. The Slovenian Tourist Board
as the leading strategic partner of Slovenian tourism links the existing and facilitates the development of new
products and destinations and projects of national importance, and establishes an integral tourist information
structure, while also carrying out the research and development.
If the Slovenian Tourist Board is to carry out all of the planned above-mentioned activities (including the
facilitation of destination development), the conditions for this need to be provided (including financial and
human resources).
Regional level
All regional destination boards were (or will be) established on the grounds of their eligibility to be allocated a
financial incentive by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology.
Regional destination boards perform the function of promotion, distribution, development and operations, not
disregarding their vital connective role between all stakeholders at a regional level.
Regional destination boards link the tourist offer at a regional level into interesting and attractive integral
tourist products.
It is important that activities of all regional destination boards be coordinated with programme objectives of
the Slovenian Tourism Board, because, based on following the programme of the Slovenian Tourist Board,
cooperation with the STB on the programme level will be possible after 2013.
Local level
Local tourist organisations or organisations on the local level perform all four functions (the same as regional
destination boards, but on a local level). Since regional destination boards have been established, we propose
that cooperation and relations with development actors on a regional level be intensified, as this is the only
way to form quality and interesting integral tourist products.

Basic policies of the tourist offer


Cover story of Slovenia as a tourist destination Green. Active. Healthy. Slovenia.
Based on the guidelines in the previous strategic period, this period again highlights the following core areas of
the tourist offer:
o
health and well-being (health resorts, wellness, medical tourism)
o
active holidays and a break (winter and summer activities),
o
countryside tourism, nature parks, ecotourism,
o
business tourism,
o
gastronomy,
o
towns and culture,
o
youth tourism,
o
entertainment tourism,
o
cruises.

Unspoiled nature is the competitive edge of Slovenia


that provides the basis for the core areas of Slovenias tourist offer.

Measures and activities


Strategic measures for competitive and sustainable Slovenian tourism:
1. To facilitate the increase of competitiveness

The strategy proposes that all stakeholders in Slovenian tourism actively facilitate further
development of tourist destinations (regional tourism boards, local tourist organisations, tourist
societies).
The strategy facilitates research and development, both in the public and private sectors, and
provides appropriate bases for adopting business decisions.
In cooperation with educational institutions, we will raise the qualifications of employees in catering
and tourism and encourage innovations in the up-scaling and development of high value-added
tourist products.
Those responsible for relations at the international level will monitor and represent the interests of
Slovenia in the creation of development policies at the level of the EU, UNWTO, OECD and in other
international organisations.
The State promotes investments in green tourist infrastructure in broader terms and supports the
development and establishment of appropriate flight, rail and traffic connections in order to make
Slovenia more accessible.
Slovenia is developing a tourist offer that will also be interesting for tourists outside the main tourist
season, thus affecting deseasonalization and providing ongoing visits of tourist destinations.

2. Provision of a favourable business environment

Slovenian tourism requires efficient cooperation at an inter-ministerial level aimed at exploiting


all policies and financial instruments of the RS and EU for the development of sustainable tourism
as well as possible.

The Government has to provide a favourable business and normative environment for the faster
development and increase of tourism competitiveness in Slovenia.

The organisation of Slovenian tourism has to enable efficient implementation of functions on the
national, regional and local levels, facilitate entrepreneurial development and raise
competitiveness as well as provide adequate financial frames for the development of sustainable
tourism at the national level.

It is essential that the system multi-term winter school holidays be established again.

To ensure the key role of tourism in the management of unique selling propositions (USP) of
Slovenian tourism.

3. Efficient marketing and promotion of Slovenia

Slovenia has to become a recognisable and highly positioned destination at targeted segments. In
order to raise recognition and achieve the desired positioning of Slovenia as a tourist destination
on selected outgoing markets of Slovenian tourism and among the selected target groups, a
consistent use of the brand of Slovenia is to be provided in the entire tourism industry and, at the
same time, cooperation with the other implementation fields of the brand of Slovenia is to be
intensified.
It is essential that adequate means for better promotion and internationalisation of tourism be
provided.
Tourist products need to be clearly positioned and intensively and efficiently marketed on
individual markets within the frame of marketing activities.
Slovenia is to be innovatively and efficiently marketed in the virtual world as well, using modern
marketing tools and the integration of e-marketing and classical marketing.
It is essential that partnerships of all public, private and civil entities of tourism be established

and activities be coordinated and implemented with the aim to attain synergy effects at all levels
of operation.

Objectives and areas of development (priorities are in green)


To increase the volume
of tourist activity

Facilitate the increase


of competitiveness

Development of
tourist destinations

Suitability of human
resources structure in
light of the economy's
needs

Provide a favourable
business environment

General
objective

Efficient marketing
and promotion of
Slovenia

Inter-ministerial
collaboration and
favourable normative
environment

Increase recognisability,
reputation and
positioning

Organisational
structure of Slovenian
tourism

Competitive tourist
products

Measures

Increase of quality

Market segmentation

Stimulate R&R and provide


adequate basis for the
adoption of business
decisions

Innovative and
efficient marketing via
the virtual world

Promoting innovations

Partnership marketing

Better accessibility of
Slovenia

Cooperation in the EU
and internationally

Investments in tourist
infrastructure

Deseasonalization

Areas/activities
of development

The document describes each measure in detail and breaks it down by activities that are to lead to the
realisation of the strategys objectives:
-

description of the measure,


core of the measure,
objective,
activities having no financial effects,
activities having financial effects,
agency implementing the measure,
participants in the implementation of a measure,
indicators.

Strategy evaluation
Evaluation and control of implementation of the strategy is a process of supervising activities and results of the
branch and the comparison of actual results against the desired ones. The information thus helped with
adopting corrective actions and resolving problems.
The introduction of a system for effective evaluation and control of strategy implementation is conditional on
the availability and accessibility of the necessary data in a certain time interval, and
an adequate organisational structure for its implementation.
In this strategic period, it is necessary
1. to elaborate the methodology of monitoring the implementation of the Slovene Tourism Strategy,
2. to establish an adequate organisational structure for carrying out evaluation and control of
implementation of the development plan and for proposing corrective measures, and
3. to ensure a system of regularly informing all tourist entities of the results of the implementation of the
development plan and the proposed corrective measures by organising annual strategic development
conferences.

You might also like