Contribution of Tourism to the Sustainable Development of the Local Community : Case Studies of Alanya and Dubrovnik

Abstract: The Mediterranean is the world’s number one tourist destination and the biggest tourism region in the world, which has been visited by 260 million tourists in 1990 and what is more, it is expected that this number will increase to 655 million by the year 2025. In the last 10 years Croatia and Turkey became two of the most popular Mediterranean destinations, and joined the trend of a growing number of European cities that are promoting the development of tourism in order to overcome the post-industrial crisis, or as in the case of Croatia, the post-war crisis. Consequently, today both countries see tourism as their economic future. However, to achieve continuous and sustainable development of tourism, three interrelated aspects should be taken into consideration: economic, social, and environmental. The main question that we tried to answer is in what ways tourism is contributing to the sustainable development of the local community - based on the case studies of Alanya in Turkey, and Dubrovnik in Croatia. Both communities have experienced rapid development of the tourism sector in the last 10 years, which still seems to rise continuously. As a result, various impacts have occurred. Some of them are positive and there is an obvious contribution to sustainable development, while some of the impacts have negative influence on sustainability. Alanya is characterized by the 3S or mass tourism, while Dubrovnik is a world heritage city, which is offering cultural tourism. Notably, mass tourism in Alanya and cultural tourism in Dubrovnik have different impacts on a place. Although Alanya has the opportunity to diversify their tourism, mass tourism is still the main tourism activity. Since mass tourism generally involves a large number of people visiting a small area, it can change an area dramatically. What is interesting about Dubrovnik is that its tourism has suffered a series of devastating events throughout history, such as a major earthquake in 1979 and war between 1991 and 1995, which has left the local tourist economy in tatters. However, cultural tourism in Dubrovnik has been proven as a more sustainable type of tourism than the mass tourism in Alanya, which can be mostly seen through the environmental impacts. In Dubrovnik, tourism is used to increase environmental awareness of the local population, and moreover, the city has recognized the financial values of cultural sites, which are used for the protection and preservation of the heritage.While Dubrovnik is putting a lot of effort to preserve its culture and heritage, Alanya’s main aim is to attract more tourists. For that reason, Alanya is much more sensitive than Dubrovnik concerning the possible threats to become an overdeveloped and overcrowded destination. The rich cultural and historical heritage make Dubrovnik a special and unique tourist destination, and therefore it is facing less risk than Alanya that it will be replaced by the other destinations in the near future. What is important for both communities is to be aware that positive consequences of tourism can arise only if, and when tourism is carried out and developed in a sustainable way. In order to achieve positive correlation between tourism and the local community, an involvement of the local population is essential. In Dubrovnik, the local population has been already involved in the implementation of the tourism, but the potential is still not completely used and there is much more to be done. On the other hand, the priority for Alanya perhaps should be a development of the alternative types of tourism with the special focus on the cultural tourism, which would enable Alanya to become a year-round tourist destination and provide more jobs for the local population, as well as greater income for the community. Moreover, earned money could be used for the protection of the environment and cultural heritage, and involvement of the local population in the planning process would arguably lead to more sustainable tourism.