The Strategic Behaviour Of German Tour Operators In Croatia | Nadine Sulkowski & Angela Roper

Given the lack of case-specific and empirical studies in this field, this paper explores the determinants of the strategic behaviour pursued by four German tourism firms in managing inclusive tours to Croatia. It firstly assesses the potential of Croatia as a destination for German tourists and reviews previous research into the European inclusive holiday industry, whereby increasing integration and concentration, the trend towards individualised holidays, the tendency to keep capacity tight and the growing demand for tour operators to contribute to sustainable tourism development are identified as the main industry dynamics. It then explores the approaches of two integrated firms and two specialists in managing individual tourism value chain activities. Triangulating primary findings with the conclusions drawn from previous research this paper suggests that strategic success is positively correlated with a firm?s ability to adapt to external conditions and that the following factors must be considered when conceptualising strategic behaviour: the dynamics featuring the inclusive holiday industry, the demand characteristics of the source market, host-country dynamics, size of the firm, organisational structure and integration, segmentation, growth and branding strategies, risk-taking and relationships with buyers and suppliers. Moreover, this paper highlights the need for further research to analyse the impact of the above parameters on strategic behaviour in greater depth.