1. FESTIVAL TOURISM IN THE REPOSITIONING OF CROATIAN TOURISM DESTINATIONS
CHRISTIAN STIPANOVIC, PhD, Full Professor
ELENA RUDAN, PhD, Assistant Professor
PETRA PERŠIN, Student
University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Opatija

2. Research aim & question
ToSEE - Tourism in South East Europe
3rd International Scientific Conference
Sustainable Tourism, Economic Development and Quality of Life
University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management Opatija
Research aim & question
Aims:
* Defining theoretical determiners of festival tourism
* Defining new trends of festival tourism
* Analysis of current state of two historical festivals in Croatia: THE KNIGHTLY DAYS OF VRANA and THE RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL IN KOPRIVNICA
* Defining aims and innovationg operational strategies of festival tourism in destinations Koprivnica and Vrana
* Defining promotional activities in branding festival tourism in destination

3. * Survey based of the local population and visitors
ToSEE - Tourism in South East Europe
3rd International Scientific Conference
Sustainable Tourism, Economic Development and Quality of Life
University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management Opatija
Research methods
* Author’s attitudes - current situation two chivalric festivals in the tourist destinations Koprivnica and Vrana
* Survey based of the local population and visitors
* Interviewing destination management

4. ToSEE - Tourism in South East Europe
3rd International Scientific Conference
Sustainable Tourism, Economic Development and Quality of Life
University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management Opatija
Hypothesis:
- Historical based festivals - a strong connection between the present and the past of a particular region - opportunity for repositioning and branding of tourist destinations
- Qualitative transformation of existing festivals give a new value in the destinations – innovation
- Creating the historic festival is the most important thing to the local population

5. Festival tourism – theoretical principles
ToSEE - Tourism in South East Europe
3rd International Scientific Conference
Sustainable Tourism, Economic Development and Quality of Life
University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management Opatija
Festival tourism – theoretical principles
form of event tourism
motivated primarily by different festivals
historical festivals: the tourists are looking for an experience and cohesion of the local residents
festivals are an important element of destination branding and promoting
Špancirfest Varaždin, Rab Fair, Krk Fair, the Sinjska Alka

6. Analysis of the current situation
ToSEE - Tourism in South East Europe
3rd International Scientific Conference
Sustainable Tourism, Economic Development and Quality of Life
University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management Opatija
Analysis of the current situation
* the current state of two thematically similar festivals - the Renaissance Festival in Koprivnica and the Knightly Days of Vrana
* the core of the Koprivnica Renaissance Festival is the valorisation of medieval history with stress on chivalric tournaments , old crafts and gastronomy based on nettle ( August 2015)
* The Knightly Days of Vrana shows the scenes from ancient times, (three battles with the Turks) which include camps, tournaments, shows, old crafts, old plays, folk costumes, uniforms and other ( August 2015)

7. The Renaissance Festival in Koprivnica The Knightly Days of Vrana
ToSEE - Tourism in South East Europe
3rd International Scientific Conference
Sustainable Tourism, Economic Development and Quality of Life
University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management Opatija
Survey results – local residents and destination management, december 2014.
Festival
Mark
The Renaissance Festival in Koprivnica
The Knightly Days of Vrana
Residents
Management
Festival contents
4.22 5
4.52
4.3
Contents for the young
4.10 4
4.14
The influence of the Festival in presenting the local culture, tradition and history
4.28
4.86
Festival as a brand
4.42
4.71
Involvement of the local population in the festival
4.04
3.29 3

8. Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
ToSEE - Tourism in South East Europe
3rd International Scientific Conference
Sustainable Tourism, Economic Development and Quality of Life
University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management Opatija
Strengths
Weaknesses
Authentic representation of historic events
Good organisation
An unforgettable experience for visitors
High quality staff
Associations
Good location
Great interest of performers and visitors
Media interest
Gastronomy
Too few entertainment events
Non-inclusion of catering and accommodation facilities
Insufficient involvement of local residents and tourists
Insufficient financial resources
Insufficient marketing and branding
Lack of integral tourism product
Opportunities
Threats
Recognizing the needs of tourists
Development of tourist preferences towards historic festivals
Cooperation with knight groups
Interest of sponsors
EU funds
Rivals
The risk of bad weather conditions
Crisis
Lack of interest for the creation of an integral tourism product

9. Aims and strategies of festivals
ToSEE - Tourism in South East Europe
3rd International Scientific Conference
Sustainable Tourism, Economic Development and Quality of Life
University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management Opatija
Aims and strategies of festivals
Quantitative and qualitative aims
Operational strategies:
1) R & D
2) Offer strategy
3) Marketing strategies – segmentation, positioning, marketing mix
4)Human resource strategy
5) Financial strategy

10. Possible programme solutions:
ToSEE - Tourism in South East Europe
3rd International Scientific Conference
Sustainable Tourism, Economic Development and Quality of Life
University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management Opatija
Possible programme solutions:
Renaissance Festival - diversification of content and on attracting foreign participants, the involvement of visitors, especially children.
Knightly Days of Vrana - theme park, improving the presentation of traditional crafts, opening craft workshops, organizing scientific meetings.
The festivals need to become synergetically connected to the rest of the tourism offer into an integral destination product.
The continuous development of operational strategies must involve the local population and tourists as active co-creators of the festival.

11. ToSEE - Tourism in South East Europe
3rd International Scientific Conference
Sustainable Tourism, Economic Development and Quality of Life
University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management Opatija
the tourist board must be the key stakeholder in the event organization, but also point to the necessity of a stronger synergy with other stakeholders.
it is necessary to involve domestic entrepreneurs, since the festival provides an opportunity to promote local production and agriculture
in motivating the local population and young people to join the knights’ associations and to become actively involved in knighthood training

12. Causal loop diagram of festival branding

13. ToSEE - Tourism in South East Europe
3rd International Scientific Conference
Sustainable Tourism, Economic Development and Quality of Life
University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management Opatija
Conclusion
- qualitative transformation of existing festivals give a new value in the destinations
- festivals can become a brand and an element of respositioning of other Croatian destinations
- the festival program should be innovated in order to increase its attractiveness and the protection of traditional heritage and to improve the promotion
- it is necessary to create a network of historic festivals that would perform together on the tourism market
- knights festivals – brand of destination - the synonym for a unique tourist experience in the tourist heritage offer

14. Thank you for your attention!
Christian Stipanović, Ph. D., Full Professor,
University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Opatija
Elena Rudan, Ph. D., Assistant Professor,
Petra Peršin, Student,