HIKING TRAILS IN MACEDONIA: ASSESSING POTENTIALS FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

The primary objective of this study is to make analysis of the current hiking trails in Macedonia, even though following the experiential approach, light will be shed on the possibilities for developing new tourism product that may enhance tourism development in the country. Macedonia represents a suitable testing ground for such investigation having in mind that so far, more than one hundred hiking trails are identified within the draft national network of the hiking trails. Furthermore, the research combines the current hiking trails and mountain dormitories in order to try to conceptualize them as a system that may be covered with tourism patterns. The analysis is based on a qualitative research method, mainly by exploring secondary sources of information. The findings indicate an option for reshaping the current network of national trails due to additional great number of newly identified trails. Furthermore, it was found that out of forty mountain dormitories, only seven may somehow serve in tourism purposes. The most surprising is the conclusion that among large portion of hiking trails no usable dormitory is present, which challenges construction of new or complete restauration of the old ones. Besides official documents and some isolated positive examples of private initiatives which pose some insights, no academic studies have so far been carried out on this issue. Therefore, this research contributes to the literature as a pioneer study in Macedonia’s academic work, along with its practical significance. Namely, it suggests many recommendations towards the necessity of inducing more proactive attitude among tourism policy makers for designing new tourism product as an important component of tourism supply.