Collaborative Synergies for Elevated Destination Experiences: A Model of Cooperation between Hotel Companies, DMOs, and Local Stakeholders

As outlined in the National Tourism Development Strategy until 2030, Croatia aims to provide higher value, innovative, sustainable, and authentic tourist experiences. There is a need to examine how the main tourism stakeholders can contribute to the transformation of traditional and commodified tourism products into premium-class offerings that add value throughout the entire value chain. It is important for premium-class hotels to take additional steps in improving their offerings to positively impact the entire destination and enhance service quality. This paper aims to: explore initiatives for promoting innovation in premium-class experiences within destinations focusing the cooperation between on hotel companies and DMOs; identify anticipated trends influencing the future of the tourism industry, and assess the future prospects of premium-class hotels in Croatia. The methodology incorporated both quantitative and qualitative approaches, driven by the structured nature of the questions in the online survey that target sales and/or marketing directors of hotel companies that have premium-class hotels in their portfolio. Suitable statistical methods were employed to conduct the analysis for the quantitative portion of the data. Content analysis was utilized to analyze the open-ended questions. For this purpose, the MAXQDA software for coding, categorizing, and exploring patterns within the data. This study represents one of the pioneering investigations into the essential initiatives that hotel companies need to undertake in order to orchestrate the development of a destination that relies on its premium-class experiences. Furthermore, the study examines the role of supporting institutions such as destination management organizations (DMOs) in facilitating this process. A conceptual model to improve the development of the premium hotel segment and destination at the same time, pursued by the responsible practices and initiatives of the hotel companies and strong partnerships with DMO and the local community, is proposed.