Tourism in a train of local products – opportunities to create a cross-border thematic route

Abstract

THE AIMS OF THE PAPER

In the course of the 4 Towers Hungarian-Croatian cross-border projects two Hungarian (Kaposvár, Nagykanizsa) and two Croatian (Čakovec and Koprivnica) towns made the local producers living in the settlements and in their 30-km vicinity to join forces. In the framework of our questionnaire research we sought the answer to the question if the concerned local producers would be willing to cooperate in the long run in order to develop and maintain a thematic route and if they consider the establishment of a coordinating organisation necessary to do so.

The main aim of our research was to determine such operational organisation tasks that would contribute to the successful launch and operation of the thematic route.

METHODOLOGY

In the framework of a questionnaire research we contacted the local producers active in the studied area. We carried out statistical and econometric analyses in order to analyse the answers of 98 Hungarian and 30 Croatian local producers and to explore correlations.

MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS

According to 39% of the interviewed people, a Croatian-Hungarian local produce thematic route would definitely be feasible, whereas 11 % thought that it would only be sustainable in case of applying the necessary promotional tools and distinguished quality. The respondents would primarily support the occasional talks and exchange of experiences as well as the joint events, attendance and distribution as fields of cooperation. The cross tabulation analyses carried out in the course of correlation studies showed that the opinion of the respondents of the two countries only differed in a single question significantly; 44.1 % of those interviewed in Hungary while 80 % of the Croatian respondents would regard an external coordinating body useful in order to maintain the thematic route.

RECOMMENDATIONS

In our article we reviewed which actual communication steps the concerned local producers would have to take for the sake of the sustainability of the thematic route. During our work, we collected the already existing marketing communication elements as well; furthermore, we made proposals to improve and expand these.