Darko Prebezac

• Doctor of Business Administration
• Professor (Full) at University of Zagreb

This article is the first study to present a nuanced analysis of hostel visitors. Using the bagged clustering approach, a typology of hostel visitors was developed, involving four distinctive types of hostel visitors: (i) Hostel lovers, (ii) Landing point visitors, (iii) Flashpackers look-alikes, and (iv) Classical backpackers.

Dynamic business environment requires publishing accurate and reliable information about company business performance. In this context company financial reporting becomes standard, obligatory and important company communication channel. Publishing company performance information is not for the interest of investors only, but it is because of the in...

Danas postaje sve jasnije da finansijsko izveštavanje više ne može biti dovoljno kada se radi o poslovnom izveštavanju. U tom smislu, nefinansijsko izveštavanje je "obavezno" u modernoj ekonomiji za različite grupe javnosti, jer odražava odgovornost kompanije da vodi poslovne aktivnosti na održiv način. Nefinansijsko izveštavanje predstavlja relati...

Sustainable business practices are increasingly becoming an important topic and challenge in the business world. They are already affecting business strategies of companies. The recent trends in the economy reflect ever clearer demands for non.financial reporting, i.e. reporting on soacial and ecological aspects of business activities of the compan...

Purpose - Events have become an important part of city branding. They represent a city brand in a positive light and by doing so help to increase its awareness, media exposure, positioning and sales. In that sense, skiing competition Vip Snow Queen Trophy can be seen as the brand ambassador of its host city Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. Methodolo...

Camping tourism represents a growing part of the overall tourism industry. Despite this fact, this form of tourism has so far been rather neglected by tourism and hospitality research. Using a case study of a major campsite operator in the coastal part of Croatia, this study thus aims to contribute to the understanding of this specific tourist segm...

This note seeks to address a severe misconception regarding the Kano model which is present in parts of the contemporary tourism literature. Recently, the problem has been most pronounced in tourism studies that aim to integrate the Kano model with importance-performance analysis (IPA), which is a popular prioritization tool originally introduced b...

Importance-performance analysis (IPA) is a rather simple research tool introduced with the goal to direct management decisions regarding the allocation and reallocation of scarce company resources, with the ultimate goal to maximize the consumer experience. Although the technique is gaining increasing popularity in business and management research,...

Strategic management of crises and disasters is considered a vital ingredient for managing sustainable tourism development. Contemporary tourism research has so far provided several conceptual articles and agendas for research regarding this important topic, with discussions particularly intensifying after the 9/11 events. Nowadays, this topic is m...

This study applies a demand-side analysis framework to assess drivers of destination attractiveness under consideration of competitor destinations. The framework, consisting of a relevance-determinance analysis (RDA) and a competitive-performance analysis (CPA), is further benchmarked against competing variants of importance-performance analysis (I...

In this article we apply relevance-determinance analysis (RDA) to identify main strengths and weaknesses of Croatian sun-and-sea tourism. In the analysis, tourist-perceived importance of a set of destination attributes (i.e. relevance) is being compared with the attributes’ actual influence on the overall destination experience (i.e. determinance)....

This article presents the results of a study conducted at the Dalmacija Wine Expo, a regional wine fair that was held for the first time in 2010 in Makarska, Croatia. To identify critical attributes impacting the experience of fair participants, two separate surveys were conducted among visitors and exhibitors. In analyzing the data, this study use...

The concepts of destination image and identity have aroused a great deal of interest among tourism researchers and practitioners in recent years. The increased interest in the concepts of destination image and identity can be ascribed to a growing number of international tourist arrivals and growing competition among tourist destinations. The risin...

Tourism attractions are widely recognized as the major determinants of the destination competitiveness. Global tourism market is becoming fiercely competitive environment and tourism destinations are under extreme pressure to rejuvenate and to enhance their attrac- tiveness in order to remain competitive. This paper has two main goals. First goal o...

The importance grid (IG) is a research tool developed for the purpose of categorising product/service attributes according to the Kano model, thus making it a tempting technique for quality managers. However, this paper argues that the IG lacks a clear theoretical foundation, which is why it is not recommended for its intended purpose. Nevertheless...

Based on a case study involving passengers from Lufthansa, Croatia Airlines and Germanwings, we examine the determinants of passenger loyalty among users of traditional full-service airlines and of low-cost carriers. In particular, using formative modeling the study analyzes the effects of service quality and price on carrier choice and loyalty.

This study explores the determinants of tourist satisfaction and dissatisfaction with recreational services typically offered by sun-and-sea resorts, using the case of a large Croatian chain of hotels and resorts in the coastal region. The sample consisted of 994 guests drawn from the guest database. The analysis encompassed three types of animatio...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is: to review the most commonly used approaches to the classification of quality attributes according to the Kano model; to identify the theoretical/practical strengths and weaknesses of these techniques; and to provide guidance for future research and managerial practice in this area. Design/methodology/approac...

For tourists travelling by air, airports typically represent the places where their first and last impression of a destination is formed. Airports are thus not only an important element of the tourism infrastructure that facilitates tourism flows, but also an important element of the tourism experience that contributes to the creation of tourist sa...

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to describe and apply a new three-step approach to prioritizing service attributes in formulating quality-improvement strategies. In particular, the paper seels to demonstrate the value of impact range-performance analysis (IRPA) and impact-asymmetry analysis (IAA) in prioritizing quality attributes for improvemen...

Internal marketing encompasses marketing knowledge, skills, methods and techniques applied on the internal market (inside the company) in order to achieve joint efforts of all employees in accordance with organization' s mission, strategy and aims. In the services sector airline companies were among the first to recognise the importance of internal...

Taking into consideration particular problem of branding in service sector, the authors focus on the importance and specific features related to branding decisions and creation of tourism brand, in particular of international tourism brand. The focus is on: the importance of tourism destination brand and the need to survey and take into account per...

Growing rivalry among competitive airlines in the air travel market, appearance of new competitors which of course have been located in the profitable parts of the market, changes in the behaviour of potential passengers, insufficient and therefore high-priced airport and air traffic control infrastructure, as well as the increased competition of t...

The aim of this paper is to introduce a regression-based analytical framework for developing service improvement strategies which account for asymmetric effects in customer satisfaction and loyalty. A hierarchical research design is applied to minimize the risk of multicollinearity. The high managerial value of the framework is demonstrated in a ca...