Tourism Destination Management in Montenegro – Constraints and Opportunities

Although tourism has the potential to provide destinations with a number of benefits, the sector can also have substantial negative social, environmental and economic outcomes for the local community if it isn’t managed effectively. Tourism destination management must ensure the balance between economic, social, cultural and environmental activities.For the sustainable development of tourism destinations, there is a need for a coordinated effort between all interest groups (tourism stakeholders from the public, private and civil sectors), through systematically developed and implemented management plans at all levels, especially at the local destination level, where tourism activities take place, tourists interact with service providers and with communities, and where tourism’s positive and negative impacts are most felt. The paper deals with the problem of managing a tourism destination from the perspective of harmonizing stakeholders interests. It explores destination management in the Montenegrin tourist destinations, namely the level of stakeholders cooperation and the state of application of the concept of sustainable development at the local destination level. An empirical research was carried on the sample of 17 local tourist organizations in Montenegro. Findings and implications of the research are given in the paper. The results revealed: the problem of insufficient implementation of tourism development plans, the best aspect of marketing activities and the need for education, especially in the field of planning and product development. The results related to the application of the concept of sustainable development suggest the need for defining and tracking indicators of sustainability. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n4p39