D. Gomezelj Omerzel: STAKEHOLDERS ' UNDERSTANDING OF FACTORS INFLUENCING... 1 STAKEHOLDERS ' UNDERSTANDING OF FACTORS INFLUENCING TOURISM DEMAND CONDITIONS:

The present paper aims to assess the importance of different factors influencing demand conditions for a tourist destination on the basis of individual stakeholder perceptions. The relationship between the tourist demand conditions and individual influential factors, such as inherited resources, created resources, supporting factors and resources, destination management and situational conditions is examined using regression analysis. Existing studies on tourism destination and tourism demand were reviewed and their limitations were identified. The study is limited to Slovenian as a tourist destination, but can be generalised to other regions. The study offers important contributions for research (an appropriate conceptual and measurement model of competitiveness indicators) and for practice (important information for tourism stakeholders is the obtained result about the significance of appropriate and qualified tourism managers). Mailed structured questionnaire data for this study were collected from tourism stakeholders on the supply side. The respondents were selected from tourism industry stakeholders, government officials, tourism school academics and postgraduate students on tourism courses. Out of 291 questionnaires sent, 118 or 41 % were returned. The principal components method was applied i