A BRIEF Q&A WITH NEDO PINEZIC, A REGIONALLY RECOGNIZED TOURISM EXPERT
Mr. Pinezic, you have been involved in private accommodation development for over 30 years and you are the founder and president of the Family Accommodation Association of Croatia which represents over 100,000 private households. Could you please tell us about your background i.e. your early career and your path to tourism and hospitality?
I was born into a family with a hundred-year tradition in tourism. My grandfather Anton, who used to be a blacksmith and a fisherman, had hosted tourists in his modest home between the two world wars. In the fifties, he was the first to build rooms with shared bathrooms. He also built a sanitary junction for a small camp he had in his household. At that time that was a high standard in a private accommodation.
My father Ivan had started his career as a cabin cleaner on a ship and a waiter and managed to become a director of a hotel company. His brother Josip, followed the same pattern. My Mother Katica was an economist who managed private households in the seventies and eighties of the last century. Two of her brothers, Paul and Djani, had immigrated to the USA after the Second World War, and worked as chefs in French and Italian restaurants.
Djani has returned to his native town Malinska on the island of Krk due to the opportunities that the development of tourism on the island had to offer. His son, Djani Jr., has followed in his father’s footsteps and ended up as a chef in a prestigious hotel Ritz Carlton in New York.
These stories obviously have had an impact on me, so I have graduated from a school of tourism, working in different positions, from warehouse worker, and cleaner, to travel organizer and eventually owner of travel agencies and co-creator and implementer of large international projects. Apart from that, I have been hosting guests in our private family household.
Over the years, you have worked as a trainer for rural accommodation development for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the European Union (EU), and other donor agencies in the region. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing small rural accommodation providers in the Western Balkans, and what is the outlook of rural tourism in the region?
The biggest challenge of the Western Balkans in rural areas is how to keep young people and encourage young families to grow, develop and actively participate in the economic recovery of their birthplace, region, and country. Young people emigrate to the nearest cities, bigger regional towns or abroad, mostly to Western Europe. USAID, UNDP, EU and other donors are making great efforts to encourage entrepreneurial activities among young generations by developing skills and acquiring knowledge.
Although we know that the quality of life is related to a familiar environment that is socially, culturally, and climatically close to ours, the desire for personal fulfilment motivates young people to explore possibilities outside the box. This is actually very good, but we must prepare the environment for the return of those who will want to apply their knowledge and invest their savings in their homeland.
Microentrepreneurship in tourism in rural areas is a real opportunity to initiate sustainable development. Through sustainable tourism, we encourage the maintenance and development of traditional activities, preservation of the environment, preservation of traditional, cultural values, healthy cultivation of agricultural crops, and coexistence with the ecosystem in a healthy way. Accommodation in a household is the most important to us because in this way communication takes place between the guest and the host. They get to know the lifestyle, emotions are involved, and both the guest and the host feel good.
The conditions for the development of sustainable tourism in the rural areas of the Western Balkans are extremely good. Although, due to the careless attitude towards the environment that has been practiced so far, the first impression may be different. However, the new, young generations are absolutely ready to “turn a new page,” and develop tourism on a sustainable basis.
Last year, the USAID Economic Development, Governance, and Enterprise Growth (EDGE) project organized a regional conference on Cultural Heritage Tourism Development and Western Silk Road Route, gathering key stakeholders from the Western Balkan region to explore ideas on how to best assist the struggling tourism industry in the recovery process and create new regional brands that will enhance the connectivity and quality of the tourism in the Western Balkans. Considering that you were one of the keynote speakers of the conference, what were the key messages and takeaways?
It was an excellent conference organized by EDGE with distinguished speakers from the academic community, UNESCO, the public sector, the private sector and case studies from countries such as Kazakhstan. On that occasion, we all learned about the importance of communication between different people and cultures. This communication was practiced thanks to trade, as well as the exchange of goods on the east-west, north-south route. In this way, civilizations were enriched, passing on their best achievements to each other.
Today, tourism is precisely that strong, common link. Experiential tourism emphasizes the need to preserve the local life culture and the exchange of experiences among travelers from all over the world. That is why we say that today’s tourism is conservative in terms of preserving the authentic culture of the local community, and at the same time maximally liberal and open to every traveler. In tourism, there is no place for intolerance and disrespect towards a person who seems to be different.
The Western Balkans is an important part of the transcontinental Silk Road, and at the same time a region with perhaps the most diverse mix of cultures densely and irregularly distributed in one, relatively small area. This, along with the diversity of natural phenomena, makes the Western Balkans a future global hit destination for research and experience tourism.
Recently, with the support of EDGE, you developed Manuals for Providing Accommodation Services in Households: How to Start and Build a Small Business in Rural Tourism. These manuals are available in four languages: English, Macedonian, Albanian and Serbian. What is the target audience for these manuals and what can we learn from them?
I am very glad that this collaboration has seen the light of day. The manuals should serve to benefit people who are thinking of starting their own small business in the rural area, to those who have already started such a business, to public authorities dealing with regulatory issues as well as to tourism organizations. Through several chapters, we presented the organizational and legal framework regulating this area, the tax system, and the importance of the entrepreneurial activity in order for the demographic survival of these small, fragile communities.
In the following, readers can familiarize themselves with trends in sustainable tourism, standards in service provision, the basics of financial operations and the basics of marketing. In writing the manuals, we followed the way of communication with the users in our trainings. I am grateful to the EDGE team for their maximum support and understanding. It is our wish for the manuals to be used and shared as much as possible, both in print and digital form.
EDGE together with GIZ Support to Economic Diversification of Rural Areas in Southeast Europe (SEDRA II) project are jointly organizing a series of trainings on rural accommodation that are conducted in four modules in the course of 2023. Given that three modules have already been completed, what are your impressions so far?
Three of the four planned modules are behind us. In the first module, we talked about accommodation with the host and all the necessary information related to the provision of such a service.
In the second module, the emphasis was on the production and presentation of domestic agricultural products. Food, as part of the experience of a tourist destination in the form of a presentation of production and processing, with the possibility of buying final, domestic, agricultural products as the basis of meals in the catering of the destination, as well as cooperation between local farmers and restaurateurs in the destination. These were the topics of the second module where we also had a practical part visiting the points of interest according to the topics.
The third module focused on souvenirs and craft products as an added value to the tourist offer. Here was presented an emphasis on the souvenir production, but also on other products of useful value. The production demonstration is the main “tool” for gaining the customer’s confidence in the authenticity of the product. This is extremely important because of the “flood” of imported, industrially produced imitations of craft products. The emotional trigger for buying a product is extremely important.
In the practical work, we visited valuable producers of souvenirs and craft products from natural materials such as wool, wood, precious metals, semi-precious stones, herbal preparations, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and musical instruments. I am very satisfied with the response and engagement of the participants in all three clusters, and also very glad that people have connected with each other. Viber groups have been created, and Facebook pages of each cluster are being created. Cooperation that goes across borders, and brings people together around natural attractions such as national parks is very important. Mountain massifs, lakes, and canyons are the main attractions.
The people who live in these areas must be the first to benefit from tourist arrivals. However, they are also invited to be committed environmental protectors. I am satisfied that we all traced the path of development in this direction together. I believe that our knowledge will be shared by current members of the cluster with the new ones.
Over the past six decades, tourism has experienced continued expansion and diversification, becoming one of the largest and fastest-growing economic sectors. According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), international tourist arrivals are expected to grow by 3.3% a year between 2010 and 2030, with arrivals in emerging destinations growing faster than those in advanced economies. Considering your professional expertise and knowledge, what are some of the biggest changes that the tourism industry faces, and what should the Western Balkan region do to better position itself on the world tourism map?
Tourist trips are transformed from a luxury to a life’s necessity. Nowadays, people travel to improve and preserve physical and mental health. Occasional changes in the everyday environment and exploration of others have a positive effect on the human psyche, improving moods and enriching knowledge. Seasonal migrations towards sunny regions are a reflection of the “hunger” for vitamin D and a better mood. Clean, mountain air, contact with nature, healthy food, and activities in nature are also part of this need for a healthier lifestyle. We can say that tourist trips are part of health care today. Such a need of modern man is aligned with the agenda of sustainable tourism.
The development of tourism that respects the principle of preserving the ecosystem, the lifestyle, and the culture of the local community, uses renewable energy sources, uses natural materials for construction and furnishing, respects the minimalism of interventions in space, and preserves water resources. It is the path of tourism development where the Western Balkans has a great opportunity. And, of course, at the center of such development must be human beings. On the one hand, the host, a local family, and on the other, a tourist, a guest who is hosted as being the best friend. Guests become part of the local community.
The positive emotion awakened by the knowledge that with our stay we have helped the local community in preserving fundamental values, is the best promotional tool for sustainable tourism. Each of my stays in the Western Balkans makes me more fulfilled, and happier. This is precisely the message that we must communicate to the world in order to better position the Western Balkans on the world tourist map.
