STANDARDIZATION OF SERVICES AS KEY COMPONENTS OF CYCLING TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to suggest a development scenario for cycling tourism destinations in the form of a model with identified stages, stakeholders, and activities, contingent upon regional commitment and supported by EU funding. Its purpose is to evaluate the role of service standardization in cycling tourism destination development from the stakeholder perspective. Methodology – This paper uses the case study approach in capturing practical implications of reallife regional tourism development. The conceptual model is a result of the conducted study and analysis that included qualitative data from strategic documents, implemented actions, and onsite observations, as well as the opinions, attitudes, and suggestions of tourism development stakeholders. Proposed is a more general and widely applicable cycling tourism development model, built around service standardization as the key component. Findings – Not all regional stakeholders (primarily service providers) demonstrate willingness to adapt to cycling tourism standardization, regardless of the simplicity of criteria for a basic (entrance) level of standardization. Interestingly, service providers that already cater to cycling tourists (or have attempted to) and have adopted some kind of service customization are more responsive to regional standardization initiative. Research results confirm the standpoint of the conceptual model that service standardization plays a key role in cycling tourism development. Contribution – This research provides more insight into the stakeholder perspective of cycling tourism development. Capturing stakeholder behaviour and attitudes towards service standardization as part of the strategic regional tourism development model offers practical and managerial implications for destination management and other (potential) actors in cycling tourism development. Research results indicate that service standardization is the key component of the destination’s cycling tourism development model, influenced by top-down development planning, stakeholder-involvement, and collaborative efforts at each stage.