From Potential to a Competitive Tourism Service: A Qualitative Analysis of Gastronomic Cross-Border Destinations in Slovenia, Croatia and ItalyNuša Basle Vertiz

The paper examines the competitiveness of creatively sustainable gastronomic destinations from the perspective of providers and destination management (DM). It addresses a research gap that points to the need for a more comprehensive understanding of destination competitiveness, with the analysis focusing on the supply-side approach. Based on a qualitative comparative analysis of semi-structured interviews with destination organizations in Slovenia, Croatia and Italy, the paper explores how cross-border destinations identify their core and supporting resources, how they understand the role of DM, and how they position gastronomy within their destination development strategies. Particular attention is given to the relationship between institutional organization, the quality of local resources, tourism product development, sustainability, creativity and the capacity to design integrated tourism experiences. The analysis shows that gastronomy represents the strongest common development thread among the destinations studied, although its role varies in maturity: in some cases it is a core product, elsewhere a supporting resource or still an untapped potential. The key finding is that destination competitiveness depends not only on high-quality local resources, but on the ability to transform them into attractive, accessible, creatively sustainable and marketable tourism experiences.