The Analysis of the Tourism Plan within a Cross-border Development Strategy

This paper presents the Regional Tourism Product Plan (RTPP) and analyses the strategic approach in the planning of tourism. Until 1 July 2013 the Hungary-Croatia Cross-border Co-operation Programme 2007-2013 (hereinafter HU-HR (IPA) CBC Programme) was part of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA). Compared to the previous periods, IPA brought significant development in co-operation, by introducing single set of rules and the Lead Beneficiary principle. The HU-HR (IPA) CBC Programme applied a new two-step development of tourism. First, it prescribed the preparation of RTPP within a special project and only after the RTPP was elaborated could the open call for tourism proposals be launched. There was no similar case in other CBC programmes. The author will review the Programme level documents and reports, furthermore, examine the RTPP outcomes and the methodology introduced in the planning of tourism actions in the Programme. The risks RTPP involved and its influence on the implementation of the Programme and tourism projects will be investigated by highlighting the problems of application of RTPP in practice. The aim of this work is to focus on and to evaluate this specific planning methodology, and to assess whether it could be recommended to other similar programmes. Due to the shortcomings that the RTPP entailed, the author will come to conclusion that the planning of such strategies has to be prepared in advance and that the two-step approach of tourism development should not be recommended to other cross-border programmes.