POTENTIAL TOURIST DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT IN THE ISTRIAN COUNTRYSIDE.

The modern comprehension of tourist behaviour shows an urgent need to create a tourist destination as a system. Tourism supply needs to be integrated and well coordinated, including all necessary amenities for an enjoyable stay. The paper analyses tourists' attitudes in coastal destinations of Istria towards sustainable tourist supply in the Istrian countryside. The Karst landscape of Istria consists of rural areas that provide ideal opportunities for rural tourism development. An empirical research was carried among the sample of 538 tourists in coastal tourist destinations of Slovenian Istria. Findings and implications of the research are given in the paper. There were found characteristics and preferences of potential tourists. The main finding of the research is that more marketing efforts should be made to attract target markets of tourists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]