The purpose of this paper is to study how clustering affects the results of operations of small and medium hospitality enterprises (SMHEs) in Croatia and to support SMHEs tend to cluster, forming critical masses in one place, to take advantage of synergies such as increased productivity, a higher pace of innovation and in essence the possibility of becoming more competitive. What are clusters and in what way do they increase business performance and the competitiveness are frequently asked questions. The paper presents the results of the impact of clustering in SMHEs in the Republic of Croatia on business performance. The special focus is given to financial and non-financial indicators that are significant for measuring business performance in SMHEs. The methodology of research includes a literature search of clustering in hospitality enterprises research, collection of data directly from managers of SMHEs and from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, analysis of the financial and non-financial data of 72 SMHEs in the Republic of Croatia. The research takes a longitudinal approach, examining SMHEs that are in clusters in Croatia over a two-year period as well as a control group of non-clustered SMHEs for comparison. The emphasis is on seeking to establish the impact of clustering on business performance. In this paper, the impact of clustering of 72 SMHEs involved in the study is discussed. The research has shown that the advantages of clustering in SMHEs have not been utilised in Croatia. The originality of this research is based on the fact that it refers to an area that has not been explored enough in the Republic of Croatia.

Due to limited financial and non-financial resources they lack the adequate organizational characteristics such as experts, high rate of risk, lack of information about market threats and no economies of scale. In order to overcome these barriers hotel enterprises are forced to rely on the cooperation with other enterprises and tourism related organizations creating in such a way strategic networks. A strategic network refers to groups of enterprises and individual subjects that through joint efforts aim to achieve a competitive advantage, something that through individual efforts would be very difficult. The hotel enterprises, which use some form of networking, have realized that by cooperating with their competitors, suppliers and customers, as well as with enterprises from other industries, allows them to strengthen their internal weaknesses. The purpose of this paper is to show which forms of strategic networking are being used by small and medium hotel enterprises in Croatia. Based on the empirical research conducted on 250 small and medium sized hotel enterprises in Croatia in 2012, the goal was to determine which forms of strategic networking hotel enterprises use. The results show that the analyzed enterprises in Croatia use mostly a cluster based form of strategic networking.

This paper examines the customers’ experience assessment with the luxury daily sailing tours in the area of the Elaphite Islands of Dubrovnik. For the purpose of this study, the influence of the entertainment opportunities, the educational opportunities, the aesthetics, and the escapism components on the customer’s experience is investigated, as well as the correlation between overall customer satisfaction and age groups of customers. The personal interview method was used for data collection. Tourists were interviewed on boats during the tours in the area of Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands, Croatia. The Pine and Gilmore experience model was used to define the main elements of their experience. The analytic hierarchy process model was used for the customers’ experience assessment. According to the results of this study, entertainment and aesthetics have greater influence than education and escapism on customer satisfaction in the age group up to 30 years. Entertainment and escapism have greater influence than education and aesthetics on customer satisfaction in the age group from 31 to 60. The interesting findings of this study are that education and aesthetics have a greater influence than entertainment and escapism for the elderly, e.g., for the customers in the age group older than 61. The highest overall satisfaction with the daily sailing tour was found among tourists in the age group up to 30 years, followed by tourists in the age group from 31 to 60 years, and the lowest satisfaction was shown by tourists who were older than 60 years. This study indicates that all the areas are important and that customer satisfaction with each component, e.g., with the entertainment, education, escapism, and aesthetic, varies according to the age group. This study also indicates that there is a correlation between the overall customer’s experience assessment of the “Elaphite Islands of Dubrovnik” daily sailing tour and customer age group.