MEASURING TOURISM SEASONALITY: APPLICATION AND COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT METHODS

Purpose - Tourism seasonality is a well-known and established phenomenon causing dominantly negative implications. New efforts are required to combat or mitigate tourism seasonality. The aim of this paper is to provide a better understanding of different measurement methods, as proper measurement of seasonality is a prerequisite for further activities. With the application and comparison of different measurement methods, a comprehensive insight will be provided as a background for further application and decision making. Furthermore, this study proposes to quantify seasonality in a Mediterranean country, Croatia. Methodology - Secondary data on tourist overnights in Croatia, for the period 2005-2016, is acquired from statistical publications of The Croatian Ministry of Tourism. The measurement approach is based on four measurement methods: Seasonality ratio, Seasonality indicator, Seasonality share and Gini coefficient. Findings - Theoretical findings: the application of tourism seasonality measurement methods is depending on the purpose of measurement, as the cognition of measuring outcomes is varying between measurement methods. A combination of different methods is required to understand the structure of seasonality in certain tourist destination. Not one measurement method is superior to another, they are complementary. Empirical findings: high tourism seasonality is indicated within all measurement methods, Croatia is exposed to extreme tourism seasonality, whereby extreme seasonal concentration of tourist activities is constant over years. Originality of the research - The theoretical contribution arises from the comprehensive insight into tourism seasonality measurement methods, their application and outcome. In addition, the seasonality share as a new measurement approach is proposed. The empirical contribution derives from the quantification of tourism seasonality strength and dynamics in Croatia. Research findings are a great contribution to future tourism seasonality research in a theoretical and empirical manner.