Mountain biking is becoming an increasingly popular form of recreation in Slovenia. Many mountain resorts have been placing mountain biking in their summer offer for years, but they find that Slovenia still lags behind comparable European countries with its mountain biking tourist offer. For the long-term and successful development of the mountain biking tourism industry, it is important that mountain bike tourism planners establish cooperation with key stakeholder groups. To date, no research has been conducted in Slovenia and abroad to examine the role and importance of various stakeholders and their participation in the development of this industry. Therefore, in my work I research which stakeholder groups contribute to the development of this industry, what is their role and what are the most appropriate ways of cooperation between them. As part of the qualitative research, I conducted six in-depth interviews with representatives who have been working as planners in the field of mountain biking tourism development in Slovenia and abroad for several years. The analysis of the results showed that in Slovenia the development of mountain biking as a tourist industry is influenced by several stakeholder groups, which are of different importance for the development of the industry. To evaluate their role, I used various theoretical models to identify and determine the strength of stakeholders and identified 17 relevant groups, among which are key: local community, state, municipality, landowners, Forestry Bureau and employees in mountain biking tourism. The analysis showed that some stakeholders encourage (eg local businesses) and others inhibit the development of mountain biking (eg the state). I also found that, in order to encourage cooperation, different stakeholders need tailored ways of engaging. This task helps mountain bike planners to identify key stakeholder groups, evaluate them in order of importance and find the most appropriate ways to work with them.
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