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of Slovenia as a tourism destination from for-
eigners' points of view should definitely be con-
sidered. Slovenia was introduced to the global
tourism market in 1991 (Brezovec, Brezovec
and Jancic, 2004). However, some authors
claim that for this introductory period the tour-
ism product of Slovenia may have been influ-
enced by the country's image (Brezovec, 2001;
Brezovec, Brezovec and Jancic, 2004) which,
according to Jancic, is weak (Jancic, 1998).
Similar conclusions were drawn by the only
available research in this period (Tavcar, 1997),
which was carried out in Austria and France in
1997. Editors, politicians and tourism managers
expressed a low level of awareness of the coun-
try Slovenia as well as some doubts about its
democracy and product quality. Besides the
previously mentioned findings, the lack of
empirical results about foreigners' evaluations
of Slovenia as a tourism destination is identi-
fiable
somewhat more than 400 potential tourists in
each country expressed their opinions about
Slovenia as a tourism destination. The research
was carried out with a CATI (computer-assisted
telephone interviewing) method and therefore
representative samples were ensured. The results
imply that German respondents are aware of
Slovenia as a tourism destination, although they
still have problems in their quick recall of some
of Slovenia's characteristics. Further, they hold
mostly neutral or even slightly positive opinions
about Slovenia's image. On average, they per-
ceive Slovenia as a country of friendly people
and pleasant weather with beautiful nature,
especially due to its beautiful mountains and
lakes. In addition, they shared much worse
opinions about Slovenia's quality dimensions
(i.e. infrastructure, personal safety and its accom-
modation). The results also indicated only the
slight attitudinal loyalty of Germans, mainly
through their interest in visiting Slovenia in the
future. Croatians are well aware of Slovenia
as a tourism destination which can also be
explained by their common historical connec-
tions as well as the geographical positions of
both countries. On average, they had a positive
opinion about Slovenia's image attributes, mostly
its natural attractions. However, they shared a
very positive opinion of Slovenia's health resorts.
Further, they expressed a positive opinion about
Slovenia's quality dimensions, especially its clean-
liness, personal safety, unpolluted environment
and quality of accommodation. They expressed
an interest to visit Slovenia in the future and to
recommend it to their friends and relatives
(Kone E nik, 2005, unpublished doctoral disserta-
tion, Ljubljana University, Faculty of Economics).
The results of both investigations about the
perception of Slovenia as a tourism destination
imply a medium to strong level of awareness in
the minds of the investigated group of respon-
dents (tourism representatives from mostly
European countries and potential tourists in the
German and Croatian markets), as well as a
positive image about Slovenia as a tourism
destination and mostly neutral to even negative
attributes in some quality evaluations. On the
contrary, high quality was evaluated by the
Croatian respondents. Although the presented
results give us an important sign regarding the
customer-based brand equity of Slovenia as a
tourism destination, we cannot generalize it for
in
the
first
decade
after
Slovenia's
independence.
The first systematic analysis of the percep-
tion of Slovenia as a tourism destination was, to
our knowledge, conducted in 2001 (Kone E nik,
2001, unpublished Masters thesis, Ljubljana
University, Faculty of Economics). Tourism
representatives mostly from European countries
expressed their opinions on Slovenia as a tour-
ism destination. Of the 119 respondents, 4%
were unaware of Slovenia as a tourism destina-
tion, 12% were aware of it but were unable to
locate its geographical position, while 84% of
respondents recognized it and were able to pro-
perly locate its geographical position in Central
Europe. Those respondents who recognized
Slovenia as part of Central Europe shared a rel-
atively positive common image of Slovenia as a
tourism destination. However, the worst evalu-
ated attributes were some quality indicators in
Slovenia such as the quality of its infrastructure.
The investigation also indicates that the percep-
tion of Slovenia as a tourism destination differs
between those respondents familiar with Slovenia
(have visited Slovenia in the past or have per-
sonal contacts with Slovenians) in comparison
to those respondents who were unfamiliar with
Slovenia (Kone E nik, 2002).
In 2003, another investigation about the
customer-based brand equity of Slovenia as
a tourism destination was conducted in the
German and Croatian markets. In this research,
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