Conceptualisation of Forest Tourism: The Kočevsko Case Study

Authors

  • Vita Petek University of Maribor
  • Barbara Pavlakovič Farrell University of Maribor

Abstract

This paper presents the definition of forest tourism and three varieties of forest tourism activities. An empirical study was conducted to examine the perception of forest tourism and forest activities in the case study of the Kočevsko forest in Slovenia. The triangulation approach consisted of a survey among Slovenian tourists, interviews with tourism stakeholders, and content analysis of promotional elements of the Kočevsko destination. The data showed that tourists find forest destinations interesting, safe, unspoilt, and suitable for young people and families. They describe forest tourism with the words ‘bear’, ‘forest’, and ‘nature’. The respondents mostly prefer outdoor forest activities, wildlife observation slightly less, and lastly the relaxation options. The knowledge gained could help forest destinations to develop their products and adopt the appropriate customer approach.

Keywords: forest tourism, nature-based tourism, destination management, wildlife, outdoor recreation, forest relaxation

Downloads

Published

2026-03-04

How to Cite

Petek, V., & Pavlakovič Farrell, B. (2026). Conceptualisation of Forest Tourism: The Kočevsko Case Study. Academica Turistica - Tourism and Innovation Journal, 18(3). Retrieved from https://academica.turistica.si/index.php/AT-TIJ/article/view/883

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 3 (2025): Academica Turistica - Tourism & Innovation Journal

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Vita Petek Petek, Barbara Pavlakovič Farrell

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

1. Copyright

Copyright for all articles published in Academica Turistica - Tourism and Innovation Journal is held by individual authors. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete the Publication Agreement and Copyright Licence, based on the Open Access Model Publishing Agreement.

Articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License.

Under the terms of this license, authors retain ownership of the copyright of their articles. They can archive the pre-print and post-print or publisher's version of their work. They will, however, assign to Academica Turistica - Tourism and Innovation Journal (AT–TIJ) the permanent right to electronically distribute their manuscript and, after it has appeared in AT–TIJ, they may republish their text as long as they clearly acknowledge AT–TIJ as the place of the original publication.


2. Author Fees

Article submission, processing and/or publishing fees are not charged.