Please cite as Please check if the paper has already been published in a printed journal JOST. RESEARCH ARTICLE The Influence of the Political Environment and Destination Governance on Sustainable Tourism Development: The Case of Bled, Slovenia Tanja Mihalič1, Tina Šegota2, Ljubica Knežević Cvelbar3 and Kir Kuščer4 aFaculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia 1Tel. +386 1 5892 496;
[email protected] 2Tel. +386 1 5892 511;
[email protected] 3Tel. +386 1 5892 497;
[email protected] 4Tel. +386 1 5892 750;
[email protected] Tanja Mihalič, PhD, is a full-time professor of tourism at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana and the head of its Tourism Institute. Her research interests include tourism economics, environmental economics, policy and sustainable tourism development. She is a member of the UN WTO World Committee on Tourism Ethics and member of the executive body of the International Association of Tourism Economics (IATE). Tina Šegota is a teaching assistant and PhD candidate at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana. Her research interests include seasonality, sustainable tourism development, tourism impacts on the quality of life, and advertising and consumer behaviour in tourism. Ljubica Knežević Cvelbar, PhD, is an associate professor at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, and a visiting professor at numerous universities around the world. She has been involved in more than 30 research projects, including ones involving EU funds and UNDP grants. She has published more than 20 papers in refereed tourism journals. She is also the co-author of more than 10 chapters in books.