ABSTRACT
Croatia is a Mediterranean tourism destination with a tourism tradition of more than 160 years. Although Croatia started to develop its tourism at the end of the nineteenth century, when it was under the rule of Austro-Hungarian Empire, intensive tourism development belongs to the period after the Second World War, when Croatia was one of the six republics of the former Yugoslavia. The phenomenon of mass tourism has made a substantial contribution to the economy of Croatia, and its tourism development has been affected primarily by two factors:(1) the growing market economies of Western Europe began to produce the car-focused burgeoning middle class who were demanding sun and sea holidays, and (2) the country’s geographical proximity to these countries (in particular Austria, Germany and Italy), which allowed many independent tourists to drive directly to the Adriatic coast. This new phenomenon permanently changed the lives of inhabitants of coastal and island settlements as the lucrative activity of tourism halted depopulation and economic emigration from these generally poor areas where the economy had consisted of fishing and limited agricultural activities. The pristine seaside landscape and mostly small-scale tourism activities made the area so popular that, in the 1980s, Yugoslavia became one of the top international tourist destinations in Europe. Croatia was the main target for visitors with its coastline of villages and islands, which accounted for approximately ninety-five per cent of all tourist overnights to the republic (Weberet al. 2001). The life cycle of the Croatian tourism product during the twentieth century was characterised by intensive growth, followed by stagnation in the tourism flows in the late eighties. Croatia failed to keep up with the growing demand, and the changes in tourists’ preferences, and started to lose its market share. The tourist flows to Croatia practically came to a halt in the 1990s because of the homeland war, but now, twenty years after the war and a painful recovery phase, Croatia is once again attracting the tourist market. In recent years, despite the economic crisis, it has one of the highest the growth rates compared to its Mediterranean competitors (World Tourism Organization 2008).
