A Climate for Change

(^54) Tourism Human Development Report - Croatia 2008
ment rental and restaurants and, as a result, became
far less dependent on coastal natural resources and
more dependent on the revenue obtained from the
two to three month tourist season - which sustained
them for the rest of the year.
During the war the infrastructure of many tourist des-
tinations was severely damaged. Some of the most
important destination cities, like Dubrovnik, were sub-
jected to sustained shelling and nearly half the hotels
were damaged.^4 Tourist visits fell to 20% of pre-war
levels and, partly as a result of this decreased tourism,
Croatia’s overall GDP fell by more than a third during
the period 1989-1993.
The dramatic decline in the number of tourists during
the 1990s illustrated the vulnerability of the tourism
industry. This created an opportunity for public and
private sector decision-makers to consider a new ap-
proach for the industry’s development. Before the
1990s the predominant attraction of tourist destina-
tions was the sea and the beach. The goal at that time
was seaside “mass tourism,” targeting the working
class in Eastern Europe, Germany and Italy. Because of
the low prices and limited products targeting lower in-
come tourists, it was difficult for those providing goods
and services to tourists to increase their incomes. Af-
ter the war, a new concept of tourism development
emerged, that would contribute more to national in-
comes. The national strategy expanded to include the
development of inland tourist destinations, rural tour-
ist destinations, ecotourism and the introduction of
new products geared towards higher income tourists.^5
However, resting and relaxing by the seaside is still the
most important tourist activity in Croatia.
4.2.2. Role of tourism in the Croatian
economy
Following the end of the war in 1995, tourism and
Croatia’s economy slowly began to recover. Finally, in
2000, the tourism sector quickly started to rebound
and the numbers of day and overnight tourists in-
creased rapidly. In the year 2007 tourist numbers rose
substantially and surpassed pre-1991 numbers for the
first time.^6 At the same time, Croatia started to build a
new motorway network, which has made it easier for
tourists to get to some cities and areas on the coast.
This has had a significant impact on some areas. For
example, the city of Zadar and adjacent areas were se-
verely devastated by the war in the 1990s, but since
the motorway was built, it has become one of the
most dynamic areas of growth on the coast.
The percentage of foreign tourists is still much greater
than local tourists, both for day-tourists (83.4 % for-
eign versus 16.6% domestic) and overnight tourists
(88.5 % foreign versus 11.5% domestic).^7 The estimat-
ed income from tourism for 2007 was almost 20% of
Croatia’s GDP and is expected to grow dramatically in
the coming decade (Table 4-1, Figure 4-2).^8
4.2.3. Tourism’s impact on employment
The tourism industry contributes significantly to hu-
man development in Croatia through the jobs and
incomes that it creates for Croatians. The travel and
tourism economy currently (2008) provides 336,000
jobs or almost a third of total employment and is ex-
pected to grow.^10
Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Projected for 2018 9
Number of visitors
(in million)
7.9 8.3 8.9 9.4 10 10.4 11.2
Overnights (in million) 43.4 44.7 46.6 47.8 51.4 53 56
Income from tourism
(in billion EUR)
3.7 4 5.6 5.5 6 6.3 6.7 26.1
GDP (in billion EUR) 22.2 24.5 26.2 28.7 31.3 34.2 37.4
Share of tourism in GDP
(%)
16.9 16.2 21.2 19.2 19.2 18.4 18 32.7
Table 4-1: Number of visitors, overnights, GDP and income from tourism 2001-2007