THE IMPORTANCE OF TOURISM IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ECONOMY OF CROATIA

Abstract

Tourism represents the dominant economic activity of the Republic of Croatia, which in the previous period significantly determined both economic and social processes. The tourism development strategy of the Republic of Croatia until 2020 defined five main goals: increasing international competitiveness, improving the structure and quality of accommodation, new employment, realization of a new investment cycle and increasing tourist consumption. Although progress was visible in the previous period, the realization of the goals was largely absent. In the context of increasing the international competitiveness of Croatian tourism, it was planned to enter the 20 leading tourist destinations in the world, but Croatia ended 2019 in 27th place. Also, the strategy for the previous period predicted the direction of creating added value with the ambition of improving the structure and quality of accommodation. The planned increase in the share of accommodation in hotels from 13.1% in 2011 to 18.1% in 2020 (number of beds) was not realized, and family accommodation grew at higher rates, although a kind of step forward in quality was made (primarily through brownfield ).