THE PRESENT POSITION AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE GERMAN LANGUAGE IN CROATIAN TOURISM

The global competition on the tourist market and the internationalization of the tourist industry intensify the need for language learning. Knowledge of foreign languages is the most important prerequisite of the quality service in the tourist industry. The structure of foreign guests in Croatia classified by emitting countries proves that the part of the German speaking guests in comparison with other language communities is the most prominent one, so that German is the most important foreign language for the communication in Croatian tourism. Although its learning in Croatian educational institutions compared to English has been neglected, it has been learnt by all pupils in vocational schools for hotel and tourism industry. In Croatian tourism English as the language of the global communication can not satisfy all communication needs in tourism.