Establishing tourist regions: The situation in Croatia

This paper is characteristic of the good work being carried out at the Institute of Tourism in Zagreb, and of the new thinking that will be needed to rebuild the Croation and Yugoslavian tourism industries which have been shattered by civil war. It examines international systems of spatial organization for tourist regions and their implementation in Croatia, formerly Yugoslavia's most important tourist region. Three basic models of spatial organization for tourism are defined: a) tourist regions which correspond to administrative units (regions, provinces, etc); b) tourist areas which are excluded, as special areas, from the rest of the country; and c) tourist regions which cover the whole territory of a country, but do not correspond with the existing administrative organization and boundaries on a regional level. The most appropriate model for Croatia is the third model, ie that used in the UK and New Zealand. On the basis of this model, some eight tourist regions are proposed in Croatia and these are described both quantitatively and qualitatively.