May 14, 2023 - A move away from quantity to quality in the new Croatian tourism law, reports Morski.hr?
-We are raising quality, we do not want mass tourism. We are expanding the offer, tourists are staying more, the number of overnight stays is increasing throughout the year. We will also invest in health tourism, Minister Brnjac points out.
- We had to make a real reform of Croatian tourism when the pandemic started, there are climate challenges, resources, we started working on a reform of several steps - adopting a strategy for developing year-round tourism, adopting a national plan for secured funds and the Tourism Act, the first umbrella law. It needs to organize the management of sustainable tourism - said Minister of Tourism and Sports Nikolina Brnjac in N1 Studio.
She added that the law primarily applies to mayors and prefects, they make decisions in communities, they must know what kind of tourism they want, they will have to make management plans every four years. Those with a tourism development index of 1 and 2 must submit capacity plans.
- Accounts of sustainable tourism will be made. Through management plans and capacity planning that will be clearly prescribed, the local population must be satisfied with resources, consumption of drinking water, electricity. Natural resources are not inexhaustible - she pointed out.
She emphasizes that sustainability, care for the environment and cultural history have become very important to tourists. Research shows that tourists' first questions are how we plan to change the rules of sustainability, whether we take care of resources. Today, tourists follow destinations, how they take care of their natural and cultural-historical heritage, writes N1.
They have been working on the law for a year and a half in silence with analytics, as it was solved with others, there is no single recipe for all destinations, Brnjac reveals.
- If you have a satisfied local community, then we will have satisfied tourists, they want to see preserved cultural sights, natural resources, they want to enjoy the outdoors. Local leaders will be able to define projects of special importance for the destination according to sustainability criteria - he says.
When asked how the numbers in tourism will grow in the future if the local community can limit the number of tourists depending on resources, Brnjac explained:
- We are raising quality, we don't want mass tourism. Over seven million overnight stays have already been achieved, which is better than in 2019. We are expanding the offer, tourists are staying more, the number of overnight stays is increasing throughout the year. We will also invest in health tourism. We are much more than sun and sea, we have a lot to offer - concluded the minister.
