June the 22nd, 2025 – Croatia is set to receive a sustainable tourism centre as the country firmly turns away from mass tourism.
A Lider Media/Sergej Ambramov writes, yet another scorching, long Croatian summer is beginning. The country’s schools are empty, and counting tourists and vehicles at toll booths will once again become a barely tolerable daily story. Things are altering, however, albeit gradually.
Tourism Minister Tonči Glavina, Secretary-General of the UN World Tourism Organisation Zurab Pololikashvili, and the rector of the University of Zagreb Stjepan Lakušić signed an interesting agreement recently. That agreement will result in Croatia receiving a sustainable tourism centre. The future Centre for Research and the Development of Sustainable Tourism comes as an award of sorts for the country’s efforts towards encouraging more sustainable tourism.
“We really need to set limits to growth because Croatia’s destinations must remain alive, and not merely turn into empty backdrops and museums. Dubrovnik is the best example of how to go from excessive tourism to a destination that has done the most in regard to turning to sustainable tourism,” said Glavina during the signing of these agreements in Dubrovnik.
There are, of course, different opinions on this matter and about Croatian sustainable tourism on the whole. Perhaps the flow of tourists through Croatia’s ancient southernmost city has become more sustainable, but that doesn’t really mean much to its exasperated residents. Marko Dabrović from Studio 3LHD, originally from Dubrovnik, stated at the ‘Building the Future’ conference that he doesn’t know anyone in Dubrovnik who can afford an apartment for their children in the city. The situation is similar in Split and other larger towns all along the Adriatic coast.
The initiative to reward sustainability in tourism is welcome. Croatia getting its hands on a proper sustainable tourism centre that would scientifically study how to establish it is also a fantastic move. The fact that certain destinations along the coast have been adorned with international awards for sustainability and that the general impression of domestic tourism is better can also not be minimised. However, the reality is that as things stand, Croatia’s continued overall tourism product is far from sustainable.
In addition to owning property, renting a holiday apartment is also generally difficult for locals to afford. The non-boarding offer is unsightly and too expensive, the burden on the infrastructure is almost unbearable, and cities and towns are often left untidy. Much can be improved in this regard, and the solution lies in the activities of cities, municipalities and supervisory bodies themselves.
They’re the ones who decide whether a place will have a bike path or whether mothers will need to push strollers along the busy road because there are no real pavements. They’re the ones who choose whether more people will be crammed into excursion boats than is actually allowed. They also dictate just many tourist boat arrivals will be allowed, who will offer what at concession locations, and whether or not pub crawls are something worth inflicting on a destination.
Croatia getting a sustainable tourism centre is a great step in the right direction, but as things stand, tourism is very much being left to its own devices. Although this sustainability award will bring a tempting badge for the more ambitious in the tourism sector, it would be more useful to influence local authorities from the state level down to pull themselves together and start looking for and actually implementing best practices.
Glavina is right when he said he isn’t at all worried about the drop in arrivals and overnight stays recorded in May, but is concerned about sustainability. No amount of awards or even Croatia having its own sustainable tourism centre will ever be enough, however, to quench the thirst greed causes in many.
