engleski

Tourism challenges of protected areas in Croatia

Increased ecological consciousness, health care, as well as increased demand and interest in outdoor recreation are great opportunities, but also challenges for each protected areas (PA) to attract more visitors, meet their needs and expectations. In addition to their main purpose of existence (protection and preservation), they strive to justify their existence as more as possible through the social context and above all through the tourism development. However, tourism development and level of visit of each one greatly depend on the category, resource attractiveness, accessibility and traffic connectivity, as well as additional supply and other unique features of the PA. Although Croatia is one of the best-ranked countries in Europe in terms of abundant natural resources and nature conservation, tourism in PAs are poorly developed, besides few of those (e.g. Plitvice Lakes National Park, Krka National Park). It is important to note that within the tourism in PAs in Croatia, the most active are national parks and nature parks. The core differences are that nature parks have a lower level of resources attractiveness and they are under lower rank of protection. Consequently, there are greater economic opportunities in using resources opposed to national parks, but the main question is the exploitation of these opportunities and other specific challenges of both PAs. In accordance with previous circumstances, the main aim of the paper is to provide an overview of current research in the field of tourism in PAs, with a focus on the current challenges of protected areas and tourism sustainability, separately in nature parks and national parks. It is to expect that paper will assure better understanding of the necessity of tourism adjustment in PAs in Croatia, especially tourism in nature parks, in order to achieve better position on tourism market and achieve sustainable and more competitive tourism development.

tourism in protected areas, national parks, nature parks, challenges of sustainable tourism of protected areas

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