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Karst and Tourism in Croatia

Croatia is relatively small Central European and Mediterranean country with surface of 56 538 km2 and population of 4.44 million according to 2001 census. Recent economic development, abruptly interrupted during 1991-1995 Croatian War for Independence, is primarily based on tourism. Becoming one of the most popular destinations, Croatia recorded total of 9.9 millions tourist arrivals with 51.4 millions tourist nights and over 7 billions of $ of tourist income in 2005. Natural landscape diversity represents a foundation of tourist progress. Karst covers almost half of Croatian territory. It also includes entire coast and islands (1246 islands, islets and rocks) with belonging submarine, and all (7) national parks (1.8 millions visitors in 2004). Regions with predominantly karst relief account for 90% of total tourist arrivals and 96.5% of total tourist nights. In the pre-war period, valorization of specific karst forms as possible tourist attractions has been limited to the parts of national and nature parks, and tourism, has had limited offer based on the "sea and sun" principle. Recently, this strategy has been abandoned in favor of "active" vacation offer, thus, some particular karst features such as cliffs, caves, canyons, rapids etc., found their place in Croatian tourist offer, resulting in increasing numbers of tourists visiting aforementioned places and in appearance of new types of tourism, i.e., free climbing, mountain biking, trekking, rafting, kayaking, sea- canoeing, cave diving etc. On the other hand, karst relief might have regressive influence on Croatian tourism in the near future. Due to the specific karst hydrology, coastal and insular parts of Croatia suffer water deprivation in drier years. This problem is especially emphasized on most of the small Croatian islands in the peak of tourist season when island population rapidly increases. However, Croatian karst region remains a stronghold of future tourism and economic development in general.

Croatia ; karst ; tourism ; coast ; islands ; national and nature parks ; economy

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