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Croatia in the New Europe: Culture versus Conformity

When speaking of the implications for Croatian tourism of the enlargement of the European Union (EU), one important aspect needs to be stressed in comparison to other Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). Croatia, as a former republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ), was not part of the Soviet bloc. Notably, up to the end of the 1980’ s, Yugoslavia was generating more hard currency tourism income than the rest of CEE ; It was predominantly Western tourists who travelled to the Adriatic coast freely without any visa requirements, while people from CEE had to go through difficult paperwork in their own country. They could only travel on business and package tours organized by their companies and often with the goal of socialist 'ideologically sound' holydays. Milan Kundera writes in many of his books (e.g. Kundera, 2002) about Czeck(oslovakien) dissidents who used their travel to Yugoslavia to escape to the West. From the early 1960’ s, Yugoslavia developed 'market socialism', where federal devolution and private sector expansion was allowed, particularly in the area of tourism. Questions of interregional flows and the overall restructuring of both tourism production and consumption in CEE (e.g. Hall and Danta, 2009 ; Coles and Hull, 2005) taken on a different dimension when speaking from the experience of a non-aligned country that experienced freedom of mobility during much of the Cold War era (e.g. Allcoc, 1991). Within this context, the chapter addresses the most critical issues and implications of EU enlargement for Croatian tourism over the next decade. First, the Yugoslav wars of succession in the 1990’ s, also coincident with an apparent early decline stage of tourism development based on the traditional ‘ 3S’ market. With consumers seeking cultural and more active experience (e.g. Morgan and Pritchard, 2000), the concentration of simple sun and sea consumption could not sustain continues tourism growth. Equally, local and global forces have created pressures for restructuring and repositioning of the Croatian tourism product at destination and national levels. Conflict speeded the emergence of Croatia as a newly independent state, but it also severely damaged the tourism industry (Ivanić and Radnić, 1996) and demanded a re-imaging away from pejorative notions of ‘ Balkan-ness’ (Hall, 2002). Paradoxically, the opening of political borders and the end of conflict in and around Croatia saw new emerging tourism flows from CEE in the mid 1990s providing a short-term fix which, in conjunction with transitional politics and economic complexities, postponed much-needed marketing, product and spatial diversification (Hall, 2003).

tourism, tourist product, saptial diversification, Croatia

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