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The Challenging Role of Growing International Tourism For Developing Countries: Evidences From Croatia

This paper examines the role of international tourism in changing economic, social and natural environments of developing countries, particularly after the outbreak of the global economic crisis in 2008. The paper outlines both opportunities and threats of increasing country's openness to international tourism flows, which in turn frequently lead to country's economic dependency or even over- dependency upon benefits from international tourism. Available statistics showed in this paper strongly suggest that developing countries, particularly in Europe, suffer from large number of international visitors, but at the same time these countries rely on international tourism as a panacea for solving a wide array of internal issues. While strong linkage to international market has become an important aspect of an outward-oriented development strategy of many developing countries, the recent global economic crisis has posed a profound challenge to policymakers whether to increase the degree of country's openness to international investments and non- residential consumption or not. As a developing country, but also as a country that attracts millions of international visitors each year, Croatia is used as a case study in this paper to help illustrate some key facts and figures that indicate country's economic (over)dependency on tourism benefits. The paper concludes by recommendation that developing countries have to be aware of the tourism resource scarcity, actively participate in multilateral cooperation regarding sustainable tourism development and continuously strive to enlist the support of the international community in order to take advantage of the opportunities and minimize the threats from intensifying outward-orientation in their development strategies.

International tourism, developing countries, outward-oriented strategy, global economic crisis, Croatia

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