Conference "Challenges and Perspectives of Sustainable Tourism Development in Croatia"
In the Plitvice Lakes National Park, 27.09.2017. Conference "Challenges and Perspectives of Sustainable Tourism Development in Croatia" was held. The World Tourism Organization under the auspices of the United Nations marks the year 2017 as a year of sustainable tourism for development, and the conference was organized by the Network for Sustainable Development of Croatia in cooperation with Lika Destination Cluster and NP Plitvice Lakes. At a conference attended by a large number of tourist community representatives from all over Croatia, local action groups, representatives of local and regional self-government units, the scientific community and tourism industry, there was a need to integrate the broad community in education, promotion and implementation of the philosophy of sustainable tourism development. Representatives of the three ministries spoke initially at the conference; Mr. Igor Kreitmeyer, Assistant Minister of Environmental Protection and Energy, Mr. Robert Pende, Assistant Minister of Tourism and Mrs. Nikolina Klaić, State Secretary of the Ministry of Regional Development and European Union Funds. Sustainable tourism development rests on three pillars: economic sustainability, social responsibility and environmental protection. In order to successfully implement this in practice, cooperation of apparently controversial sectors is needed, such as tourism construction and space protection. Sustainable tourism implies inclusion of people and coexistence with tourists because they are just coming to experience, feel and taste what they do not have in the end. Collaboration between service providers and local manufacturers today is highly valued and sought after. Rural households that offer agricultural services also offer accommodation such a diet must get their place in tourist offer. It is an expensive product of fast food rather than a homemade and healthy product of the agricultural household that only produced this food. In the context of the development of continental tourism, education and strategic assistance in sustainable development are needed. Based on the lectures and the interactive panel discussion, conclusions were drawn that promote the philosophy of sustainable tourism at all levels of society, to integrate tourism development stakeholders to make concrete sustainability projects (tourist communities, the local authority units, local action groups, associations…), to create, promote and implement small projects "Sustainable Tourism in Practice" and certainly regulate and improve mountain tourism as well as other selective forms of tourism in Croatia, modeled on good examples of developed countries.
