No abstract

The aim of this research was to estimate the economic, promotional, and sociocultural impact of cruise tourism to Croatian destinations. Due to the anticipated growth of cruise tourism worldwide and, especially, in the Mediterranean, measuring its impacts is becoming an increasingly important issue in terms of appropriate planning of cruising tourism on the local level. The study reported here included the survey of cruise ship passengers and crew members in order to estimate their on-land expenditure, survey of hotel guests aimed to estimate the impact of cruise experience on repeat, land-based, visits, and survey of local residents aimed to estimate the sociocultural impact of cruise ship tourism. The study found that, in terms of the passenger- and crew-related expenditure, cruise passengers were relatively good spenders. They spent between 34 and 82 Euros, depending on the port of call. In terms of the value of cruising upon the return visit to a destination, the survey revealed that only between 1.5% and 3% of cruise passengers who visited Croatian destinations during 2000–2006 returned in 2006 as land-based visitors. In destinations with frequent cruise ship calls the negative impact on destination attractiveness is already present. Land-based tourists disliked seeing cruisers/cruise passengers in destination (23%), and were complaining of the noise generated by the cruise ships. Finally, residents also reported the adverse impact of cruisers and their passengers relating mostly to the excessive crowdedness created in the short time. However, they still supported cruise tourism, albeit advocating an urgent need to improve the traffic and visitor flow management. With an understanding of the economic value of the cruise industry and the range of the impact that it creates on land-based tourists and residents' community, the results are very important for drafting the strategic direction for cruise tourism development already under way in Croatia.

The development of demand in Croatian nautical tourism is discussed, including its qualitative and quantitative characteristics. Also presented is a reference to the competitiveness of yachting tourism in Croatia, as well as a consideration of the future potential of Croatian yachting and cruising.

While nautical tourism is experiencing a strong demand in the Mediterranean, this growth presents a significant challenge to destination planners. The question of how well nautical tourism destinations are meeting increased demand, in terms of both capacity and quality, is of crucial importance for nautical tourism destinations and their competitiveness. While measuring destination competitiveness is a common practice worldwide, the competitiveness of nautical tourism has not received much research attention. The study reported here aims to fill this gap by addressing not only the competitive position of countries in the Mediterranean, especially Croatia, but also by providing a valuable discussion on issues relating to measuring nautical tourism competitiveness. The study focuses on nautical tourism supply, price competitiveness, and nautical tourists' perceptions of competitiveness. The results revealed that the natural resources and feeling of safety are the strongest Croatian advantage, but this is undermined by the lower standards of infrastructure and services with accompanied lower value for money. While this, at the moment, does not appear to adversely affect demand for the Croatian nautical tourism, failure to address these issues would reduce competitiveness and threaten the long-term sustainability of nautical tourism.

There is a paucity of studies on the subject of environmental assets and their value. This is particularly the case with the forests. In Croatia, coastal forests are an important public asset especially given their value as an indispensable part of the Mediterranean landscape, yet often threatened by fires. Recognising this value of forests, the ongoing project concerning the coastal forest protection and reconstruction was initiated in 1995. An aspect of the project was to ascertain the aesthetic and recreational value that forests have for local residents. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to report selected survey results, but more important, to give an outline of the methodological approach developed for this complex task. Contingent valuation method, as the most frequently used method for the valuation of public non‐marketed goods and environmental assets was applied. Two surveys were conducted describing hypothetical forest preservation and forest reforestation programmes. The focus of the surveys was to test local residents' willingness to pay for the protection of forests in view and for the reforestation of burnt areas in view. Results demonstrated that majority of respondents was willing to pay for the protection of forests in view as well as for reforestation, and their main motive for paying was esthetical. Both univariate and multivariate methods were applied in order to assess the best predictors of willingness to pay for both surveys.