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.

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For many years, tourism scholars have been investigating tourism development issues and disseminating their research results through papers published in academic journals. Although there is evidence that their viewpoints are in discrepancy with the viewpoints of tourism practitioners, these inconsistencies were rarely investigated and juxtaposed. As the global health pandemic caused by COVID-19 stopped travel and tourism all over the world, it created time for both groups of tourism experts to reflect on the various opportunities and challenges that the tourism sector will face in the future. Using the qualitative research design, the authors had the chance to collect, analyse and discuss the views of tourism experts on the recovery phase and possible changes to tourism in Croatia. Data was obtained through semi structured interviews of tourism practitioners from public and private sectors, and through literary review of published opinion papers by international scholars. The aim of the research was focused on the comparison of their views on the short-term recovery of tourism, as well as the long-term possibilities to transform the sector towards a more sustainable and more inclusive sector that is able to utilize the regional competitive advantages in the best possible way. The research results revealed more similarities regarding the attitudes on the recovery during short-term period, as opposed to more dissimilarity on the long-term future of tourism in Croatia. According to the research results, the future of tourism would benefit from the experience and knowledge of both groups combined – practitioners and scholars.

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