Challenges of tourism development in protected areas of Croatia and Slovenia

Abstract

This collection of research is the result of fruitful collaboration between the Department of Geography of the University of Zagreb in Croatia, and the Department of Geography of the University of Primorska in Slovenia, which was implemented within the framework of a bilateral research pro-ject entitled “Comparative analysis of spatial development of tourism in protected areas of Croatia and Slovenia”, in 2018 and 2019. The authors found a background for their research in the fact that Croatia and Slovenia are interesting cases for examining the spatial development of tourism in protected areas of nature, as they shared the same socio-economic context of development in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After their independence and the period of transition, they faced different development dynamics and adopted various approaches for management and development of protected areas. Today, both countries are members of the European Union and are confronted with many similar challenges regarding the implementation of the concept of sustainable tourism in protected areas.