Croatia - International Special Reports

Spread the word:
Croatia is an extraordinarily safe place to visit

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Spread the word: Croatia is an extraordinarily safe place to visit

That Croatia has never able to realize its full potential for tourism is not surprising. The Cold War period tended to attract culturally adventurous-type Western tourists, rather than vacationers coming to enjoy the nation’s abundant natural beauty. The types of lodging that they found often left them astonished. Although there were a few grand hotels in Zagreb, and along the coast, the communist system, by and large, assembled dull, uninspiring tourism facilities.

As Croatia went to war in order to achieve its independence it lost the one thing that is absolutely crucial to a major tourist destination- a sense of security. It also lost its allegiance to communism. These two factors, the cycles of war and communism, still combine to offer Croatian tourism a unique challenge in its strive to become the world’s next great tourism destination.

"The war brought terrible things to Croatia," said Ms. Pave Zupan-Ruskovic, Croatia’s Minister of Tourism. "But one positive thing came out of it," she notes with irony, "The war stopped the trend, in Yugoslavian tourism, of constructing large hotels- putting up a lot of concrete along the coast. In a way it was good that the war came along and stopped it."

Because the breakup of Yugoslavia is such a relatively recent and high profile event Croatia has inherited a reputation as a dangerous place. Dissociating itself from this image is a far more daunting near-term obstacle for Croatia to overcome than erasing the remnants of communism. Unsightly hotels can be taken down. Making sure that people rightfully associate Croatia with its stunning scenery and cultural/historical magnificence, rather than war, is more difficult.

In 1991 over twelve million tourists came to Croatia. During the first two years of the war to achieve Croatian independence tourism dropped to almost nothing.

Said Ms. Ruskovic, "We had a few tourists coming on the north part of the Adriatic Coast, in Istria, where there was no shelling or fighting. But of course there were far less coming to visit than immediately before the conflict."

After 1994 tourist started to trickle back, however the bulk of the visitors continued to head to the Istrian Peninsula. Dalmatia and Dubrovnik remained virtually devoid of tourists.

The first truly successful season for Dalmatia and Dubrovnik, since the war, occurred last year when seven million tourists came to visit. This year, according to Minister Ruskovic, a little more than eight million people will have visited Croatia.

"We were a very popular destination for North and South Americans," said Ruskovic. "We are currently very popular with Japanese and Far-East tourists, but unfortunately, this year, the only country showing a decline in the number of tourists to Croatia- is the United States. The reason for that is the Macedonian problem."

It will take a lot of effort to get the word out that Croatia is a secure, confident nation- on the short list of Central European states likely to be asked to join NATO.

Spreading the word that Croatia is an extraordinarily safe place to visit, in the year 2001, is a top priority for the country. That many people around the world, even in neighboring European countries, consider Croatia unsafe makes most Croatians laugh at this quirk of fate. The streets of Zagreb are amongst the safest of any Western capital.

"That feeling that even before five o’clock in the morning you can walk the streets of Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Split, or wherever, and you can feel safe, is something that you cannot experience in many other countries," says Ruskovic.

It is a feeling that those of us in Washington wish that we could share.