The Tourism Act, the first umbrella law on this industry, is expected to go into force on 1 January and envisages the obligation to adopt destination management plans, among other things, it was said on Wednesday at a presentation of the bill, which was put to public consultation today.

This government has been comprehensively reforming tourism from the start of its term, Minister Nikolina Brnjac said, mentioning the 2030 Sustainable Tourism Development Strategy and the allocation of €1.3 billion from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan as well as the EU and Croatian budgets.

The Tourism Act is aimed at creating a framework for managing tourism development based on exact data in order to safeguard resources and space, ensure the high quality of life of the local population in tourist destinations, and make Croatian tourism globally competitive, she said.

The law will provide a framework for sustainable tourism development, envisaging a tourism development index, a sustainable tourism satellite account, and sustainability indicators which will serve to calculate the satellite account and draw up the management plans. The adoption of four-year destination management plans will be a legal obligation.

Given Croatia’s uneven tourism development, its management must be lowered to the local and regional levels, Brnjac said.

Destination management plans will be made by local tourist boards with the participation of local government and the local population. The basis for making them for the most developed destinations will be a calculation of how many tourists each can receive.

Sustainable tourism satellite accounts will serve to monitor the economic, ecological and social impact of tourism. Given Croatia’s uneven tourism development, national, regional and county accounts will be created.

The ministry will create a public database for projects of special significance for destination development that can be financed from the Tourism Fund, Brnjac said.