Mass and selective tourism in croatia

Abstract

The contradictions and the weaknesses of mass tourism are slowing down its development, so that the existing model of mass tourism is increasingly negating itself. The abuse of spatial resources, pronounced seasonal fluctuations and structural unadaptability, as well as its negative impacts on the social, spatial, ecological and economic spheres are significant reasons for the need to continually work on redefining this model, and even to substitute it with a new one. This new model can be tentatively called the model of selective tourism. The author analyzes and compares the relationships and the characteristics of selective tourism with those of mass tourism, using Croatian tourism as an example, pointing out all die comparative advantages inherent in the selective tourism model particularly in creating Croatia's new tourism identity. Arguing for the co-existence of the two models, with a gradual shift toward selective types of tourism, this article is a plea for the development of all types of ecologically responsible, small-scale, elite and specific types of tourism, all of them being facets of die selective tourism model.