Perspectives of greening tourism development - the concepts, the policies, the implementation

Sustainable tourism is extensively used as a panacea in the tourism discourse; however, there are still many challenges in its communication, understanding and efficient implementation. The work presented here aims to contribute to those issues by presenting the concept of greening tourism. Greening tourism is a response to the questions of competitiveness and ecological sustainability of tourism, but also the policies of United Nations and European Union. Market demands, available support mechanisms and accumulated experience through innovation by various stakeholders illustrate the potential for more systematic implementation of the concept. More so, it is argued that there is an opportunity to increase the multiplying effect to the local, in this case Croatian, economy by implementing the "greening" of tourism, defined as environmentally responsible, ecologically informative and educational. In other words, the greening tourism means smaller ecological footprint, contribution to the nature protection goals, improved competitiveness and market resilience, creation of new business opportunities, incorporating widespread use through EU funds and increasing profits and benefits for the local economy.