TOURIST INTENSITY IN CROATIA'S LEADING TOURIST TOWNS AND MUNICIPALITIES

Tourist intensity in Croatia's leading tourist destinations will be analysed here. 25 tourist towns and municipalities were selected, with the criteria that they achieved more than one million overnight stays in 2016. According to geographical distribution there are ten such locations in Istria, six in the Kvarner region, eight in Dalmatia, and one in central Croatia. In 2016, these leading tourist towns and municipalities had 48% of tourist beds for commercial accommodation in their offers, and collectively achieved 57% of all tourist arrivals and 54% of all overnight stays in the Republic of Croatia. In this analysis of tourist intensity the following indicators were used: the total number of tourist beds, the total number of tourist arrivals, the total number of tourist overnight stays, and an approximation of the population number in municipalities and cities at the end of 2016 according to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, as well as the area of municipalities and cities according to the data of the State Geodetic Administration. The data cited here were used in order to calculate the tourist intensity rate (TIR), the tourist penetration rate (TPR) according to the total number of total tourist overnight says, the tourism density rate (TDR) which calculates tourism density according to the total number of tourist arrivals and overnight stays, and coefficient of tourist functionality (CTF). The results of this analysis derived from the evaluation of every different percentage all showed that the greatest tourist intensity among all the leading towns and municipalities in the Republic of Croatia are in the municipalities of Funtana and Tar-Vabriga on the west coast of Istria, as well as the Municipality of Medulin in the furthest south of Istria. According to these percentages, the smallest intensity is in the largest cities such as Zagreb, Sibenik and Zadar. Field research and an interview with the representative of the tourist board of the Municipality of Funtana showed that tourist intensity did not endanger the sustainability of this municipality, that it strengthened the local economy by encouraging employment, stimulated the preservation of traditions, and that there were no conflicting relationships between tourists and the local population.