Tourism as an activity is inseparable from space/destination and presupposes the management of the use of public assets, especially the space with its cultural and physical identity.
The concept of sustainable tourism carrying capacity implies considering the limits of acceptable changes conditioned by tourism that do not reduce the attractiveness of a tourist product nor the natural and cultural environment and the quality of life of the local population. Tourism carrying capacity is imposed as a prerequisite for sustainability and as a basis of achieving a collaborative destination.
The importance of considering tourism capacity and its exceptional importance for space has been recognised in the Institute for Physical Planning of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.
During 2020 and 2021, the Institute for Physical Planning of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, in collaboration with the Institute for Tourism from Zagreb, implemented a project under the umbrella title the Development of Sustainable Tourism in PGC, which due to the complexity of the scope of the theme is divided into two phases, and the Crikvenica-Novi Vinodol Riviera (CVR) area was selected as the pilot area.
In the first phase, the study entitled Methodological Framework for Assessing the Carrying Capacity of the Space was prepared, which included an interdisciplinary understanding of the key determinants of carrying capacity and had the goal of exploring the theoretical framework for assessing tourism carrying capacity, analyse the characteristics of the economy and tourism and to identify the bottlenecks to the sustainable development of tourism from the example of CVR.
As part of the second phase of the project entitled Tourism Carrying Capacity of the Crikvenica-Novi Vinodol Riviera, further development of the methodology for assessing the carrying capacity was enabled; that is, the further defining of the model for determining the carrying capacity, testing the set model on the example of the Crikvenica-Novi Vinodol Riviera as a pilot destination and determining the tourism carrying capacity of the Crikvenica-Novi Vinodol Riviera. Finally, with the second phase the limitations of the set model and recommended directions for its improvement were considered.
The presentation presented the entire project and its results, and it was attended by representatives of local government units from the region of the Crikvenica-Novi Vinodol Riviera; the Town of Crikvenica, the Town of Novi Vinodol and the Municipality of Vinodol as well as representatives of their tourist boards.
Taking part in the presentation were:
- Adam Butigan, the director of the Institute for Physical Planning of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County
- Vedrana Petrović, Institute for Physical Planning of PGC,
- Sanja Turk, Institute for Physical Planning of PGC,
- Vedran Radić, Institute for Physical Planning of PGC,
- Neven Ivandić PhD, Institute for Tourism from Zagreb,
- Neda Telišman Košuta, Institute for Tourism from Zagreb.