HrTurizam reports that the Institute for Tourism has published the Tourism Development Index for 2020, a year marked by the pandemic and that ultimately put in trouble an industry that in 2018 contributed 19.6% to the country’s gross domestic product and that represented 6.6% of total jobs in Croatia, according to the OECD.
Despite the specific cases of success in which the virus was challenged and the obstacles it brought with it as well, specifically in the Istria region last summer, the context was definitely not favorable for thousands of hotels, accommodations, restaurants, agencies, guides, and other sectors of the tourism industry in Croatia.
The tourism development index is calculated once a year and is based on five basic indicators that are exact, transparent and objective, and easily accessible to all cities and municipalities in Croatia on an annual basis, and cities and municipalities can easily monitor changes in the level of tourism development indicators, as well as planning their development. These are the following indicators: (1) number of beds, (2) number of beds in hotels and similar accommodation facilities, (3) number of tourists, (4) number of nights, and (5) number of employees in accommodation and food service activities, where all indicators are calculated in absolute and relative values.
Institute for Tourism
In addition, the model provides an opportunity to create a quality analytical and information basis for the implementation of sectoral policy measures in the field of tourism.
The values of the index range from zero to a maximum of 40, with all local self-government units divided into 5 classes according to the level of tourism development, from the least developed ones with zero index values to the most developed ones where the ITR index value is higher than 30.
It should be reminded that ITR is the result of many years of cooperation between the Institute of Tourism and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, and the main purpose of the index is to provide a quality analytical basis for more efficient tourism policy at national, regional and local levels.
The motive for creating the ITR index stemmed from the need for quality and precise definition of the level of tourism development of local governments as basic territorial units in Croatia, in order to establish an efficient and transparent system that will alleviate current inequalities in tourism development in Croatia and better valorize its resources.
More detailed methodological explanations related to the calculation of the ITR index can be found HERE.
