UNWTO director praises Croatia for progress in tourism sector

Addressing a seminar on sustainable destination management, which was held in Zagreb on Friday during the CroTour show at the Zagreb Fair compound, Luigi Cabrini a director in World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), praised Croatia's progress in its tourist sector as the turnover in the country's tourist trade had increased 5.3 percent from 2000 to 2010.

It was a higher growth rate than in the Mediterranean in the said period, which was not easy to achieve due to the war in the 1990s and strong competition in the Mediterranean, he said.

Croatia's progress has been recognized in rankings published by the World Economic Forum about travel and tourism competitiveness of economies around the world. Croatia ranks 34th in the list with 139 countries, and further development and improvement of competitiveness require sustainability and responsible exploitation of resources, Cabrini said.

He also spoke about basic goals of sustainable tourism which the UNWTO promotes through a series of activities, such as the improvement of economic results, employment of local population, the preservation of the physical integrity of destinations and biological diversity, and environment protection.

The UNWTO director said that Croatia was one of four European countries in a 17-country group included the UNWTO-led project "Global Partnership for Sustainable Tourism". CroTOUR 2011 was held under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism and with the support of the Croatian National Tourist Board and the World Tourism Organization (WTO). (Hina)