Changes of tourism trajectories in (post)covidian world : Croatian perspectives

This paper analyses impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Croatian tourism. The analysis is based on data on tourism arrivals, overnight stays and tourist beds in the period January - September in 2019 and 2020, as later data for 2020 was not available at the moment of writing. Generated from the online-registering system data was specially prepared by the Croatian Tourist Boards. Apart from an immense decline in all tourism parameters, which goes in line with global trends, the results of our research reveal changes that occurred in terms of seasonality, spatial distribution of tourism, average stay, organization of arrival, age, origin and type of accommodation used, according to the data available. The paper further discusses the global context of the pandemic situation and local and personal responses that have an important impact on re-directing and tracing eventually new tourism trajectories of the (post)pandemic time. Two principal groups of factors have been recognized as mostly affecting the processes, trends and possible future trajectories have been identified: on the one hand global movement and travel bans and restrictions, on the other hand personal responses reflected in motivation and behavioural changes. Changes that occurred in pandemic time are seen as catalysts for re-enforcement and raised interest in escapism and slow movements in tourism. Instead of seeking to ‘go back to business as usual’, the authors argue to reconsider the trajectories that emerged during the time of the pandemic and to envisage other approaches towards more sustainable tourism.