The annual conference on CYCLING TOURISM held last week in Osijek on the Drava, as well as the recent meeting in Zagreb on the occasion of World Tourism Day, showed all the features and charms, but also the need to strengthen this segment towards sustainable tourism. Although cyclotourism is still not sufficiently organized and marketed, the progress and application of the "two-wheeled sport" in contemporary tourist movements is still visible.
The recently held 9th CRO RACE 2024, which is being held for the ninth time in "Lijepoja noša", has shown that this competitive sport has a global significance for the promotion of the country and its natural and cultural values as tourist potential. An attractive and competitive important cycling sports event gathered the very top of the world's teams and individuals who, in addition to football and tennis and some other sports, actually contribute to the visibility of our country on the global tourism scene.
In the shadow, or rather as a side event, the National Cycling Conference was held, hosted by Osijek, after Varaždin and Split, and which gathered a large number of stakeholders from all spheres of society, from public and private to academic, in Tvrđa on the banks of the Drava and sports.
Several ministries of the Government of the Republic of Croatia were actively involved, so in addition to the urban and traffic features, the tourist features of this nearly two-century-old human activity were also discussed.
Also interesting were the geodetic solutions that, along with the application of mobile applications, keep this activity at the very top of technical-technological and even academic considerations, so that the application in the sports-tourism sector would have visible results.
As CYCLING TOURISM is one of the most important sectors of sustainable tourism, we carefully followed the academic and practical approach from Slovenia and the Netherlands, which could be a good example for Croatia.
Popular CYCLING PATHS, with which Europe is networked, are also of great importance in the planning of transport corridors, and therefore also of great importance for Croatian tourism, both on the coast and islands of the Adriatic, as well as in the hinterland of Istria, Lika and Dalmatia, but also in the whole of Pannonian Croatia - Slavonia, Baranja, Srijem , Međimurja, Banovine...
In accordance with such global trends, the employees of the CROATIAN TOURIST COMMUNITY have also joined in, together with the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, in fact, in this way they solve pressing tourism problems - from seasonality and spatial devastation to all-round sustainability - ecological, cultural, demographic and economic.
Following this orientation, a conference was recently held in Zagreb, which was organized by the CROATIAN INSTITUTE FOR TOURISM on September 27 on the occasion of World Tourism Day, also marking the 65th anniversary of its founding.
All of these events, as well as other cultural tourism and wine-gastro events, keep the Republic of Croatia at the very top of the Mediterranean, European and even global tourism rankings. More and more quality prevails over quantity, so we hope that the social well-being and satisfaction of both tourists and the resident population will overcome tourist figures and statistics - from arrivals and overnight stays to gross income.
This is the only way tourism as a global phenomenon can achieve its mission and goals, just like a cyclist who has to "pedal" moderately and rationally in order to reach the goal happily and satisfied.
The gatherings in Zagreb and Osijek showed good trends, so they should be followed on a micro level as well, everyone in their domicile. We hope that the next Tourism Day and the cycling conference announced for Istria after the "Mihol summer" in 2025 will also be a barometer in the application of the new Law on Sustainable Tourism and its application in practice. Plans and projects should be implemented, not just written - ORA ET LABORA, our spiritual shepherds would say.
