Author(s)

M Kovačić, S. Favro, Z. Gržetić

Abstract

Croatia is a country with more than a thousand islands, a small number of which are inhabited and provides for a good livelihood throughout the year. Some of the islands are occasionally inhabited, while others are uninhabited and have no or poor traffic links. The authors of this paper analyse the survey \“Small, occasionally inhabited and uninhabited island and islets” (2007) carried out by the Hydrographic Institute of Croatia. The authors examine opportunities for the balanced revival of the islands, taking into consideration the fact that there will always be differences in their prospects and their level of development. Evidently, islands closer to the mainland have an advantage over the more distant islands, and the occasionally inhabited islands have an advantage over the uninhabited ones. The prospects of remote islands are inversely proportional to their distance from the mainland, unless an island possesses some special advantages or enjoys a special status. By grouping islands according to their population density, it is evident how much they differ by their characteristics. That is why the development of each island should be considered individually, and potential development scenarios should be constructed separately. The basic guidelines are enabling and constraining factors of development, including market conditions and requirements, the force of their mutual influence, as well as the potential development of activities within an Adriatic-based orientation. The authors propose measures for the revitalization of occasionally inhabited and uninhabited islands. They highlight opportunities for further development, based especially on developing forms of special-interest tourism, through a global approach to

Keywords

small islands, development models, special-interest tourism, Croatia