Why Croatia Cannot Compete

In 1984, a group of us went on holiday to what we called Yugoslavia but to what was Croatia, except that no one made much reference to Croatia in 1984, as the Big Brother Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was still intact. Two years later, the SFR started to finally creak. Serbia's SANU Memorandum was issued and so began the unravelling of the SFR and the descent into war.

We really didn't know a great deal about where we were going, other than the fact that the place was called Umag, which didn't sound particularly delightful. The resort where we stayed had a distinctly Communist feel to it. There was one vast refectory-type restaurant which specialised in nothing in particular, a vast concrete "entertainment" complex with as little appeal and ambience as a 1960s John Poulson-designed English shopping centre, and a beach that wasn't a beach. It was like a car park. Concrete. The only redeeming feature was the accommodation - wooden chalets set amidst pine trees which fortunately had barbecues, meaning that the restaurant could be given a deservedly wide berth.

As Umag demonstrated, Yugoslavia was a tourism destination stuck in something of a time-warp, but though ostensibly Communist, Yugoslavia had long been open to tourism, and Croatia, as one could observe in Umag, was popular with German and Austrian visitors who could travel easily by road. It was the existence of a tourism infrastructure (albeit one in need of updating) and a previous tourism reputation that enabled Croatia to quickly establish itself on the European tourism map once hostilities came to an end.

Croatia as a competitor to Mallorca has long been spoken about, but it has recently been spoken about less. Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia have all assumed higher profiles and interest, even if this interest, where Egypt and Tunisia have been concerned, has been one of reaping the benefits of revolt. But Croatia's competitiveness has not been diminished. Quite the reverse. It also benefited from the Arab spring, and while Turkey and Egypt do tend to dominate much of the tourism discussion in Mallorca, Croatia is arguably the biggest single competitive threat to Mallorca.

The Banca March, in its recent report looking at tourism going forward to 2030, is one organisation which has identified Croatia as the island's main competitor. It isn't difficult to see why this might be. The advantage of easy transport links which existed before the Yugoslav Wars remains a key advantage, which is why German, Austrian and Italian tourism is so strong, while these links enable Croatia to benefit far more now than it did in 1984 from tourists from the one Communist country who were able to move relatively freely, the Hungarians. And Hungary as a market for Mallorca is virtually unknown.

Apart from the transport links, the tourism infrastructure in Croatia has been totally transformed. I have searched to see what remains of Umag in its 1984 style, and I think the car-park beach might still be there, but otherwise, the place looks largely unrecognisable, while I imagine that the town's shops, which in 1984 appeared not to actually have anything to sell, would also be unrecognisable. The growth of Croatian tourism is such that its level of overnight stays quadrupled in fifteen years from 1996, and there is no hint that this growth might level off. Hotel quality keeps getting better, there is scope for more development and prices are generally and for now quite low.

Mallorca makes a virtue of aspects of its tourism, as though these aspects were somehow unique to it, when they aren't. Croatia has folk traditions, it has fiestas, it has mountains, it has wetlands and wildlife, it has rivers (which Mallorca doesn't), it has mediaeval and Roman remains, it has sport (and Umag now boasts the staging of the Croatia Open tennis championship). It doesn't have a great gastronomical tradition (or if it did in 1984, it was keeping quiet about it), but gastronomy, despite what Mallorca's tourism bodies would believe and would have everyone else believe, is not considered to be that important by tourists (and surveys have shown that isn't).

What Mallorca does have and what Croatia doesn't are any number of fantastic beaches. They had to build car-park beaches because of the rocks. There is no beach in Croatia that can compare with, say, Es Trenc or Alcúdia's. Yet, in the face of competition from Croatia and elsewhere, there has been a perversely determined effort to promote anything which isn't beach tourism, so disregarding Mallorca's greatest asset. Sun and beach may be old hat, but it still sells. Indeed, for many tourists, it is all that sells. And where the beaches are concerned, Croatia can't compete.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.