Page 48 - Koderman, Miha, and Vuk Tvrtko Opačić. Eds. 2020. Challenges of tourism development in protected areas of Croatia and Slovenia. Koper, Zagreb: University of Primorska Press, Croatian Geographical Society
P. 48
challenges of tourism development in protected areas of croatia and slovenia
ten not the most visited. As with national parks, it is necessary to empha-
sise the small number of nature parks in the sample, so the results of the
correlation analysis should only be taken into consideration as illustrative
(Fig. 4).
A significantly weaker correlation between the transport accessibili-
ty score and the number of visitors in nature parks leads to the conclusion
that these protected areas, in terms of visitor numbers (tourist visits), are
less attractive to tourists. They are also less prominent in marketing cam-
paigns on the tourism market, so the number of visitors to nature parks
does not depend on the quality of transport accessibility to the same extent
as it does in national parks. The exceptions to this are nature parks with
a large number of visitors, located in the vicinity of leading coastal tour-
ism destinations, as well as those featuring highly attractive tourist sights
(e.g. escarpments in Telašćica Nature Park and the summits Sveti Jure and
Vošac in Biokovo Nature Park that offer views of the Dalmatian islands and
Dalmatinska Zagora). In the observed context, these nature parks “behave”
like national parks, i.e. like tourist sights/destinations in and of themselves.
Moreover, the estimation of the number of visitors to nature parks is less
accurate in comparison to national parks, because there is no entrance fee
Fig. 4 Scatter plot of the transport accessibility score of the protected area (x)
and the number of visitors in 2018 (y) in Croatian nature parks
Source: authors, according to data by the Ministry of Environment and Energy
of the Republic of Croatia, 2019
46
ten not the most visited. As with national parks, it is necessary to empha-
sise the small number of nature parks in the sample, so the results of the
correlation analysis should only be taken into consideration as illustrative
(Fig. 4).
A significantly weaker correlation between the transport accessibili-
ty score and the number of visitors in nature parks leads to the conclusion
that these protected areas, in terms of visitor numbers (tourist visits), are
less attractive to tourists. They are also less prominent in marketing cam-
paigns on the tourism market, so the number of visitors to nature parks
does not depend on the quality of transport accessibility to the same extent
as it does in national parks. The exceptions to this are nature parks with
a large number of visitors, located in the vicinity of leading coastal tour-
ism destinations, as well as those featuring highly attractive tourist sights
(e.g. escarpments in Telašćica Nature Park and the summits Sveti Jure and
Vošac in Biokovo Nature Park that offer views of the Dalmatian islands and
Dalmatinska Zagora). In the observed context, these nature parks “behave”
like national parks, i.e. like tourist sights/destinations in and of themselves.
Moreover, the estimation of the number of visitors to nature parks is less
accurate in comparison to national parks, because there is no entrance fee
Fig. 4 Scatter plot of the transport accessibility score of the protected area (x)
and the number of visitors in 2018 (y) in Croatian nature parks
Source: authors, according to data by the Ministry of Environment and Energy
of the Republic of Croatia, 2019
46
