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Tourism Geographies: AnInternational Journal of TourismSpace, Place and EnvironmentPublication details, including instructions for authorsand subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rtxg20

Coastal Tourism: A ComparativeStudy between Croatia andTunisiaJoshua Rutin aa Zinman College of Sport Sciences and PE , WingateIns. , Natanya, IsraelPublished online: 09 Jun 2010.

To cite this article: Joshua Rutin (2010) Coastal Tourism: A Comparative Study betweenCroatia and Tunisia, Tourism Geographies: An International Journal of Tourism Space,Place and Environment, 12:2, 264-277, DOI: 10.1080/14616681003725227

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Tourism GeographiesVol. 12, No. 2, 264–277, May 2010

Coastal Tourism: A Comparative Studybetween Croatia and Tunisia

JOSHUA RUTINZinman College of Sport Sciences and PE, Wingate Ins., Natanya, Israel

Abstract Croatia and Tunisia, located on the northern and the southern coast of the Mediter-ranean Sea, respectively, have hot and dry summers and rainy winters and, for these reasons,they are both referred to as coastal tourism destinations for European countries. A comparisonof the monthly incoming tourism of these two countries during 2002 reveals that Croatia andTunisia present two different models of coastal tourism. The Tunisian model presents continuityand stability in the amount of incoming tourists throughout the whole year, while the Croatianmodel is a seasonal one, with a very high peak during the summer and a minimum influx oftourists during the winter. The main reason for this difference is the Croatian colder winter;the result is high seasonal instability in the Croatian tourism industry.

Key Words: Coastal tourism, Croatia, Tunisia, seasonality

Resume: Tourisme cotier: etude comparative entre la Croatie et la Tunisie

La Croatie et la Tunisie, situees sur la cote nord et sud respectivement de la Mediterranee, ont desetes chauds et secs et des hivers pluvieux, raisons pour lesquelles les pays europeens les designentcomme destinations cotieres. Une comparaison des statistiques mensuelles d’entrees de touristesdans ces deux pays revelent que la Croatie et la Tunisie offrent deux modeles differents de tourismecotier. Le modele tunisien demontre que le nombre d’arrivees de touristes est continu et stable toutau long de l’annee alors que le modele croate est saisonnier avec un maximum en ete et un influxminime en hiver. La raison principale de cette difference est qu’il fait froid en hiver en Croatie avecpour resultat une instabilite saisonniere de l’activite touristique croate.

Mots-cles: Tourisme cotier, Croatie, Tunisie, saisonnalite

Zusammenfassung: Kustentourismus: Eine vergleichende Studie zwischenKroatien und Tunesien

Kroatien und Tunesien, an der nordlichen beziehungsweise sudlichen Mittelmeerkuste gelegen,weisen heiße und trockene Sommer sowie regnerische Winter auf und werden daher als touristis-che Kustendestinationen fur die europaischen Lander angesehen. Ein Vergleich des monatlichenauslandischen Tourismus in diesen beiden Landern fur das Jahr 2002 zeigt, dass Kroatien undTunesien zwei unterschiedliche Modelle von Kustentourismus aufweisen. Das tunesische Modell

Correspondence Address: Joshua Rutin, Zinman College of sport sciences and P.E., Wingate ins., Natanya,42902 Israel. Fax: 972-4-6271345; Tel: 972-4-6371960; Email: J-rutin@wincol.ac.il

ISSN 1461-6688 Print/1470-1340 Online /10/02/00264–14 C© 2010 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/14616681003725227

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Coastal Tourism: Croatia and Tunisia Compared 265

weist wahrend des ganzen Jahres Kontinuitat und Stabilitat hinsichtlich der Anzahl ankommenderTouristen auf, wahrend das kroatische Model saisonabhangige Schwankungen mit einem sehr aus-gepragten Hohepunkt im Sommer und einem Minimum an auslandischem Tourismus im Winteraufweist. Der Hauptgrund fur diesen Unterschied ist der kroatische Winter und das Resultat isteine starke saisonale Instabilitat in der kroatischen Tourismusindustrie.

Stichworter: Kustentourismus, Kroatien, Tunesien, Saisonalitat

Introduction

It is claimed that the ‘coastal tourist’ seeks first and foremost a clean, sandy beach onthe coast, comfortable for sunbathing and safe for swimming (Burton 1995). Morethan half of the long, sandy coasts of Tunisia fulfil these requirements. The longcoastal line of Croatia, however, consists mainly of bare limestone, rocky or pebblybeaches, but is characterized by ideal bays and by gentle waves with almost no seacurrents; both are considered essential for the coastal tourist. The European countryof Croatia, part of former Yugoslavia, has a coast 5,835 km long, of which 4,058 kmcomprise the coastlines of 1,185 islands of various sizes (http://www.htz.hr) on itswestern side, along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. Tunisia is situated on thesouthern part of the Mediterranean Sea, on the northern coast of the African continent,with a coastline of 1,148 km. These long coastlines explain the fact that most touristsentering Croatia (Jordan 2000) and Tunisia (Bleasdale 2006) are coastal tourists.Although most Croatian citizens are Christians and the Tunisians are mostly Muslims,these two countries share some common aspects as far as tourism is concerned, dueto their location along the seashore.

(1) Both countries are categorized as being influenced by the subtropical climate ofthe Mediterranean Sea, with rainy winters and hot, sunny summers.

(2) Most of the tourists in these two countries want sun/sea/sand and are so-calledcoastal tourists.

(3) Europe is the main source of tourists for both these countries.(4) Both Croatia and Tunisia offer the incoming tourist many cultural attractions as

well.(5) In both countries tourism provides a high proportion of the total income of the

people living near the coast.(6) Both countries can be referred to as ‘packaged’ destinations for coastal tourism.

Moreover, it has been found that tourism concentrated in the coastal zones inCroatia (Jordan 2000; The Croatia Tourism Cluster 2003; World Travel and TourismCouncil 2003; Fox 2004) as well as in Tunisia (Black 2003; Caffyn and Jobbins 2003;Bleasdale 2006) tends not to be organically embedded within the local populationand culture.

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Table 1. The total number of arrivals, total number of nights and average stay in nights of theincoming tourists in Croatia and Tunisia during three consecutive years

Number of Total number Averagearrivals of nights stay in

Country Year (thousands) (thousands) nights

Croatia 2001 6,544 38,384 5.92002 6,945 39,711 5.72003 7,405 41,315 5.6

Tunisia 2001 5,387 33,006 6.12002 5,064 25,897 5.12003 5,114 25,301 4.9

Source: Croatian and Tunisian Central Bureau of Statistics (2006, 2007).

By comparing the total influx of tourists in Croatia and Tunisia, the total nightsof stay and the average stay in the number of nights in these countries during threeconsecutive years (2001–3), it was found that both the number of tourists enteringCroatia and the total nights of stay there were greater than in Tunisia, but the smalldifference of the average stay in nights (5.7 in Croatia and 5.4 in Tunisia) was foundto be statistically insignificant (Table 1).

From the main climatic characteristics influencing coastal tourism in these twocountries, as presented in Figure 1, it can be seen that (World Meteorological Orga-nization):

• the average temperature in Tunisia is generally higher than in Croatia (Figure 1A).In summer time the difference between these two countries is 2–3◦C, while inwinter time this difference is higher (5–6◦C);

• the monthly average precipitation in Croatia (Figure 1B) is generally higher thanin Tunisia. In winter time the difference between these two countries is very high:80–112 mm in Croatia and 60–67 mm rainfall in Tunisia.

The aim of this study is to compare the monthly variations of incoming tourists inCroatia and Tunisia and to determine and explain their annual characteristics.

Data Collection

Data were collected from the official publications of the Statistical Centres of bothcountries: the Croatian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Tunisian Central Bureauof Statistics. Although the events of 9/11 in the USA had an overall negative effecton international tourism at the beginning of 2002, the number of tourist arrivals inTunisia declined by only 5.9 percent, while in Croatia it actually grew by 6.1 percent.As these differences were found not to be statistically significant, and as Croatia

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Coastal Tourism: Croatia and Tunisia Compared 267

A

05

101520253035

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AprilMay

JuneJuly

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n 0 C

Split, Croatia Tunis, Tunisia

B

0

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January

February

March

AprilM

ayJune

JulyAugust

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November

December

Month

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nfa

ll in

mm

Split, Croatia Tunis, Tunisia

Figure 1. (A) Average daily maximum temperature and (B) average monthly rainfall in Tunisiaand Croatia. Source: World Meteorological Organization: (http://worldweather.wmo.int/).

was politically stable after the 1991–5 independence war (Knego and Konjhodzic2002), 2002 was chosen for comparing tourism in these two countries because norecent political or security unrest was recorded in these two countries or in their closeneighbouring countries.

Results

The monthly number of incoming tourists during 2002 in Croatia and Tunisia ispresented in Figure 2. In both countries the maximum number of incoming tourists

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0

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Croatia Tunisia

Figure 2. The monthly number of incoming tourists in Croatia and Tunisia during 2002.

occurred during August, or during mid-summer. Incoming tourism in Croatia washighly concentrated from spring until autumn, with 80.9 percent during the months ofJune, July, August and September. In Tunisia only 45.3 percent of incoming touristsentered during the period June–September and, therefore, the difference in the numberof incoming tourists in Tunisia in the summer and winter periods is low.

In Tunisia, a further peak in tourists was found in December 2002. In order tofind the source of this peak of tourism, the monthly numbers of incoming touristsfrom different areas are presented in Figure 3. From these figures it is clear that thehigh number of tourists entering in December 2002 was the result of a large influx oftourists from Muslim countries neighbouring Tunisia. The explanation for this peakwas the Muslim holiday of ‘Id el Fitter’ at the end of the month of Ramadan, whichcoincided with the December holidays and were celebrated at that time. It must beemphasized that this holiday does not occur every year in the same month.

The seasonality effect on the incoming tourism of Croatia is presented in Figure 4,which shows a 100 percent cumulative figure of the monthly amount of incomingtourists in Croatia and Tunisia. From this figure it can be seen that more than 50percent of the incoming tourism in Croatia entered during only two months, July andAugust, while in winter it was almost impossible to find a month of high tourismin Croatia. In Tunisia it is clear that during August the incoming tourism was at itshighest peak, but during most of the other months the incoming tourism was more orless the same.

Europe is the main source of tourists coming to Croatia and Tunisia (World Traveland Tourism Council 2003). The differences in the monthly number of incoming

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Coastal Tourism: Croatia and Tunisia Compared 269

0

100000

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Month

Mo

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um

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of

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Tourists from Europe Tourists from North AfricaTourists from other areas Total incoming tourists

Figure 3. The monthly number of incoming tourists in Tunisia during 2002.

tourists to Croatia and Tunisia were studied using two different factors. The firstfactor was the number of tourists that arrived from eastern and from western Europeancountries (for the definition of eastern and western European countries, please referto Table 2 footnote). The second was the contribution of Germans and Italian tourists,who provided 21.3 and 11.8 percent (respectively) of the total incoming tourismin Croatia, and 15.8 and 7 percent (respectively) of the total incoming tourism inTunisia during 2002. France’s contribution to the number of incoming tourists inTunisia (17.5%) was not relevant for this comparison because the comparable figurefor Croatia was only 1.5 percent.

The monthly number of arrivals entering Croatia from western European countries(Figure 5A) was greater than the number arriving from eastern European countriesthroughout almost all 2002, with July as an exception. The reason for this exceptionmay be that July was found to be the month with the highest peak of arrivals fromeastern European countries, and August for arrivals from western European coun-tries. Figure 5B shows the monthly number of tourists from the eastern and from thewestern European countries that entered Tunisia during 2002. In general, more west-ern European tourists entered Tunisia every month during 2002 than those comingfrom eastern European countries. The peak of western European tourists who entered

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Figure 4. Cumulative percentages of the monthly number of incoming tourists in Croatia andTunisia during 2002.

Tunisia occurred in August, as was also found in Croatia, while the maximum numberof tourists from eastern European countries occurred one month later, in September,at the end of the summer season.

By comparing the influx of tourists from Germany into Croatia and into Tunisia(Figure 6A), it can be seen that most of them entered Croatia during the springand summer periods, and Tunisia mainly during the spring and autumn periods, withlower amounts during the summer. In both countries the number of incoming Germantourists during the winter was very low. Tourism from Italy (Figure 6B) to Croatiawas also concentrated during the summer period and showed a very high peak inAugust. Furthermore, during most of the other months the number of Italian touriststhat entered Croatia was still less than ten percent of their number during the monthof August. Italian tourism to Tunisia showed the same tendency, but the total numberof tourists that entered Tunisia in August was less than 20 percent of the amount ofItalian tourists that entered Croatia during the same period.

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Coastal Tourism: Croatia and Tunisia Compared 271

Tabl

e2.

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193

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A. Croatia

0

200000

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Western Europe Eastern Europe

B. Tunisia

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Western Europe Eastern Eruope

Figure 5. Monthly number of incoming tourists from western and eastern European countriesto (A) Croatia and (B) Tunisia during 2002.

From Table 2 it is clear that western European countries were the main source ofEuropean tourism to Croatia and Tunisia during 1999–2003 and that tourism fromeastern European countries contributed about one-third of the European tourists. Theinfluence of the total amount of tourists from eastern Europe to Tunisia was foundto be almost the same, while their part of the total European tourism grew from 31

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Coastal Tourism: Croatia and Tunisia Compared 273

A. From Germany

0

50000100000

150000200000

250000300000

350000400000

450000

January

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AprilMay

JuneJuly

August

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Novenber

December

Month

Nu

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B. From Italy

0

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400000

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January

February

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JuneJuly

August

September

October

Novenber

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Nu

mb

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Croatia Tunisia

Figure 6. Monthly number of incoming tourists from (A) Germany and (B) Italy to Croatiaand Tunisia during 2002.

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percent to 42 percent during 1999–2003. During the same period, the tourism fromeastern Europe to Croatia decreased from 39 percent to 29 percent, while the totalnumber of Eastern European tourists fluctuated.

Discussion

Although Mediterranean coastal tourism is characterized by strong seasonality(Amelung and Viner 2006), Croatia and Tunisia present, in the same area, twodifferent models of coastal tourism. Croatia can be described as a typical summerdestination, with a very high number of tourists entering the country during theshort four-month period between June and September, while in the winter time(December–February) only 2.4 percent of the total number of summer tourists(June–September) entered the country. This means that almost no coastal tourismexists in the winter period in Croatia. Such a summer peak was recognized andreported earlier by the Croatia Tourism Cluster (2003) and the World Travel andTourism Council (2003). According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, thisseasonality is much more intensified as far as the average of stay in nights, becausethe average length of stay in the winter falls to a low of 2.3 nights, while in com-parison during July and August, the number of nights is 6.7 and 7.3, respectively.The seasonal characteristics of tourism in Croatia were presented by Jordan (2000)as resulting in the following economic aspects:

• low annual occupation rates;• low number of permanent jobs;• an average low quality of tourism product, with a high proportion of ‘basic’ as

opposed to ‘complementary’ capacities.

Tunisia was found to be a much more stable destination as far as the differencein the amount of incoming tourism is concerned. Although in Tunisia the numberof incoming tourists in the summer period is less than in Croatia, in the winter(December–February) the influx of tourism into Tunisia was 34.3 percent of thetotal number of tourists during the summer (June–September), as opposed to wintertourism in Croatia being 2.4 percent of the summer tourism there. The meaning ofthe reduced effect of seasonality on the incoming tourism in Tunisia is that morepermanent jobs are available, the annual occupation rate is high, the hotel occupationrate suffers from fewer fluctuations and the tourism product can be of a better qualitythan in Croatia. In addition, throughout the year the sea temperature on the Tunisiancoast is higher than that of the coasts in Croatia; during the winter time, the coastaltourism in Tunisia remains active but the decrease in the tourists’ arrivals is reflectedin the closing of a number of the sea resorts there, in spite of the higher watertemperature.

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Coastal Tourism: Croatia and Tunisia Compared 275

Although Croatia is highly priced compared with Tunisia (World Travel andTourism Council 2003), a greater number of tourists enter Croatia due to its lo-cation in the southern part of Europe, while Tunisia is located on the other side of theMediterranean. The location of Croatia on the western edge of the Balkan Peninsulaenables tourists to use their own means of transportation and reach the coasts ofCroatia by private car. Travelling to Tunisia from the same places in Europe can bedone only by ship or by airplane.

The difference in location between Croatia and Tunisia also explains the highernumber of arrivals in Tunisia during the winter time. The reason for this is thatthe winter weather conditions in Tunisia are almost the same as the summer weatherconditions prevailing in most northern European countries, the main source of coastaltourism in Tunisia during the winter (Tunisian Central Bureau of Statistics).

These findings are important because they point to the fact that many coastal resortsin Croatia stay empty during the winter period, although they still require maintenanceand that employment in the tourism industry there must be based on seasonality. Suchseasonality may also lead to a lack of motivation of workers in the tourism industryand to less investment in tourism employment, which may ultimately cause a lack ofhighly skilled workers in Croatia’s tourism industry. In Tunisia, on the other hand,the seasonal effect is lower, the employees can be more skilled and a large portionof the jobs in tourism can be permanent and stable throughout the year. This stabilitywas revealed by the ability of the tourism industry in Tunisia to successfully handlean unusually high peak of tourism during the winter period, as was described earlier.

It can be concluded that although Croatia and Tunisia are usually referred to byEuropean citizens as coastal tourism destinations, and although these two countriesshare some common tourism characteristics and tourism sources from Europe, theystill present two different models of tourism. While incoming tourism in Tunisia hasthe characteristic of continuity, in Croatia it is characterized by a high peak duringthe summer months and a break during winter time, affecting stability in the tourismindustry of Tunisia and instability in that of Croatia, respectively.

These results emphasize the need for change in Croatian tourism strategies andmarkets, as recommended by: (1) The World Travel and Tourism Council (2003),who encouraged Croatian tourism authorities to invest in the meetings, incentives,conferences and exhibitions markets and in domestic tourism; and (2) the CroatiaTourism Cluster (2003), who recommended that Croatia include in its tourism specialproducts such as nautical tourism, cultural tourism and health resorts.

Croatia has to change its sea–sun–sand image as well as its ‘packager’ destination.Such a transformation would encourage stability in the tourism industry of Croatia andboost its popularity as a multivariable destination. In its long-term tourism planning,the forecast of the World Travel and Tourism Council (2003) was that tourism inCroatia will grow by 6.9 percent annually over the ten-year period from 2003 until2013. The changes suggested above may promote even further growth in tourism, andwould be a step forward in applying the World Travel and Tourism Council (2003)

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recommendation to adapt tourism products and services to other market segments.This would help to ease the level of seasonality, so that a sustainable level of tourismcan be obtained. The above results and recommendations might boost the effortscarried out by the Croatian authorities in recent years to achieve sustainable tourism.

Tunisia, too, has to face its seasonality image, because the number of incomingtourists in Tunisia during the winter is still low and many of the rooms/hotels arestill empty. Three different factors have reduced the seasonality effect of tourism inTunisia. The first effect was a sporadic one during December 2002 – the ‘Id el Fitter’holiday. The second is the slowly growing number of incoming Arab-speaking tourists(WTO Yearbook of Tourism 2005) and the third factor is the increase in domestictourism. These types of tourism cannot be referred to as coastal tourism. For thisreason they will not be discussed further, as they are beyond this study’s goal.

In order to gain further stability in the Tunisian tourism industry, it is recommendedthat the winter period be maintained for regular tourists, but, in addition, that thetourism facilities be opened to the academic world by promoting the holding ofacademic congresses.

Finally, Burton (1995) referred to many countries, e.g. Spain and the Caribbean,as coastal destinations. A further study should be carried out to determine how thesecountries deal with the differences caused by seasonality.

References

Amelung, B. & Viner, D. (2006) Mediterranean Tunisia: Exploring the future with the Tunisian ClimateIndex, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 14(4), pp. 349–366.

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Notes on Contributor

Joshua Rutin is a Physical Geographer and a tourist guide in the Balkans. He is in-terested in the tourism to various countries in the Balkan peninsula from geographicalpoints of view.

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