REPOSITIONING OF THERMAL SPA TOURISM OF NORTH-WEST CROATIA IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE EUROPEAN THERMAL SPA TOURISM TRENDS

Tourism represents an important originator of economic activities in Croatia, particularly in its seaside destinations. However, it is developed quite unevenly. The overall Croatian territory can be divided into three different natural and geographic regions, with different levels in tourism development: lowland or Pannonian and peripannonian Croatia, highland Croatia, and seaside Croatia. From the tourism development point of view, lowland and highland Croatia have been neglected, and therefore their comparative advantages have not been used to their advantage or not used at all because of the lack of interest in local inhabitants and poorly educated economists. Thermal spa tourism of North-West Croatia has been developing for a long time, so nowadays thermal sources of Krapinske, Stubicke, Tuheljske, Varazdinske, and Sutinske spas are situated in the area. All those thermal spas have natural prerogatives for tourism development, but their tourism product is outworn and has lost its quality and attraction it had in the past. Therefore the repositioning of tourism product of the area is necessary in order to make it desirable in the tourist markets of both Croatia and Europe