Croatia in the new Europe: Culture versus Conformity

This chapter addresses the most critical issues and implications of EU enlargement for Croatian tourism over the next decade. The first part of the chapter gives a structuralist account of likely and future tourism development. The second part deconstructs the economic (mostly statistical) generalizations in an attempt to unravel the complexity of culture and values that shape tourism processes 'on the ground'. Facing the prospect of joining the EU in 2007, which basically requires conformity to EU governance and economic and social reorganizations, it is argued that the issue of local values, traditions, attitudes and practices is critical