European Destinations of Excellence 2014 - Croatia - National selection of one destination of excellence and 4 runners-up within the theme Tourism and local gastronomy

ended

The participation of Croatia in the EDEN project promotes Croatia as a quality tourist destination with a style of life which cherishes principles of a sustainable development of tourism. Additionally, it gives impetus to destinations to become more involved in incorporating their heritage as a valuable part of the local tourist offer and to develop new tourist products. Therefore, Croatia finds participation in the EDEN project “Tourism and local gastronomy” as to the choice of destination, as an important further step in the development of sustainable tourism in the areas less developed for tourism. By this, as well as by taking part in this EDEN project, we wish to accomplish the following: include local gastronomy as a part of development strategies of tourist destinations, strengthen cooperation of all stakeholders at local levels in creating &developing such products, engage local population in organization of festivals/events, raise awareness among the young ones on the value and importance of traditional cooking, point out and enhance the importance of sustainability in managing destination and tourist product as a whole, promote networking of tourist destinations (especially at European level).