Awareness of Croatia as a Tourism Destination and its Marketing Activities in Canada (Current trends and issues)

Croatia is a Tourism Destination rich on natural beauties and natural attractions. It is situated in central Europe with excellent position for tourists coming even from long distanced tourism markets. It is popular for European tourists and becoming more popular for other far distanced markets due to its strong tourism orientation, rich natural and historical heritage, clear water of Adriatic Sea rewarded by Blue Flag, preserved nature, national parks and nature parks such as Plitvice Lakes listed as a UNESCO properties. Croatia is a destination with more than thousand islands in the Adriatic Sea, but on the continent it offers variety of tourism attractions ; rivers, lakes, mountains, forests, etc. Croatia offers selective types of tourism such as: sea, sun and sand, nautical tourism, eno and gastro tourism, city breaks, nature, cycling, mountain climbing, etc. Croatia can compete with most European destinations when compared to its beauty, natural attractions, culture and heritage but it is not well known and popular for Canadian tourists. Recent trends show that more and more tourists are visiting Croatia coming from USA, Australia, Korea, and Japan. Canadian tourists in Croatia grow in numbers but are still not significant in number in comparison to others. The objective of this research is to find out how Canadians perceive Croatia as a tourism destination, the awareness of Croatia amongst Canadians, marketing activities of Croatian National Board in Canada, issues related to marketing of Croatia in Canadian market. The aim of the research is to find out how the promotion and marketing of Croatia as a tourism destination in Canada can be improved. Study focuses on residents of Ontario and their awareness and perception of Canada as tourism destination. The methodology applied in this research consists of secondary literature review, analysis of Croatia as a tourism destination, statistical analysis and quantitative research through distribution of questionnaire to random sample of participants amongst population of Ontario, Canada. Finings and results show that the awareness of Croatia as a tourism destination amongst Canadian tourists is low. The recommendations of the research can contribute to better marketing and promotion of Croatia in Canada as well as in increasing awareness of tourism potential and attractiveness of Croatia amongst Canadians. It also contributes to Canadians in order to make them aware of uniqueness and beauty of destination which may become their next choice for a vacation if marketing and promotion is improved.