About the project Data from 2021 on income from tourists states that earnings in Croatia amounted to 9 billion and 121 million euros, which is 89% more than in 2020. (Ministry of Tourism and Sports, 2022) Growth in the number of visitors is a ubiquitous trend in Croatia. However, the growth of the number of visitors must not be a priority, but sustainable development in accordance with ecological, climatic, spatial and infrastructural standards. In 2021, 13.8 million arrivals and 84.1 million overnight stays were realized in Croatia. (Croatian Tourist Board, 2022). Tourism is also important on a global level because it is the driving force behind the economic and social development of underdeveloped areas, and through tourism the start-up of small businesses is strengthened. According to the World Tourism Organization, tourism accounts for 10% of the world's GDP. One out of ten jobs is in tourism, which generates USD 1.4 trillion in exports of goods and accounts for 7% of total world exports and 29% of total world exports of services. However, the question arises as to how and according to which to start creating a branding strategy for our destinations, so that it is feasible, sustainable, that it relies on important determinants of the cultural identity of the local community and concepts of sustainability, and finally that the success is measurable and that the result of the implementation can capitalize on such strategies. Relying on the example of successful tourist regions in Croatia, Istria and the Croatian coast, it is useful to analyze their strategy, but also to determine room for improvement, especially in connecting communication and culture. According to the report of the Tourist Board of Istria, this year the region achieved a 4% better result in arrivals: 3.7 million (+160,000 arrivals) and a 2% better result in overnight stays: a total of 22.3 million (+450,000 overnight stays) compared to the previous year year. At the same time, it should be emphasized that Istria is the only coastal tourist region in Croatia that achieved a better result in 2022 than in the record year of 2019. Compared to 2019, Istria recorded a 5% increase in overnight stays, so compared to 2022 and 2019. Even in the pandemic of 2020, the Croatian coast achieved notable successes. According to the official data of the e-Visitor system, the realization in July 2020 in Kvarner amounted to 66% of overnight stays compared to the same period in 2019, which positioned Kvarner at the top of the coastal regions with the highest tourist traffic. At the same time, the occupancy of commercial capacities was at 40%, which was the best at the level of Croatia at that time. The question is whether branding strategy or some specific communication strategy contributed to these results and to what extent. Communication strategy is an important tool in tourism, and the tourism brand is what all stakeholders in tourism rely on in their communication. Furthermore, market research is an important segment in determining the communication strategy, who are the tourists who come to our popular tourist regions, whether they know how to recognize and interpret the cultural identities of the destination they visited and how much these identities are used in promotion, without commodification of culture, i.e. turning heritage and the localities themselves into an object of sale because this belongs to the very core of the capitalist process, turning what was once free and unrelated to money into something that depends and explicitly focuses on monetary exchange (Scranton, 2007; p. 8).
The innovativeness of this project is reflected in a specific, interdisciplinary view of the research problem, which is based on the sustainable exploitation of cultural identities for the purpose of presenting and branding the destination, as well as creating the image of selected localities. Taking into account the economic, communication and cultural dimensions of this research, the focus is on a complete understanding of the phenomenon of tourism and the significant and important contribution of cultural heritage, identity and heritage in building the image of the destination. With such an approach, the project would get a practical link with the market, which, on the other hand, with this project, would get a scientifically based manual that would clearly present and clarify the process of branding a tourist destination and all the possibilities of adequate exploitation of cultural resources.
