Glavina calls for Mediterranean countries to join forces in global tourism promotion

Today, the traditional meeting of tourism workers and all stakeholders in the tourism system of the Republic of Croatia began in Dubrovnik - the Days of Croatian Tourism (DHT), which will be held on November 20 and 22, organized by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the Croatian Chamber of Economy, the Croatian Tourist Board and the Croatian Radio and Television.

The two-day program of this manifestation brings a series of presentations, panels, meetings and a ceremonial award ceremony to the most successful and deserving in tourism this year.

This year's Croatian Tourism Days were officially opened with a panel at the highest level, attended by the Minister of Tourism and Sports Tonči Glavina, Minister of Tourism of Italy and Greece, Daniela Santanche i Olga Kefalogianni and the new Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization Sheikha Nasser Al Nowais, who will take up this position on January 1, 2026.

"I am very pleased that for the first time at the Croatian Tourism Days we have gathered so many world-class tourism leaders and that we opened them with this very important panel where we once again confirmed that Croatia is a leader in the development of tourism based on sustainable practices. We are especially pleased that we have welcomed this largest tourism event this year again, achieving record results, both in tourist traffic and financial indicators, but for the first time with concrete confirmation that all these results were achieved by respecting sustainable practices and protecting our natural resources, and developing tourism that is to the satisfaction of tourists, but especially the local population.", said the Minister of Tourism and Sports Tonči Glavina.

The panel exchanged experiences and tourism policies implemented in our competing countries, but also generally at the global level, and Croatia stood out as a leader in sustainable development by presenting a proposal for a new initiative.

"We have launched an initiative for our countries to join forces and jointly market themselves on third-country markets, precisely in order to offer unexplored and less touristically developed destinations in each of our countries. In this way, we would strongly raise the story of sustainable tourism development to the level of the entire Mediterranean and position ourselves even more firmly on the world tourist map.", concluded Minister Glavina.

Let us also add that at the end of the panel, the UN Tourism award was presented to the municipality of Kaštelir-Labinci, which this year was chosen among 52 villages among more than 270 applicants from 65 UN Tourism member states, which received their recognition for Best tourist villages.

Photo: MINTS