Krešimir Šakić: By 2035, I want us to be a destination that develops tourism with moderation

The Šibenik-Knin County has shown excellently how to bring sustainability beyond the level of "good intentions" and projects that look nice in presentations, but do not change anything significant on the ground.

Project "Water of the Little Giants" In a relatively short time, it has grown from a campaign into a long-term strategic backbone of branding and destination management, and its strength is not in the slogan, but is inscribed in the geography and everyday life itself. Water. Drinking water as a resource, as a public good and as the simplest identity element of a destination with a clear message to the market.

Krešimir Šakić, director Šibenik-Knin County Tourist Board, from the beginning insists on one distinction that actually explains the entire success.

"We have never seen Malih Divovo water as a project because that would imply that it is an activity that has its own time frame in which it is realized and completed. For us, it was an initiative that we launched with the intention of raising awareness of the value of the drinking water at our disposal, in practice showing how we can use this water to reduce our ecological footprint, but also how we are good hosts ready to offer our guests free drinking water as one of the basic forms of welcome and one of the fundamental human rights. "

The point was not in a "new project" but in a simple, almost banal move that in practice proved to be more powerful than any campaign: to highlight those restaurateurs who are ready to offer guests free drinking water.

"The initiative started with a simple idea to promote those caterers who, as good hosts, are willing to offer their guests free drinking water, and the idea was conveniently followed by the phenomenon of large babies born in this area, and all wrapped up in an interesting story and recognizable visual identity, resulting in an excellent reaction from both the local population and guests.. "

The sustainable message gained body, character, and recognition here, but the key thing happened on the ground: the idea became a community.

"The initiative has grown into a real small "movement", a community of promoters of the preservation of both the drinking water of the Šibenik-Knin County and the awareness that it is a public good that must be available to people when they need it..” adds Sakic.

It is precisely in this transformation from a "project" to a "movement" that the greatest step forward in practice can be seen, because sustainability ceases to be a topic, but becomes an identity. And that's why international recognition is important, but Šakić clearly says that the support of the local community is even more important, because without it there is no long life for any initiative.

How do you turn something you want to last into a system, and not leave it at the level of a good story? Šakić leaves no room for misinterpretation here. If an initiative is to live, it must enter as many layers of the destination as possible and become part of the “normal”.

"Since this is an initiative that we want to continue, there is a lot of room for its further development: including accommodation providers, from hotels to private landlords, in the network of protectors of the Water of the Little Giants who will welcome their guests with our drinking water and a story told about that water, positioning the Water of the Little Giants as a recognizable element at as many events and conferences organized in this area as possible, introducing the Water of the Little Giants into public and private institutions in the county, building a network of public drinking water fountains, developing a themed souvenir line, promoting existing thematic tours dealing with water, conducting educational workshops with children and young people..." This series shows the ambition to make water a standard of welcome, a visible sign of identity and an infrastructure of experience, and not just a communication message.

/ / / A story that 'holds water': An initiative for the availability, preservation and promotion of drinking water in the Šibenik-Knin County

/ / / World Award for Šibenik-Knin Tourist Board: "Water of the Little Giants" an example of global excellence in sustainability

"There is still a lot of work to be done, so we are happy that the idea has been recognized by the professional public through an award from the International Public Relations Organization (IPRA), but even more so by the local  population that provides it with extremely broad support. This is the best way to position our county as one of the leaders of sustainable development through concrete actions.. "

In this context, the Water of the Little Giants is not an "isolated example", but rather a mirror of a question that constantly recurs in Croatian tourism: how capable are we of developing sustainability as a system, and not as a series of quality initiatives that are not connected to each other.

Šakić, from the perspective of destination management, attributes this gap not only to a "lack of awareness" but to the management structure. "Capacity is a limitation in designing and implementing broader sustainable development policies, but this problem can be solved, with sufficient financial resources and the will to secure them, in some cases in a longer or shorter period of time. However, I think that the greatest challenge to implementing coordinated development lies in the management sphere."

This is perhaps the most important sentence of the entire conversation, as it explains why sustainability often remains a “wish” instead of a process.

"Namely, the resources on which tourism relies and which it uses in its development are mostly under different management: some are managed by local self-government units, some by regional ones, some are under state management, some are under the management of institutions or companies founded by different levels of government, some are privately owned... In addition, the regulations that condition development projects come from different levels of government. Each of these levels, like each of the managers, has different focuses of action and takes care of different interests.”

In translation, a destination is a complex system of ownership, authority, and interests, and coordination does not happen by itself. "All this results in a very complex decision-making mechanism and creates the need for a broad social consensus on development that is not easy to achieve."

Šakić also takes into account what is often overlooked: politics, changing people, different personalities and interests that shape decisions. "In practice, one should also take into account the different political options that they perform or try to get into the position of performing some of the aforementioned management positions, as well as the different personalities of the people in certain management positions, which leads to a very complex management environment in which it is not an easy task to achieve and, equally important, to maintain over a sufficiently long period of time,  consensus on the direction and implementation of the development concept."

In such an environment, the role of tourist boards is often coordinating, rather than managing, which explains why the “impossible” is sometimes expected of tourist boards.Tourist boards rarely have management authority over resources for tourism development and their role in most situations is coordinating, not managing, so the possibility of their influence primarily stems from the strength and support they receive from their founders. 

While more stable models are still being sought at the management architecture level, the market and guest behavior have already sent clear signals.

Shortening stays and growing interest in activities, gastronomy, outdoor activities and culture mean that destinations must have clear motives for arrival and products that can be consumed, planned and purchased. In this sense, Šibenik-Knin County is entering a new phase: mapping of eno-gastro tours i thematic routes which connect wine, oil, prosciutto and cheese.

Šakić emphasizes that projects like this do not start from a "map", but from the field. "The basic prerequisite that had to be met in order to start the project of mapping thematic gastronomic routes was to develop a critical amount of offer on these routes in the first place.. "

"That prerequisite, he says, has begun to be fulfilled in recent years."Recently, the offer of producers of authentic agricultural products from Šibenik-Knin County (wine, olive oil, cheese and prosciutto) has significantly increased both quantitatively and qualitatively. Numerous producers have emerged who produce increasingly high-quality agricultural products and present and offer these products on the market with increasingly high quality. In doing so, I would like to particularly emphasize the progress made by the wine scene in Šibenik-Knin County."

Only when there is a critical mass of quality and offer does the process of turning that offer into a clear and rounded tourism product begin. However, often this development needs to be "provoked" and started with a few stakeholders, and later, as the project develops, others get involved because they want to be part of the story. 

"In accordance with the situation on the ground, the offer has been combined into three wine routes, two olive oil routes and one prosciutto and cheese route. A study has been prepared in which the tour directions are proposed and the signage on the ground has been developed. The next step is to obtain the necessary permits and install signage, as well as digitize the routes through the digital guide GuideMe, another project that is in the final phase of development and which will increase the quality of guests' stay and their internal mobility in the region.. "

But, as with any story about a product, the most important moment is the one that comes after "making": setting up signage and digital maps is not the end. "The installation of physical signage and the creation of digital maps is, of course, not the end, but practically the beginning of the project, followed by intensive promotion.. "

Šakić does not view route mapping as an isolated island, but as part of a broader concept. gastro positioning of the region involving multiple stakeholders and multiple parallel activities.

"This project is not an isolated island, but is part of a broader concept of promoting the gastronomy of the Šibenik-Knin County, which includes activities by various stakeholders: from the creation of the Šibenik-Knin County Gastro Pilot, which the Tourist Board should publish throughout the spring, and our gastronomy-oriented events (Taste like… Brunch! and Days of Open Tasting Rooms), through events organized by other stakeholders (Skradina Risotto and Lifestyle Festival, Pidoća i debit se vole, Prosciutto Festival…) to the Let's Go Local project, through which the Šibenik-Knin County seeks to help local agricultural producers come into contact with potential buyers as easily as possible."

In this logic, identity is built not only through a story, but through a value chain that includes production, presentation, sales and promotion. "All these activities, along with promotional activities, strengthen the local production of agricultural products, and thus the recognition of our region on the gastronomic scene.. "

When he talks about trends that are more and more clearly reflected in the behavior of guests, Šakić distinguishes between segments in which the region has already made strong progress and those in which it is necessary to accelerate. "I think we have made much greater progress in the area of ​​wine and gastro tourism than in the sphere of outdoor tourism. That is why we are developing ideas to significantly expand and improve the Dalmatia Šibenik Outdoor Festival project, which has been promoting our region as an exceptionally favorable area for this form of tourism for several years."

The direction they are thinking in is ambitious and logical: to connect different outdoor activities into a single product using Krka as a natural backbone and to connect the extreme points that make this area unique. "Ideas are being developed towards designing a system for various outdoor activities into a unique tourist product that, using the Krka River as the natural attraction backbone of our region, would connect two points that make this area unique in Croatia: the highest peak in Croatia, Sinjal, and the lowest inhabited island, Krapanj."

He sees the path to recognition through system harmonization, package programs and events that promote the most attractive points. "By redefining and harmonizing the existing system of outdoor offerings, designing and supporting active tourism package programs that include this offering, and organizing events that would promote the most attractive spots, the recognition of this region as a unique outdoor destination will be built."

At the same time, Šakić warns that the development of new, less developed forms of tourism must not mean neglecting what already works, nor ignoring the roles of local and regional tourist boards.When developing wine and gastro and outdoor tourism, as hitherto less developed forms of tourism, we should not ignore the sun and the sea and nautical, which are already developed, and cultural tourism, the development of which is most closely related to our county center Šibenik, but these are areas on which local tourist boards are more focused, while the regional tourist board has a supporting, coordinating and promotional role in them."

In an earlier interview, Šakić said that tourism should be the "icing on the cake" of the entire economic activity, not an end in itself, and that tourism should serve the local community, not the other way around.

When asked how close we are to that model today, his answer is deliberately without illusions and without quick conclusions. "I think we are currently in a phase of our journey where, after a considerable amount of time, moving faster or slower, in a straight line, we have come to a crossroads with multiple exits. Some of these exits are longer or shorter dead ends, and some lead us into new areas of further development."

He says he believes we are heading in the right direction, but that the danger of a “fast” dead end is always there.Although we are still at a crossroads  I think we are heading in the right direction. We haven't come very far and there is still a danger that speed will drag us into a dead end, the beginning of which always seems wider and easier to turn off than the beginnings of those streets that lead to long-term development and protection of the local community... But I am still optimistic."

Optimism, he says, comes from a change in awareness and preferences of both guests and service providers. But frustration with the speed of change is understandable, because human and development perspectives are not the same. "Dissatisfaction with the speed of positive changes is logical because the problem is the time perspective: five years is a very long time for our life and every individual expects some changes during that period and is dissatisfied if there are none. On the other hand, five years for a serious change in the direction of development is very little, a moment in time..."

As an illustration, he uses an example that is visible to everyone in practice and that speaks louder than any slogan. "Just 10-15 years ago, it was very difficult to find wines from the Šibenik-Knin County in restaurants in our region, and today we hardly have a serious restaurant that does not offer local wines."There are more such indicators, he says, and they will become more and more visible. But the biggest problems are still present in the most developed segment of tourism, the one that is often treated as the market's "cash cow".

At the same time, Šakić clearly draws a line: many of these problems go beyond tourism and the solutions lie in other policies. "Unfortunately, problems are still very much present in the most developed segment of our tourism, which we treat as a market "cash cow", but most of these problems go beyond tourism and their solutions are found in some other areas: wise spatial planning, efficient inspection supervision, a tax system that favors work over rent and real estate brokerage..."

In 2026, he sees an additional opportunity for progress through the fact that the Tourist Board Šibenik-Knin County announced as UHPA's Domestic Destination of the Year.

Šakić sets a goal as part of the mentioned cooperation: to strengthen the agency segment, where there is still room, through a more serious presence of the profession in the field. "UHPA has profiled itself as a very relevant and recognizable professional organization, and we hope that their more intensive presence in our area, in addition to promotional effects, will also result in the improvement of agency activities, for which there is still plenty of room here."

When you draw a line under everything, from Voda Malih Divov to eno-gastro routes and outdoor ambitions, you can see more and more how a more rounded identity of a destination is being built in which the number of overnight stays is no longer the only measure of success.

But Šakić sees the biggest challenges in the coming years not only in tourism, but in the broader context that determines how well a destination can manage its development.In addition to general international social instability and uncertainty, the greatest challenges are posed by the general economic system that insufficiently encourages work and entrepreneurship compared to rent, and the need for stronger and broader development of critical thinking, competencies, and skills among the local population."

For the year 2035, the vision is formulated precisely and without pathos, but with clear ambition. "In 2035, I would like us to be able to say that the Šibenik-Knin County is a destination that boldly and innovatively develops tourism with moderation.. "

And for that to be possible, he says, the key lies in two things that carry everything else: resources and people.

"To achieve this, we need to take care of our resources and develop ourselves as people. Resource conservation will define how much opportunity we will have for development, and our own creative and professional development will determine how much of the benefits of tourism development we will be able to participate in ourselves, and how much of those benefits we will leave to others."

This is where the whole conversation comes full circle: sustainability is not a label, but a management choice and a standard of behavior. And a destination that understands this in time will not constantly prove itself through campaigns. It will prove itself on the ground.

Photo: Šibenik-Knin County Tourist Board