When we overfish the sea, the fish disappear. When we have "overtourism" - we have even more tourists.

Interestingly, when we overfish the sea, the fish disappear, but when we have too many tourists - overtourism, we have the opposite effect - even more tourists.

But if we draw a parallel, tourism is like sustainable fishing.

How fishermen who live from the sea, must become guardians of the sea by preserving this source of life, both for themselves and for all future generations - also through the prism of tourism, local population / destinations must protect themselves from self-destruction. Because destinations are in the business of developing tourism, not someone X.

The responsibility always lies with the destinations themselves and the local population.

The fishing and tourism industries have the same problem, as well as the solution. Although the negative consequences are more visible and obvious in the fishing industry, because when there is no fish - the entire industry stops. In tourism, on the other hand, we do not see, or do not want to see, short-term negative consequences, at least we do not pay attention to them, because capital continues to come, but when the bubble bursts, the recovery will take much, much longer.

If we go a step further, as we see from practice, fish stocks recover relatively quickly - nature always recovers if we give it a chance and help it a little, while destinations have a hard time recovering because they have lost mostly human capital. 

Here we can draw parallels with the general economic situation in countries. Some countries are growing and developing, others are always where they are and have difficulty keeping up, while others are constantly at the bottom. Or even better and more clearly with the situation around emigration: how can Croatia bring citizens back to Croatia and our economy. How and when? In how much time with the best intentions and solutions?

There is no quick and easy solution. And so it is through the prism of tourism. If we "destroy" life and evict the local population, we have no workforce, no life outside of tourism, no youth, no immigration because getting an apartment is mission impossible, no production, no education, no or fewer basic facilities for the local population that make up the city ... we need fewer and fewer kindergartens, and more and more dormitories for tourists. 

But let's get back to the topic. Catch22 is finding that sustainable environment. 

That there are enough tourists so that they do not destroy the space and all other resources, that we have a high level of guest experience and experience, satisfied local residents, that we use local resources in all supply chains, that we use local labor... all in the measure to be sustainable. We cannot, as we are currently doing figuratively, fill 5 liters in 1 liter water bottle. There is overflow and flooding. 

If we only have more tourists and everything else opposite to the above - then we can't possibly talk about sustainable tourism. We can't talk about successful tourism, let alone sustainable tourism.

And there will certainly be a split at some point. In Croatia, we have had a split for a long time: from the workforce, emigration, the lack of added value in tourism, the collapse of the main resource - space, both visually and spatially, the loss of culture, life and customs....

And perhaps the biggest lesson. Yes, it means that we cannot live off tourism alone. We cannot put everything in one basket. Certainly not through basic tourism selling beds, sun and sea. 

In the whole story, we must be aware that the problem is not the tourists, the problem is the destinations. The problem is the management. Let me repeat it once again: the problem is not tourists, but bad management.

We always have a choice. We as a destination develop and plan tourism. Not someone else. 

"We can be used by tourism or we can use tourism."

or translated (the message is clearer in English) tourism can use us as a destination or we can use tourism to make a better place for local people.

We need to manage tourism to benefit from it. Management is the key.

Photo: Julia Volk, Cameron Casey / Pexels.com / Illustration hrturizam