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From Istria, WEF and GDS-Index to AI, sustainability and distribution: tourism potential only becomes valuable through systems and management. What did we write this week and what can we actually conclude from it?
Last week, Istria was declared the best olive growing region in the world for the tenth time according to Flos Olei, and has been among the top two for 18 years. We can single out 63 Istrian producers among the top 500, two maximum scores of 100 points or a number of individual awards, but the most interesting one for me is continuity.
One result could be a great year or a combination of favorable circumstances. Eighteen years already shows that there is a system and development management behind it.
In Croatian tourism, we often talk about potential. The sea, islands, nature, safety, geographical location, wine, gastronomy, agriculture, heritage... All of these are real advantages, but they are not a strategy or market value in themselves. Olives exist elsewhere, as well as wine, the sea or quality food. The difference comes when producers, knowledge, standards, experiences, distribution and a common market story are built around the resource over the years. Then olive oil is no longer just a product, wine is no longer just a bottle, and individual successes begin to create something much bigger - a destination brand or Istria as a brand.
That is precisely why the story of Istria has interestingly leaned on a new WEF's Travel & Tourism Development IndexCroatia is again in 46th place among 110 economies, while the Sustainable Tourism Development Strategy by 2030 sets the goal of entering the top 35. But what the WEF actually measures is much more important. Not tourist popularity, but the conditions in which tourism operates: infrastructure, people, digital readiness, transport connectivity, resources, sustainability of demand and socio-economic impact. Croatia has no problem proving that it is an attractive tourist country. The real question is to what extent have we managed to turn this attractiveness into a more productive, resilient and high-quality tourism system.
This year's also sees the same change. GDS Index. Ten years ago, a serious sustainability strategy in itself was a sign of a thriving destination. Today, many have it, so the question has shifted from "do you have a strategy?" to a much more unpleasant one: What really changed because of her?
Destination Management or destination management This year, it is the area with the greatest progress among the destinations that have participated for two years in a row, while only 38,3 percent of them can demonstrate a reduction in emissions compared to the set target. This is an interesting context right now when Croatian destinations are making management plans. We will have the document. The real test will come a few years later, when we will have to show whether seasonality, mobility, tourist flows, resident satisfaction or some other indicator that we defined as a goal have changed.
A similar problem exists with sustainability at the level of an individual facility. EU Ecolabel has crossed a thousand tourist facilities, which is still not a large number compared to the total European offer. It is much more interesting what is happening with trust. The tourism market is full of "green", "eco" and "sustainable" claims, so the label no longer has value just because it exists. It is valid if the market knows who awarded it, according to what criteria and whether there is an independent verification. In the world of AI search, this takes on new weight: if a guest requests a verified sustainable hotel, the system must have data that can distinguish a proven claim from a marketing ploy.
This gap between the tool and the actual effect lasted for almost the entire week.
Tourist tax is a good example. Raising it is easy, but a few extra euros will not solve overtourism by itself. If the problem is a lack of money for infrastructure, cleanliness or public transport, a tax can be a very good instrument. If the problem is too many tourist beds, congestion in a particular location or pressure on housing, another tool is needed. This is precisely why there is no reason for Dubrovnik, Rovinj, Zagreb and Vinkovci to have the same tourism policy. They do not have the same tourism, the same problems or the same development goals.
/ / / Can a higher tourist tax really reduce overtourism?
Oktoberfest, on the other hand, showed what it looks like when measurements are trying to move towards operational management. This year, Munich is using more than 50 cameras in 35 locations, crowd monitoring, video analytics and predictive model research. The number of cameras itself is not particularly important. It is interesting whether it is possible to estimate early enough that several streams of people are approaching the same point and react before a critical crowd develops. Then the information buys the organizer time to redirect visitors, open an alternative route or change the entry regime.
This is the key difference between statistics that explain what happened and predictive thinking that tries to influence what will happen next. Or, more simply, the difference between management and business processes and spontaneous development.
We follow an almost identical evolution with contrails. Google and American Airlines first showed that meteorological models can identify zones where long-term contrails form and that they can be avoided by changing the path slightly. Air France has now tested the model on almost 4.300 real commercial flights. Only three percent of the flights in the sample accounted for a quarter of the contrails' total climate impact, and of the 130 diverted flights, their impact was reduced by 57 percent. But more important than the number itself is the transition from experiment to operation. The main question is no longer whether the technology can do something, but whether such a decision can fit into the daily planning of flights, air traffic control and the whole system.
/ / / Only 3% of flights create a quarter of the contrails effect: why it matters more than the 57% itself
Data is not only useful when we don't have enough of it. We can also create a problem when we have it, but we attribute the wrong meaning to it. Irina Maričić demonstrated this well last week through "eight loyal guest". A hotel may see an eight and conclude that the experience needs to be "amplified," while a guest who returns for years may be looking for stability, familiarity, and the assurance that they will get what they come back for every time. The survey is not unimportant, but it is a piece of evidence, not the whole story. A precise number without context can produce a very precise - and completely wrong - business decision.
At the destination level, we have a similar problem with events. Croatian cities and tourist boards invest a lot of money in concerts, festivals, wine evenings, tours and local programs, and then the guest's journey is often interrupted by the events calendar. Eurostat shows that 26,8 percent of individuals in the EU bought a ticket for an event online in 2025, while Croatia is slightly above average with 28,3 percent. The guest is already used to seeing the date, availability, price, paying and receiving a confirmation on their mobile phone. If after a good photo and description they have to look for another website, send an email or call the organizer, we have not completed the product.
This will be even more important with AI agents. A PDF of a program might be enough for a human who wants to do research, but it's not a good product for a system where a guest says, "Find me a wine tasting in Slavonia on Saturday and reserve four seats." That requires structured data, price, time, availability, and the ability to transact.
This is where the story of rural tourism. Airbnb offers farmers in the US up to $10.000 to develop farm-stay offers and experiences, while Italy is further developing wine tourism through its agricultural policy. The models are different, but the logic is the same: a winemaker does not have to become a hotelier, nor does an olive grower have to build a villa with a swimming pool to participate in the tourist economy.
/ / / From farm to tourist product: Why are Airbnb and Italy investing in rural tourism?
Tasting, harvesting, workshop, lunch on the farm or tour of the vineyard can increase the value of the basic agricultural activity. Croatia does not have a resource problem. More often we have the problem of the last few steps from resource to product that has price, term, capacity and sales channel.
And it is precisely around this last step that perhaps the biggest debate is currently taking place. digital struggle in tourism.
Meta connects Muse with Expedia, which gives the AI assistant access to real hotel inventory and reservations. It is interesting that AI does not throw OTA platforms out of the game so far, but uses their infrastructure. A guest may not consciously go to Expedia, but Expedia can still stand behind the product that AI offers them.
Airbnb is going the other way. It already has accommodation booking and is trying to build more and more of the travel experience around it - from experiences and transportation to food that can be waiting for the guest in the refrigeratorFood delivery itself is not the key news. What is more interesting from a business perspective is how long the platform can keep the guest within its own ecosystem.
Accor is responding to the same challenge from a hotel perspective through ALL Concierge. It's not important because it's another AI chatbot, but because Accor is trying to keep your own conversation with the guest from inspiration and booking to stay and post-trip communication. At the same time, it opens its offer to external AI channels. It does not try to lock the guest only to ALL.com, but to be available where the guest starts to make a decision, without losing its own relationship with them.
/ / / Accor doesn't just want direct booking. It wants direct conversation with the guest
And that's where the whole story goes back to Istria.
Olives are a resource. Strategy is a document. Certificate is a label. Data is a number. AI is a tool. Manifestation is content...none of these are competitive advantages in themselves.
Advantage arises when all these things are connected long enough and well enough into a system that produces quality, market value, and a repeatable result.
Potential is what we have. A resource only becomes valuable when we build a system around it and manage it.
