Next year will not be easy for tourism in Europe and Croatian tourism should prepare well with measures that will enable it to remain competitive, notably in light of the European Union's new package of measures to boost European tourism in 2011, Croatian Tourism Minister Damir Bajs said on Wednesday while opening Croatian Tourism Days in Rovinj, HINA reports.

Bajs announced Croatia would prepare three types of measures for next year's tourist season, focusing on foreign markets, on which Croatia depends to a great extent, and on the boosting of domestic tourism. Addressing an international conference on the economic and social impact of tourism held after the opening of Croatian Tourism Days, World Tourism Organization representative Zoritsa Urosevic said Croatia recorded good results in European tourism last year, perhaps even the best.

Urosevic voiced confidence that Croatia would maintain that position, saying that responsibility and sustainability must be the main elements of the tourism and general national development strategy. Urosevic said the measures that would be adopted in the next two years would be decisive for tourism, adding that all governments should acknowledge that tourism generates employment and revenue in a number of sectors as well as reduces poverty.

Tourism is the third biggest economic branch in Europe with 1.8 million companies employing nearly 10 million people and it is important for nearly all European countries, so the European Union will do its utmost to strengthen European tourism after the decline of the past two to three years, said Ilona Lelonek, a representative of the European Commission's tourism department. The conference brought together representatives of the tourism ministries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Hungary, Macedonia, Slovenia, Italy, Montenegro, and Croatia.