Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism: Examples of selected mid-Dalmatian islands of Hvar and Brač

• Financed by: Ministry of Science and Education
• Coordinator: Institute for Social Research in Zagreb
• Duration: April 2022 - April 2024

Besides many tourism strategies, nowaday development of tourism on Adriatic islands is increasingly oriented towards sustainable tourism (Dodds, 2007; Farsari et al., 2007; Wiles Howard, 2001) and ecotourism, which is mentioned as the most important aim in the Islands Act (OG Nos. 116/18, 73/20). In that respect it is necessary to achieve a balance between all dimensions of sustainability - ecological, economic, social and cultural (Throsby, 2008; O'Toole, Wallis and Mitchell, 2006), because failing to emphasise any one of them often brings a distortion in others, eventually leading to a disbalance in the sustainability of space in general, and therefore of islands as well.
The COVID-19 virus pandemic has greatly influenced tourism, tourism destinations and tourism professionals around the world. The adaptation to the 'new normal', from various measures to a decreased and in some cases completely reduced number of tourists, has also impacted the work of many tourist facilities. According to the 2020 research on the Island of Hvar (Zlatar Gamberožić, 2021), the pandemic influenced the tourism season already in its beginning, in June and July 2020, although later arrivals and overnight stays showed a certain attempt of bringing tourism into a balance and compensating for the previous loss. In the case of the city of Hvar, due to the pandemic the massivity of tourism was reduced, and the uncontrolled type of tourism present in the previous ten years decreased. With the reduced number of tourists along came a greater awareness of the fact that Hvar actually needed a lower number of tourists and a different tourism. The hotels such as Palace Elisabeth were working at near full capacity shortly after their opening, showing the tendency of tourists towards a luxurious/elite type of tourism that can be promoted and branded also after the pandemic. Arrivals and overnights of tourists in Hvar in 2020 have unambiguously pointed to a great reduction of tourist arrivals and overnights in comparison with 2019 and the previous years, which refers more to the foreign, than to domestic tourists. The promotion of Hvar targeted primarily the domestic market, and then the European (primarily German, Slovenian, French, Polish and Czech), and with the opening of air corridors in July, the promotion also targeted Great Britain, which was a traditional tourist market of Hvar also in 2020. On 15 November 2020 the tourist circulation amounted to a total of 51,231 arrivals, which is 24.26 % of 2019, and 295,165 overnights, which is only 38.62 % of 2019.
The planned research is a continuation of the research on the topic of tourism development on islands, and it relies on, among other sources, on case studies of various settlements on the islands of Hvar and Brač. The explorations of tourism determinants on the Island of Brač, more precisely in three island settlements: Povlja, Postira and Bol (Zlatar, 2010; Tonković and Zlatar, 2013; Zlatar Gamberožić and Tonković, 2015; Zlatar Gamberožić and Svirčić Gotovac, 2021), and in the city of Hvar on the Island of Hvar (Zlatar Gamberožić, 2021) aimed to analyse various types of developments in these settlements, from mass tourism (Bol and Hvar) over sustainable tourism (Postira) to stagnation (Povlja). These studies are a basis for furhter exploration of these islands, whereby it is planned to further compare smaller and larger settlements on the mentioned islands by employing longitudinal comparative analyses.
The specificity of this research is the analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on selected settlements on Hvar and Brač, as an important factor of tourism in the previous years (2020 and 2021).