Travel Reference
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from Western Europe who revealed in the
course of conversations that they had visited
Croatia (or what they would often refer to as
former Yugoslavia) with their parents and now
were searching for more 'exotic' places far away
from home (Ateljevic, 1998, unpublished PhD
thesis).
In contrast, Sanda D orak was born in the
capital of Zagreb and her early involvement
(since the age of 2) was on the consumption
side in the form of summer family holidays.
Typically, and in the tradition which continues
to the present day, the urban population of
Zagreb (the capital city) travelled to the coast for
their annual 2-week summer holiday, either
staying in their own second holiday homes or in
private accommodation. Throughout her life,
Sanda has spent her summer holidays on the
coast and islands, first with her parents and then
with her own family. Her research career began
with the Institute for Tourism 20 years ago. The
position of observing and researching tourism
phenomenon for almost two decades created
many frustrations which prompted her to
become more actively involved in shaping and
influencing the future of Croatian tourism. In
2001, she established the Zagreb School of
Management - Tourism Studies, to pass her
enthusiasm and knowledge to new generations.
In our reflections, while acknowledging
regional cultural differences at many different
levels (north/south, coast/interior, islands/coast,
urban/rural) we have identified a number of
interconnected social elements which have
underpinned local entrepreneurial spirit and
the dominance of small-scale businesses. These
relate to:
are very much a reflection of the traditional
practice of financially supporting children and
assuming a nurturing responsibility for them
throughout one's life. The flourishing busi-
nesses, particularly in the accommodation sec-
tor, originate from the fact that most parents
build houses on two or three storeys expecting
their grown-up children to remain living in their
family home where they can look after their
grandchildren and then the younger generation
takes care of parents when they grow old. So,
separate living space the rest of the year
becomes apartments for renting which usually
requires the extended family to 'squeeze' into a
common living space over the summer months.
Close family relationships also reflect a
deep-seated suspicion and mistrust of socialist
state institutions and banks, to the extent that the
extended family has become the main source of
financial, social and emotional support.
The legacy of being part of a ('market')
socialist state for 45 years and the frequent shift-
ing of political boundaries undermined local
trust in the public sector, particularly with res-
pect to benefits received from collective taxa-
tion. The socialist system of public ownership,
which ensured the absence of individual
accountability, provided political protectionism
and privileges and eroded any sense of public
good. As a result, many small, family-run busi-
nesses traditionally have chosen to distance
themselves from formal taxation, either by
remaining unregistered or disguising income by
not registering all guests.
In this context, coupled with the lack of regu-
lation of the small-scale tourism sector, many
local businesses flourished in the absence of strict
tax control, enabling locals to generate capital
over a short period of time. The extent to which
tourism sustained the local economy is illustrated
in the fact that many families in coastal areas
generated sufficient tourism income over the
2 months of peak summer business to sustain
themselves for the rest of the year (additionally
supported by fishing and their own subsistence
agriculture). Furthermore, the savings accumu-
lated over two decades of the tourism 'golden
age' (1970s and 1980s) were so significant that
they helped people to 'survive' the war years and
the cessation of tourism in the early 1990s.
In an intensely patriarchal society, where
the birth of a son is always to be celebrated,
the patriarchal society and the inter-
generational nature of businesses, gender
and family;
black-market practice, informal economy
and local resourcefulness; and
local politics, personal economies and social
networks.
In a country with strong historical ties with
the Roman Catholic church, where today 90%
of the population claims to be Catholic (Stati-
sticki Ured Hrvatske, 2003), it is not surprising
that family values are deeply embedded in soci-
ety. The consistency of local ownership and the
intergenerational nature of tourism businesses
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