By signing the Agreement on Scientific, Research and Professional Cooperation with the Institute for Tourism from Zagreb, the Plitvice Lakes National Park is the fourth destination where a mixed research approach is being tested, the main aim of which is to identify the impacts and threats of climate change on tourism and determine the level of resilience. All of this is being carried out as part of the project Effectiveness of Measures to Adapt and Mitigate the Effects of Climate Change in Tourism – COMMITMENT.
Project leader Izidora Marković Vukadin, PhD, and the team members will endeavour to carry out numerous scientific activities until the end of 2027, until when the project is active and funds are secured from the European Union’s NextGeneration Fund, namely the National Recovery and Resilience Plan at the level of Croatia.
Besides the Plitvice Lakes National Park, the other three destinations are the town of Krk, the municipality of Pakoštane and Sv. Martin na Muri, which means that the scientific team has covered three different areas: coastal, mainland and protected areas.
Cooperation within the above-mentioned project is planned through the exchange of scientific and expert data, information and experience; conducting interviews, surveys and focus groups to achieve the assigned project activities; cooperation in the publication of scientific papers; activities to popularise science; mutual sharing and use of library materials and other content of common interest.
In the first year of the project, efforts will be made to measure and document the specific and potential impacts of climate change on destinations, identify the main hazards and vulnerabilities arising from climate change, assess the ways in which these hazards affect tourism and destinations, analyse different geographical contexts of destination resilience and vulnerability, together with information and awareness raising, participation in international scientific conferences and publication of scientific papers.
We expect the further implementation of the activities and a successful cooperation with the project team of the Institute for Tourism.