The residents of Split want to change the image of their city as a party destination and replace rowdy and inconsiderate tourists with educated families.
ADVERTISINGSplit has been known as an endless party destination for many years. But residents are fed up with drunk tourists flocking to the Croatian coastal town to attend music festivals like Ultra Europethe most important in Croatia.
And also impossible rents for the neighbors
It is not the only way they affect Croatia’s economy. Short-term visitors, who stay only a few weeks and at most a few months, have triggered the rents in Split, which now range between 700 and 800 euros on average. Given that the average monthly salary is around 1,000 euros, this has put those who live there in trouble.
“It is increasingly difficult for young people to find an apartment, start their life or have a family,” says Vana. Heshort term rental In winter it provides extra income, but in summer “it can be very expensive,” he adds.
The city has also had to reinforce security and police presence to “monitor antisocial behaviors like drinking in public, urinating, or people without shirts.”
We don’t want to be known as a party destination
The image hedonist of Split is not only an economic burden: it is eroding the city’s identity.
“Split “It’s changed a lot in the last 10 years,” agrees Luce, another tour operator. “There were a lot more local cafes and restaurants on the boardwalk. Now, everything is Italian, hamburgers, etc., although Croatians are better at Croatian food“.
“The Diocletian’s Palace area had small independent shops, now they are mainly apartments that are rented to tourists or for short stays,” he adds.
The good comes with the bad
“Tourism in Split is, from one point of view, very good, especially in the old town and the Diocletian’s Palace, which has been 95% renovated, so it is now quite new,” he says Ivanareceptionist of a pension. But tourism workers also recognize that the good comes with the bad. “However, The bad thing is that the people who lived in the Old Town, in old apartments, now don’t live there.”.
Verónica relates this change to the influx of “young tourists, who all come to themusic festivals“, which excludes neighbors and drives up prices. “The residents don’t like the city center very much, because it is crowded and very expensive. We are spread throughout Split, far from the center,” he explains.
It hasn’t always been this way, remember. “Before there were much more friendly and polite tourists, with families; We like them, we don’t have problems with tourists like that.” But this summer they were nowhere to be seen. While the apartments, hostels and motels were full, “the hotels were a little emptier, because there were fewer high-class tourists.” , explains Veronica.
An almost total dependence on tourism
Regardless of how tourists behave, there is no denying that Split depends on them.
“We depend almost entirely on turismowhich is not very good, but it is what it is,” explains a local merchant to ‘Euronews Travel‘. “In the old town there are some problems. Either there are a lot of people in summer or there are no people in winterthere’s not much middle ground.”
Many venues make most of their annual income in the busy summer seasonwhich helps them cope with the quieter months of the winter, when there are many fewer jobs and hardly any tourists.
Hotels, bars and restaurants, enchanted
“We sell them expensive boat tripsfor which price they can buy their plane tickets and accommodation,” says Kristinaanother employee of a cruise company.
“Although the city wants to reduce tourism, there is too much support from bars and restaurants,” he adds. Veronica.
ADVERTISING“So this is the difference, in some cases you win something and in other cases you lose,” he says Ivana. “We don’t think the same as Spain or other countries, since tourism in Split started only about 16 years ago. So we like tourists here“.
What is Split doing to make tourism more sustainable?
In Spanish tourist areas, local authorities resort to extreme measures to curb excessive tourismsuch as the rise in tourist taxes and the promise to ban short-term apartment rentals to tourists in Barcelona.
Closer to home, Dubrovnik has also limited the number of tourists to 4,000 a day, has installed more security cameras throughout the city and has staggered the arrival and departure times of cruise ships.
How many tourists can fit on Spilt?
Aware of the growing tensions inthe second city of Croatia, the Split Tourist Office commissioned in 2022 a comprehensive ‘Study of the city’s tourist reception capacity‘.
ADVERTISINGIt examined whether local infrastructure and accommodation were adequate to accommodate the 900,000 tourists that the city receives every year.
Upon discovering that excess tourism was more pronounced in the crowded city center, authorities have begun to regulate the number and type of accommodation options, based on load capacity calculations.
More police to defend citizens
They have also hired more security services and municipal guards to stop antisocial behavior such as noise excessive consumption of alcohol on public roads and urinating in the streetsespecially in the old town.
Hoteliers have been encouraged to join these efforts by establishing clearer standards and expectations about the guest behavior, especially when it comes to younger tourist groups.
ADVERTISINGOther initiatives include the “Respect and Enjoy” campaign, which helps hotels, agencies and tour operators promoteresponsible tourism.
There can also be tourism in winter
It also includes measures to attract tourists outside the peak months. summeran important change for local residents, like Veronica, whose income is limited by the seasonality of tourism in Split.
“We are committed to finding the right balance between supporting an industry tour prosperous and preservation of the quality of life of the residents of Split”says the Split Tourist Office a ‘Euronews Travel‘.
“Our objective is to guarantee that tourism development is socially, ecologically and economically sustainablewith a strong emphasis on improving the quality of life of residents.”
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