Air transportation and tourism in the Croatian littoral

The aim of this paper is to analyse and explain the impact of air transportation on the development of tourism in the Croatian littoral. The analysis was made by using the data collected from flight schedules and airport authorities. The data on frequency of lines and number of passengers were analysed in order to correlate the distribution of the number of passengers with the number of tourists during the year. In this case, the correlation between the number of passengers and the number of arrivals/number of overnight stays is observed. Data for the time period from 2008 till 2010 were analysed in more detail by dividing the passengers into four categories: full-service passengers, low-cost passengers, charter passengers and general aviation passengers. Major touristic markets are identified on the basis of the number of connections between European and Croatian littoral airports. The last part of the paper deals with the increasing impact of low-cost services on the development of tourism in the Croatian littoral region. This is due to the fact that low-cost carriers have accounted for a considerable part of air transport in the last few years.