APPLYING GINI COEFFICIENT TO ANALYZE SEASONALITY OF CROATIAN TOURISM

Extension of tourism season or reducing tourism seasonality is often emphasized as one of the imperatives and strategic goals of Croatian tourism. This paper utilizes the method of Gini coefficient in order to quantitatively describe the magnitude of tourism seasonality. This research explores tourism seasonality through analysis of long-term variation of tourism overnights in Croatia. Tourism seasonality is also being analyzed with respect to the origin of tourists (domestic and foreign), main generating markets, and type of accommodation facilities and different tourism regions of Croatia. Since 2001, the degree of seasonality of Croatian tourism was in a slight decline until the beginning of the Great Recession, when it starts to rise again. The lowest degree of seasonality was recorded in the case of domestic tourists and then in the case of tourists from Austria and Germany. Given the type of accommodation facilities and different tourism regions of Croatia, the lowest degree of seasonality was recorded in hotel accommodation, and the Dubrovnik area.