Culinary Trends in the Republic of Croatia as Part of Gastro Tourism Development
The main aim of this article is to explore the trends of gastro tourism, the development of gastro tourism in the Republic of Croatia, the gastronomic offer of Croatia, the potentials and opportunities for the advancement of gastronomy in Croatia's tourist offer. The research shows representation of new trends in today's gastro tourism market such as molecular food, slow food, macrobiotic food, eco, functional and vegetarian food. The main purpose is to find out to which extent are specific trends represented in Croatian restaurants.The methodology used is secondary research, desk research, method of analysis and synthesis, comparative method, quantitative research, interview as well as the observation from real life. As part of the quantitative method there is a survey conducted amongst 30 Croatian restaurants; 10 restaurants in continental Croatia and 20 restaurants in the area of coastal Croatia (among the best in 2016). Questions were asked about the extent to which the contemporary gastronomic trends were represented on the menus of selected Croatian restaurants. An interview was conducted with founder and owner of Palatin restaurant in Varazdin.Findings show that Croatian restaurants are aware of new trends in nutrition and culinary area, but the offer of dishes covered by these trends is insufficient. Gastro tourism as a selective form of tourism is poorly associated as a special segment. It is assumed that around 3% of the total world travel is motivated by gastronomy as the primary motive of travel. Considering that tourism in Croatia is an important economic activity. Croatia's gastronomic offer surely can be measured with the offer of other European destinations, such as Spain, Italy and other countries on this issue, but sadly this potential of Croatia is still poorly used.