V. Protega, N. Bozic, Z. Lucie: Impact of Motorway Al on Development of Tourism in the Sibenik-Knin County VESELKO PROTEGA, M.Sc. Transportation Economics E-mail: [email protected] Review University of Zagreb, Accepted: May 20, 2006 Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences Approved: Jun. 12,2007 Vukeliceva 4, HR-10000 Zagreb, Republic of Croatia NIKICA BOZIC, B.Eng. Srima XVII/25, HR-22000 Sibenik, Republic of Croatia ZLATKO LUCIC, B.Eng. Milke Trnine 7, HR-10000 Zagreb, Republic of Croatia IMPACT OF MOTORWAY Al ON DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM IN THE SIBENIK-KNIN COUNTY ABSTRACT the traffic connections of these locations? How strong is the interaction between the construction of a mod­ The work studies the impact of the changed traffic flows ern road infrastructure of the highest level as an im­ (moto1way Al) on the development of the tourist economy of portant factor of the assessment of traffic availability the Sibenik-Knin County. The selected three-year period (2003 and success of the tourist economy subjects in the - 2005) includes three phases of different construction levels of market competition for tourists? the motorwayAl Zagreb- Split in the area of the Sibenik-Knin County. This raises the issue of the cause-effect relation of better traffic connections and the improvement of tourism as well as the compatibility of the new road network with the ten­ 2. SIBENIK-KNIN COUNTY- IN dencies of reconstructing the tourist offer with special reference GENERAL to unbalanced development of different destinations. The Sibenik-Knin County belongs geographically KEYWORDS to Central Dalmatia. In the west it borders on the tourism, traffic connections, Motorway Al Zadar County, in the East on the Split-Dalmatia County, and in the North on Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the North this area is dominated by mountains: 1. INTRODUCTION eastern part of Velebit, Dinara, Svilaj and Mosec that form a natural barrier to the traffic corridors of con­ This work tends to analyse whether, and if yes, in nections with the wider area of the Republic of which way the construction of motorway Al has af­ Croatia, and in the south the Adriatic Sea. A total of fected the development of tourism in the Sibenik­ 112,890 people live in the Sibenik-Knin County, -Knin County. A three-year period (2003-2005) dur­ which covers an area of 2,984km2, in 5 cities and 14 ing which the effects of tourist activities were ana­ districts, which with 37.8 people/km2 represents the lysed, primarily referring to the three summer tourist second lowest population density in the Republic of seasons, includes at the same time also three phases of Croatia.1 different construction levels of the motorway Al Za­ Moving away from the villages, low population greb -Split in the area of the Sibenik-Knin County. density in the interior and high unemployment rate Taking into consideration the geographic position, are not just the consequences of war, but also of emi­ natural beauties and cultural heritage of that area on gration, either to coastal area or abroad. There is an the one hand, and the devastation of the pre-war in­ increasingly noticeable trend of emigration of the dustrial production on the other hand, there is no younger, highly educated part of the population doubt that the economy of the Sibenik-Knin County is which makes the development of economy more dif­ oriented towards tourism. Tourism is developing, with ficult and acts unfavourably on the labour cost2. The noticeable positive trends, but also indicating differ­ economic heritage of this area in the sense of the ences in the development of individual cities and dis­ once dominant metal-working industry still exists tricts. but, somewhat due to war destruction, and somewhat The two basic questions that require an answer due to transition processes, its significance has de­ are: First, can different intensity of tourism growth of creased. The tendency today is to revive this econ­ individual destinations be brought into relation with omy first of all through small and mid-size entrepre- Promet- Traffic&Transportation, Vol. 19, 2007, No.4, 225-231 225 V. Protega, N. Bozic, Z. Lucie: Impact of Motorway Al on Development of Tourism in the Sibenik-Knin County Table 1- Structure of roads in the Sibenik-Knin County5 Rn"d category Length fkml Length[%] State roads 341.89 28 County roads 479.52 33 Local roads 395.90 39 Total 1217.31 100 tween the development of road traffic system and the development of tourism for several reasons: - the Sibenik-Knin County with its two National Parks and a number of other tourist destinations attracts a large number of tourists so that its traffic load increases multiply during the summer season, the Sibenik-Knin County is an area of transit traffic in the North-South direction with the merging of Figure 1 -Area of the Sibenik-Knin County two traffic flows: Rijeka - Split (Dubrovnik) D8 and Zagreb- Split (Dubrovnik) Dl; Source: Croatian National Tourist Board - Motorway A1 passes through the area of the Sibe­ neurship. A similar case is with the Zagora part of nik-Knin County, but during 2003 not one section the County around the towns of Drnis and Knin. was built. The following year, more precisely in The situation on the islands is also bad, where the summer 2004 only two sections of the motorway failure of fishery and island agriculture brought to are open to traffic: the north section from the the increase in unemployment and emigration (only Benkovac node to Pirovac node and the south sec­ 1,191 people living on five islands, mainly retired tion from the Vrpolje node to the node of Dugo­ people).3 polje, which in fact "interrupts" the motorway. All Like all the coastal counties, the Sibenik-Knin the sections of the motorway, which pass through County turned to tourism as the basic economic the Sibenik-Knin County, have opened to traffic as branch, which was contributed by the increase in the late as in the summer of 2005. tourist demand, opening of workplaces, and safe reve­ nues. The focuses of tourism development were dif­ ferently distributed: Primosten, Yodice, Murter and Rogoznica followed such development. However, the City of Sibenik has not kept pace with these trends, so that, apart from the construction of the "Solaris", the tendency was still on the accommodation of industry, army, cargo port and trade. 3. ROAD TRAFFIC OF THE SIBENIK-KNIN COUNTY The changes of road traffic flows in the Republic of Croatia during the gradual opening to traffic of single sections of Motorway A1 Zagreb -Split had their im­ pact also on road traffic of the Sibenik-Knin County area. The density of road network in the County Figure 2 -Traffic flows of the Sibenik-Knin County during 20036 amounts to 40.6 km/100km2, which is 18% less than the national average.4 The traffic flows during July and August 2003, Fig­ Motorway A1 passes the Sibenik-Knin County in ure 2, show the main focuses of traffic loads (and it is the length of 42km. The traffic flows in the County no coincidence that it refers to the three County cen­ area are presented in Figures 2 and 3. tres: Split, Sibenik and Zadar), but also the mutually The selected area of the Sibenik-Knin County is in­ approximately equally congested minor centres: Sinj, teresting for the study of cause-effect relations be- Drnis, Knin and Gracac. 226 Promet- Traffic&Transportation, Vol. 19, 2007, No.4, 225-231 V. Protega, N. Bozic, Z. Lucie: Impact of Motorway Al on Development of Tourism in the Sibenik-Knin County The three dominant (transit) traffic flows can also on state road D27 to Sibenik Bridge, bypass the city of be clearly noticed: Sibenik using state road D8 to Razine node and con­ - route Gospic - Sveti Rok - Maslenica - Pirovac tinue on state road D58 to Yrpolje node. Local traffic (2004), motorway Al, which accommodates the also has to be taken into consideration, on state road in-flow of vehicles from Zagreb towards the south­ D8, which functions as the Sibenik bypass road. In­ ern coastal counties, as well as towards B&H; creased load of the state road D8 on sections Sibenik - route Gracac - Knin - Sinj, Dl, which accommo­ Bridge-Yodice and Sibenik Bridge-Razine results in dates primarily the transit traffic from Zagreb to­ traffic congestion which are worst at two critical wards two southern-most counties, i.e. towards points: B&H; 1. connection of state road D27 and state road D8 - route Zadar - Sibenik (Split) D8, i.e. Benkovac - only some hundred meters from the Sibenik Sibenik D56, which brings tourists to the desired Bridge; destinations, and a smaller number only pass 2. connection of state road D8 and local road in the through. region of Njivice used as the exit from the city of Sibenik towards Yodice, i.e. western part of the Major traffic in the Sibenik-Knin County flows along the following seven state roads: County. At these critical spots the traffic police had to regu­ Dl connects Knin and Kijevo, Yrlika, Hrvace, late traffic in order to keep the minimum throughput Sinj, Dugopolje, Klis and Split, i.e. Gracac to­ of vehicles. Kilometre-long queues formed in the wards Zagreb; morning hours in the west-east direction at the inter­ D8 connects Sibenik and Trogir, Split and via Du­ section D27 and D8 due to the conflicting flows of ve­ brovnik to the state border of Serbia and hicles arriving on the motorway, mainly tourists, and Montenegro, i.e. Biograd, Zadar, Rijeka to vehicles driving from Yodice and other coastal resorts the state border of the Republic of Slovenia; of the western part of the County towards the City of D27 connects node D8 Sibenik Bridge with the Sibenik, local and tourist traffic, i.e.