Hrvoje Anić leaves the helm of the Zadar County Tourist Board, followed by the selection of a new director of regional tourism promotion
Hrvoje Anić's resignation from the position of director of the Zadar County Tourist Board opens a new кадрово and developmental chapter in one of Croatia's most important tourist regions. At the session of the Tourist Council, his resignation was accepted, and at the same time a decision was made to announce a call for applications for the selection and appointment of a new director, that is, director, for a four-year term. According to information published after the session, Anić is leaving the post for personal reasons, with the message that he still intends to remain connected to tourism and contribute with his experience to the development and promotion of Zadar County. Thus, in a relatively short period, after his election in September 2024, the question has once again been opened as to who will lead the regional tourist organization at a time when the sector is increasingly facing the pressure of rising costs, the need for more balanced development throughout the year, and the search for a more sustainable model of tourism growth.
The decision of the Tourist Council is formally an expected move, but politically and developmentally it carries greater weight than it seems at first glance. The regional tourist board is not merely a promotional service, but an institution that coordinates the activities of local communities, communicates the identity of the destination, prepares and implements promotional campaigns, supports events and products of special interest, and participates in shaping the image of the county toward the domestic and foreign markets. Precisely for this reason, every change at its head, especially on the eve of the main part of the tourist year and at a time when activities for 2026 and the next season are already being planned, has practical consequences for units of local self-government, for the private sector, and for cultural, sports, and event organizers who count on the coordination and support of the tourist board system.
Resignation for personal reasons and thanks to associates
According to the statement from the session, Hrvoje Anić thanked his associates and pointed out that he was leaving for personal reasons. Such wording as a rule leaves little room for further interpretation, so in this case as well one can speak only of a decision of a personal nature, without publicly presented additional explanations. In the statement with which he said goodbye to the post, he said that he had spent the greatest part of his professional career in tourism and that he believes he will continue in the future to contribute with his knowledge and experience to the development and promotion of Zadar County. This is an important message because it indicates that his departure is not interpreted as giving up on the sector, but rather as the end of one managerial episode within the tourist board system.
Anić was elected director of the Zadar County Tourist Board on September 19, 2024, after a competition procedure conducted by the Tourist Council. In that procedure, according to the published rules, candidates had to meet the formal requirements and present a work program, and the council ultimately made a decision on appointment to a four-year term. In public, Anić was recognized as a man from the profession, with experience in hotel and destination management, which at that time made his selection a logical move in a period when Zadar County was seeking a combination of operational experience and promotional management. His resignation therefore carries additional weight: formally speaking, it is a termination of the mandate before the expiry of the term, and in substance a change of leadership at a sensitive moment for regional planning of tourist activities.
Bilaver's thanks and message about the results
The president of the Tourist Council and county prefect Josip Bilaver thanked Anić for his work so far, emphasizing that the Zadar County Tourist Board had made significant strides in results and destination promotion in the past period. This statement fits into the broader framework of messages that the county leadership has been sending in recent months about tourism in Zadar County. Bilaver, who was elected county prefect in June 2025, also leads the Zadar County Tourist Board as its president, and on several occasions he has emphasized that the county must no longer think only in the categories of the summer season, but of the tourist year. In other words, the emphasis is gradually shifting from the mere addition of summer overnight stays toward year-round destination management, strengthening authentic content, and a higher quality of experience.
Such an approach is not without basis. According to official county information and publicly available tourist data, Zadar County continues to confirm itself as a very strong and competitive destination. During 2025, messages came from the county about stable traffic, with more than one million guests and around 6.2 million overnight stays already in the first part of the season, with slight growth compared with the previous year and the strengthening of domestic tourist traffic. For the regional tourist board, such data mean that it is no longer enough merely to maintain the visibility of the destination, but also to manage more precisely the structure of arrivals, seasonality, events, special forms of tourism, and the guests' on-the-ground experience. It is precisely because of this that the selection of a new director will not be a mere staffing formality, but a decision that will show what kind of developmental profile the county wants for its tourism in the medium term.
What the regional tourist board does and why this position is important
In public, the scope of work performed by the county tourist board is often underestimated. Its role is much broader than advertising the destination or organizing promotional appearances. As a regional destination management organization, the Zadar County Tourist Board coordinates the activities of local tourist boards, connects them with the national marketing direction, develops and promotes the regional identity, encourages the creation of tourism products and events, supports programs of special interest, and seeks to balance the interests of the coast, the islands, and the hinterland. In such a system, the director is not only an administrator, but also the operational holder of the implementation of the work program, a person who must combine marketing, financial management, relations with local communities, and communication with the tourism economy.
Zadar County is at the same time a particularly demanding destination to manage. In one region there simultaneously meet the strong urban tourism of Zadar, islands with a special rhythm of traffic and supply, national parks and protected areas, the nautical segment, active tourism, cultural events, and a growing interest in eno-gastro, outdoor, and experiential products in the hinterland. Such diversity requires clear coordination and a consistent narrative of promotion, but also very pragmatic decisions on the distribution of attention, support, and marketing priorities. The new director will therefore have to demonstrate the ability to simultaneously understand hotel and private accommodation, the event calendar, the needs of local tourist boards, and demand trends in emitting markets.
The competition follows, and the procedural rules are known from the previous selection
The Tourist Council announced that the competition for the selection and appointment of a new director, that is, director, will be published on the official website of the Zadar County Tourist Board. At the time this news is being published, the new competition is not yet publicly visible in the competitions and notices section, which means that its formal publication and the start of the deadlines for submitting applications are yet to come. But the framework of the procedure is not unknown. From the previous competition, published in August 2024, it is clear that the Tourist Council first carries out an administrative check of the applications received, then interviews the candidates who meet the formal requirements, and then makes a decision on the selection and appointment of the director for a four-year term.
This is important for at least two reasons. First, it shows that this time as well the decisive factor will be the combination of formal requirements and programmatic presentation of future work, and not merely a résumé reference. Second, it leaves room for serious competition, especially because this is one of the more visible tourism functions at the regional level in Croatia. Given that Zadar County has been profiled in recent years as a strong Mediterranean destination, it is to be expected that interest will exist not only among people from the local tourist board system, but also among candidates with experience in hotel management, destination management, marketing, or public administration connected with tourism.
Change at the top at a time of strengthening year-round tourism
The director's departure is happening in a period in which Zadar County is trying to further strengthen the year-round tourism model. This can be seen both from the public appearances of the county leadership and from the concrete activities of the tourist board. In 2025, for example, the Tourist Council approved support for dozens of events and for the programs of destination management companies, with special emphasis placed on content that can motivate the arrival of guests in the preseason and postseason. In the explanation of those decisions, it was emphasized that events and active tourism programs have an important role in extending the tourist year and in presenting the culture, tradition, and way of life of Zadar County.
Such a direction is fairly aligned with national tourism priorities, but also with local specifics. Zadar County has sufficiently strong summer traffic that its basic number of guests is not the main problem; the greater challenge is how to increase the value of the stay, distribute traffic more evenly throughout the year, and reduce sensitivity to the increasingly sharp price competition of the Mediterranean. It is precisely because of this that the new head of the county tourist board will have to answer several practical questions: how to better connect the coast, the islands, and the hinterland into a single product, how to retain the recognizability of the region's brand without banalization, how to support events that bring a real effect, and how to offer local communities more than classic promotional support.
The broader developmental framework: from strategy to concrete projects
The staffing change is also happening at a time when longer-term development documents are being shaped for the county. Zadar County has already publicly presented work on the Tourism Development Strategy until 2030, a document that should connect spatial development, sustainability, tourism infrastructure, market positioning, and the needs of the local population. Such strategic documents often remain at the level of declarations if they do not have a clear implementation logic, but in the case of the tourist board it is precisely the operational leadership that must translate strategic goals into campaigns, partnerships, projects, and measurable activities.
Therefore, the selection of a new director is not merely a question of personal management style, but also a question of implementation capability. Whether the emphasis will be on more aggressive marketing, on the development of products of special interest, on strengthening cooperation with local communities, on the professionalization of analytics and digital promotion, or on stronger connections with the private sector, will largely depend on the profile of the person who comes to the head of the system. In destinations such as Zadar County, where tourism strongly affects traffic, communal infrastructure, real estate prices, the labor market, and the quality of life of the local population, such decisions have a considerably broader social effect than destination advertising alone.
What will be expected of the new director
Several key competencies can reasonably be expected from the person who takes over the duty. The first is an understanding of destination management in the modern sense, which means the ability to work with data, market trends, and segmentation of the offer, and not only reliance on the seasonal inertia of the Adriatic. The second is coordination capability, because the county tourist board by definition must connect a large number of local actors whose interests are not always the same. The third is communication credibility: tourism today is not only promotion outward, but also the management of the expectations of the local community, renters, hoteliers, event organizers, and units of local self-government.
Equally important is the ability to set realistic priorities. Zadar County has in recent years continuously developed the outdoor offer, gastronomy, the nautical segment, and events, but the market is becoming ever more demanding. Guests compare prices, authenticity, quality of service, and digital accessibility of information. At the same time, the need is growing for tourism to be more sustainable and less conflictual toward the everyday life of local communities. The new director will therefore not be able to count only on the strength of the sea, the sun, and the existing reputation. It will be necessary to show how the destination can grow in quality, and not only in traffic, and how public funds for promotion and support can be directed toward projects with a provable effect.
The political and institutional message of this change
Although the resignation is explained by personal reasons, every change at the head of a regional tourist board also sends a political message about the way of managing public systems connected with tourism. By accepting the resignation and quickly announcing the competition, the Tourist Council seeks to show institutional stability and readiness to carry out the transition without delay. This is important both because of the calendar of tourism activities and because of the impression of managerial predictability toward partners in the system. Tourist boards operate at the intersection of public and market interest, so any longer uncertainty about leadership can slow decision-making, especially when it comes to promotional plans, public calls, and cooperation with local stakeholders.
On the other hand, this change also opens space for a new discussion about what kind of model of leading tourist boards Croatia needs today. In many destinations, it is no longer enough to have a person who knows protocol and classic promotional activities well. The system increasingly requires managers who understand data, product development, reputational risks, digital channels, but also the social consequences of tourism growth. Zadar County, because of its size and diversity, is a particularly good test for that type of management. It is precisely because of this that the forthcoming competition will be interesting not only to the local public, but also to the wider tourism sector.
In a practical sense, the coming weeks should bring the publication of the competition on the official pages of the Zadar County Tourist Board, after which it will be clearer how many candidates will enter the race and what programs they will offer for the next four-year period. Until then, the fact remains that Hrvoje Anić concluded his mandate before its expiry, that the Tourist Council accepted his resignation without delay, and that one of the most important regional tourist institutions in Croatia is entering a new selection procedure. At a time when tourism is measured less and less only by summer figures, and more and more by the quality of destination management, the selection of the person who will lead the promotion and coordination of Zadar County will be much more than an ordinary staffing news item.
Sources:- Zadar County Tourist Board – official pages of the board and the section with competitions, documents, and current content link
- Zadar County Tourist Board – previous competition for the selection and appointment of the director from 2024, with a description of the procedure and the four-year mandate link
- Zadar County – official biography of Josip Bilaver, with confirmation that he was elected county prefect of Zadar County in June 2025 link
- Zadar County – statement by county prefect Bilaver about the direction of tourism development and the emphasis on the tourist year, and not only the season link
- Zadar County – decision of the Tourist Council on support for events for 2025, with emphasis on the preseason, postseason, and special tourism products link
- Zadar County – announcement about the county's tourism results and development priorities during 2025 link
- Croatian National Tourist Board – official information about the eVisitor system and tourism statistical reporting link
- Zadar County – document on the Tourism Development Strategy of Zadar County until 2030 and the county's development framework link
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