Every year, the global Green Destinations Top 100 competition invites candidates to submit stories on sustainable management of tourism and its impacts. From last year’s winner, we’ve selected this submission from Croatia on how to preserve a rural area’s sense of place in a modernizing region. Synopsis by Ailin Fei.
How a Modernizing Region Saved its Rural Heritage with an Area-wide Living Museum
Top 100 submission by the Tourism board of Međimurje County
Međimurje County, in northwestern Croatia, faced a growing challenge: How to sustain rural cultural heritage in a densely populated, rapidly modernizing region with over 100,000 residents across three towns and 22 municipalities. The region has strong infrastructure exceeding EU standards, effective nature conservation, and a vibrant economy led by manufacturing.
Many smaller rural communities, however, lacked a clear cultural identity or tourism strategy, and the younger generation was losing interest in traditional customs, skills, and practices. Formal cultural institutions, largely focused on conservation and academic presentation, lacked staff and resources to maintain a continuous presence in rural areas.
To address this gap, the region adopted the “ecomuseum” concept, which focuses on the identity of a specific area by connecting community, culture, and nature. The entire area is considered an exhibit – a museum without walls – with the local population participating in preserving and interpreting their own heritage. The ecomuseum thus raises local awareness while using tourism as a tool to convert heritage into value for the rural economy.
Ten years in the making, the Ecomuseum of Međimurje has achieved numerous objectives and gained national and international recognition. Success required bottom-up planning, long-term partnerships, patience, enthusiasm, and commitment. These efforts may slow progress and raise short-term costs, but they deliver long-term
benefits.
For more information, see the full submission (pdf).