Destination marketing planning in Croatia: Problems and perspectives

County strategic tourism marketing plans have appeared as a relatively new instrument in the conceptualisation of the development of tourism destinations in Croatia. This paper illustrate methodology issues and problems that emerged from drawing up the plans (internal and external). The methodology elaborated upon is based on several basic footholds: multidisciplinary approach, state‐of‐the‐art in destination marketing, applicability, simplicity and straightforwardness, bottom‐up approach and unique methodological framework (taking specifics into account). The current experiences of the Institute for Tourism (Zagreb) point out the importance of the continuous monitoring of the SMPs implementation in practice and further methodology improvements.