Abstract
Tourism began to grow relatively slowly throughout history, starting in the middle of the 20th century. Today, tourism as a whole has imposed itself as one of the most propulsive economic activities. For the Republic of Croatia, where tourism accounts for more than a fifth of the GDP of the national economy. The aim of this work is focused on the presentation of the potential and concept of tourism development of island tourism with an emphasis on the island of Krk, i.e., its most developed municipality of Malinska. The paper conducted an empirical investigation of local residents’ attitudes about the elements of the tourism offer in the municipality of Malinska and the impact of tourism on its development. The purpose of this research, in the interpretation of the obtained results, is to find relevant answers at the level of the tourist destination of Malinska about the attitude of the local population towards tourism, towards phenomena in the environment of importance for tourism, towards the development of the tourist destination and the assessment of the offer and quality of the tourist offer. The general results of the research led to the conclusion that the tourism of the mentioned destination has progressed, but that there is still room for progress and development of the offer in order to build a more competitive and market-recognizable tourist product.