Is the Pelješac Bridge Construction Going to Affect Tourism Sustainability of the Peninsula?

The whole area of Dubrovnik-Neretva county, situated in thesoutheastern part of Croatia, is at the moment, in terms of road accessability,still not satisfactorily connected with the rest of Croatia. The lack of itsaccessability is mostly caused by the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina's borderline cuts in two the Dubrovnik-Neretva county's (land) territory. As a result,on the way from southwest to southeast, or from Split to Dubrovnik, one needsto cross the state border with Bosnia and Herzegowina twice. The constructionof the Peljesac Bridge (together with a set of interconnecting roads) should improvethe present situation significantly, mainly due to the expected redirection ofmost of the traffic to the new route accross the Pelješac peninsula. It is fairto assume that this will additionally 'open' the entire Pelješac peninsula tothe increased tourism related traffic, especially to the demand of one dayvisitors and/or weekend guests originating from the nearby regions. Since thiswill, most lilkely, create additional pressure on the environment, the aim ofthis paper is to investigate the extent to which, if any, the construction ofthe Pelješac bridge might affect future market perception, and, thus, the longterm tourism sustainability of the Pelješac peninsula.