Th e aim of this research was to investigate the role of culture and tourism in urban regeneration and, in particular, to ascertain the ways in which cities in transition countries, characterised by degraded city centres, under-utilized urban land on valuable locations, declined or abandoned industrial or military areas etc., are utilising culture in their overall strategic development.
The research was conducted in Croatia as it was considered that Croatian cities embody all the characteristics of the cities in transition (PAP/RAC, 2004).
Based on the literature review the conceptual model was developed hypothesising
that cultural and tourism strategies might be interrelated in specifi c ways aiming at enhancement of urban regeneration processes.
The research showed that cultural strategy based on fl agship cultural
projects cannot be related to tourism development strategies in Croatian cities.
Furthermore, the estimated parameter have pointed at the existence of a direct positive correlations between the strategies promoting the development of cultural districts and similar projects, which are integrated into the general city development strategies and the tourism development strategies relying mostly on the small
and medium-sized entrepreneurship.