The main aim of this paper is to analyze the trends and structure of tourism in the Republic of Croatia as a strategically important industy. In fact tourism is what greatly encourages the development of the Croatian economy, but also keeps certain number of people in a country. In this paper it is provided a strong basis for decision making regarding to strategic issues of the Croatian economy, based on the analysis and relevant indicators. It is necessary to see in which direction is Croatian tourism developing and in which direction it should be developing. Based on a analysis of the data we see that Croatian economy is dependent on the tourism industry. The additional issue of Croatian tourism is also seasonality (only in July and August tourist make 6 or more overnight stays while the rest of the year it fluctuates around 2 days), but the Republic of Croatia certainly has potential and resources (congressual, health, sports tourism...) for further development of tourism. Percentage of overnight stays from 10 most represented countries in overall number of overnight stays made by foreigners in chosen period has also been analyzed and possible reasons for fluctuations over the period are given.