Piran is a historic walled town on the Istrian coast of Slovenia. Down below its dominating cathedral with its Venice-like campanile, lies the oval inner harbour, which was replaced in the 19^th Century with an elegant town square, focussed on a statue of Tartini - an 18th Century composer, violinist and native of Pirano. The town had its urban development constricted by its peninsular site and town walls and then by the 20^th Century’s border and social upheavals. Luckily the town escaped significant war damage and with the exception of one 1960’s hotel extension, was saved from inappropriate ‘modernisation’. It has been described by successive guidebooks as "an attractive medieval-looking town", as "one of the most beautiful small towns on the whole Adriatic coastline", as preserving "tangible remnants of atmosphere", as "a large outdoor museum", as "an exquisite cultural pearl" and most recently and independently as "a gem of Venetian Gothic". Gradually the town is acquiring or is being set up for ‘gem city’ status.

Since 1991, Piran has been the icon of Mediterranean Slovenia. But where is Slovenia? Slovenia (Slovenija) is the small country of nearly two million people that was a republic of former Yugoslavia. It is often confused with Slovakia (called Slovensko in that country’s language), which is the inland country that separated from the Czech Republic in 1993. For tourism, Piran the town is associated with the resort of Portorož/Portorose. Together they have a long but disrupted history of tourism and on the short coast between Trieste (Italy) and Croatia, which has most of the Istrian peninsular. The area is formally bilingual (Slovene/Italian) and the Italian minority (now under 10 per cent) has entrenched democratic and cultural rights.

The municipal area comprises Piran, Portorož, Lucija and a couple of neighbouring bays including extensive salt pans. The shoreline is stony not sandy and the bathing places are therefore more like a lakeside than the traditional image of the seaside. The climate is northern Adriatic with Mediterranean summers but winters, from time to time tormented by the Burja. This sharp North East Wind is moderated by sheltering hills above Portorož and the inner town of Piran but lashes the sea and creates interesting wind-surfing conditions. The hillsides of the South Primorska region around the three coastal towns of Piran, Koper and Izola produce large quantities of wine; the sea provides local fish and mussels.

Kűstenland, Trieste and Yugoslavia

Before 1918, Pirano and Portorose were part of a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, centred on Trieste, called Kűstenland in German or ‘Litorale’ in Italian (meaning ‘coastland’ or ‘coast’ in English). The area was seen as the coast for Central Europe. There were direct rail connections to Vienna, Munich and even Berlin. Pirano and Portorose were accessible by sea and by rail from Trieste. Travelling by sea, Baedeker in 1911 reported favourably on Pirano but had not in fact landed as evidenced by a rare mistake -- he describes the town walls as if they were a fortress on the hill above. Portorose at that time had a narrow gauge railway, which linked it on the one hand to Trieste and on the other to Parenza/Poreč (now in Croatian Istria). A tramway linked Pirano to Portorose. After 1918 until the 2nd World War all the coast and Istria were part of Italy. Eventually the United Nations re-defined the border and in 1956, Trieste was confirmed as part of Italy and this stretch of the coast as part of Yugoslavia in the Republic of Slovenia. In 2004 Slovenia joins the European Union, reducing the significance of the border with Italy but emphasising that with Croatia.

During the Yugoslav period (until 1991) Portorož (and Piran) were successfully marketed with other resorts on the Istrian and Dalmatian coast and developed a strong German speaking and also Western European traditional family tourism. The saltwater spa (thalasso-therapy) in Portorož was distinctive but in general the tourism competed with other similar places. The grand Palace Hotel had fallen out of use after the 2nd World War and its gardens, which ran down to the sea, were cut through by the main road. A casino, founded in 1913, prospered by exploiting gambling laws that were relatively liberal compared to Italy or Austria. The casino and all the hotels were owned co-operatively, under the Yugoslav version of Communism. Substantial surpluses were re-invested locally, providing funds for a massive 1350 boat marina, a small airport and an open air conference centre/arena as well as an enormous 1970’s conference hotel taking over the headland between the resort Portorož and the historic walled town of Piran.

Wars and even rumours of wars can and, in this case, did ruin tourism. What might be called the "Wars of the Yugoslav Succession" had virtually no physical effect on this part of, or indeed any part of Slovenia. Slovenia's war of independence lasted just 10 days. Even Croatian Istria was unaffected. Nevertheless, tourism collapsed after 1991 when the whole of the Balkans was perceived as "bandit country". For ten years tour operators from Western Europe diverted their custom to the Western Mediterranean. For Portorož and Piran the result was a period of no investment in tourism infrastructure. The hotels from the 1960’s became out-dated and the physical appearance of the town of Piran and the resort of Portorož became run-down.

Very quickly hotel standards become unacceptable for conventional tour operators. As an impression of peace returns, less conventional tourists are the first to return and a gradual process of reinvestment – both upgrading existing, and creating new facilities may take place. Both require cash and Portorož has benefited from the money generated by the casino, even though the central government in Ljubljana now takes a larger slice than did the old Yugoslavia. After 1991 all the hotels in Portorož have been privatised and have been have been well renovated, often with the financial involvement of the casino.

Piran town had meanwhile declined massively in population terms (from an overcrowded 15000 in 1911 to less than 5000 today). Its old dependence on providing winter and family accommodation for the workers of the salt pans, a fishing fleet and trading ships had meant tight-packed housing with narrow streets, surrounding fine municipal and patrician buildings. These include fine Venetian and (heavier) Austrian architecture, laid out theatrically around the harbour and beneath the dominating Cathedral and the hilltop town walls. A feature is the well preserved, though still threatened, Jewish Ghetto hidden deep in the oldest part of town.

As much of the original population moved out to purpose built flats beyond Portorož, many houses in town were converted to holiday homes of varying quality and the business of the town became monopolised by restaurants, serving the neighbouring resort. The population of the municipal area has grown strongly since 1961 when it was 11,000 to over 17,000 in the year 2000.

The tourists who have returned to Portorož have come more and more by car for short breaks. This has meant more and more traffic and more and more demand for parking. Even by 2001, total numbers of tourist nights were still less than in the last years of Yugoslavia. In 1986, 305,000 tourists stayed for an average of nearly 6 nights. By 1999, while numbers have recovered from the 1991 low of 158,000, the average length of stay has declined to less than 4 nights. The total volume of tourism is therefore still substantially (about a third) down. Hotel occupancy on an annual basis is just over 50 percent but that reflects use close to capacity during the summer season and very little except some conference business and some weekend breaks during the October to May off season. There are also day visitors but because of the road and rail access to the area – neither motorway nor railway come within 20 kilometres – their numbers in summer are restricted by congestion.

Slovenia as a whole and Piran is an example of a tourist economy in transition from the public sector dominated and undemocratic but stable central European Communist Society. Since 1991, that has been replaced by increasing free enterprise, through privatisation and private, including foreign investment and also by democratic central and local government. The Casino, now privatised and the Portorož hoteliers, many linked financially to the Casino, are the main commercial stakeholders in the economy of the municipal area of Piran. There are however other significant players.

The Slovenian central Government in Ljubljana has both a strategic interest in Piran/Portorož as a critical part of its Mediterranean coast and as the contributor of about 20 percent of all Slovenia’s tourist revenues. It also takes significant taxation revenue from the casino. Slovenia is currently a centralised state with relatively few powers, delegated to local authorities and only weak regional structures. It is at national level that strategic transport decisions are made and also the development of higher education.

The municipality itself is still a commercial player, owning the marina, the small airport, a large conference centre and parts of the historical housing stock. It has recently put together a consortium to take on the shell of the grand Palace hotel in Portorož. The intention is to restore it as a five-star centrepiece to the resort

There are various constituencies in the local community with differing overlapping interests. They include the residents of the old town itself, the former old town residents now living in Lucija near Portorož, the Italian-speaking minority (represented in both the previous groups), those employed in each part of the tourism industry and those employed in other economic activities. Fishermen and Farmers with others in outlying villages that depend on Piran’s market and who supply wine and fish to the restaurants and hotels are further elements.

Of the Piran municipal area’s hotels, over 80 per cent (by beds) are in Portorož, about 6 per cent in Piran itself and the remainder in smaller bays along the coast. Significant accommodation but mainly summer seasonal is also provided by guesthouses, apartments and a large caravan camping site for a 1000 people. The enormous marina with 1350 berths also provides accommodation on board many of its boats. There are some 80 restaurants, bars and clubs in the area, with many of the most successful within the old town of Piran.

The built heritage of Piran town, the seascape and the surrounding landscape all make important contributions to the tourism value of Piran/Portorož but they also create critical constraints on its exploitation. Along the coast are national nature reserves and the salt pans are important for wading birds, for the quality of the air and sea as well as for the traditional employment.

The large day visitor movements are within the immediate area particularly between the old town of Piran and Portorož, which is four kilometres distant. The road winds up goes over a steep hill, while pedestrians and cyclists can make their way along by the sea. The old electric trams were closed in 1956 and dreadful traffic congestion has been the result. Already in the 1980’s a short distance Park’n Ride was introduced from a large and recently further expanded car park on land reclaimed from the sea just outside Piran. The whole of the town itself was designated as a single car park and a barrier installed which has reduced excessive visitor access and made even locals pay (a discounted amount) to enter the town. It was therefore an implicit, early and largely unreported example of road pricing for residents and tourists. The management of the system has become rather rigid and it operates with the same fixed prices: summer and winter, weekend and weekday, day and night. There is a frequent but often over-loaded and congestion affected bus service between old town and resort, made up partly of a shuttle bus that penetrates to the main Tartini Square and regional services that reach only to the bus station at the edge of the historic area.

The ancient narrow-gauge railway from Trieste has not survived the frontier changes. Parts of it are used as a cycle track with a long tunnel, allowing walkers and cyclists to escape from Portorož directly into the countryside. It is on the designated Euro-Velo route down the Adriatic coast.

Over 75 per cent of tourists to Portorož come by car, the remainder mainly by coach with a few by public bus and by boat to the marina. Salt from the local salt pans is transhipped from a wharf near Portorož and excursion boats to Venice and Trieste, operating in the summer tend to take people only out of the area. Few tourists currently arrive by air at the local airport, which is seen as capable of expansion.

As early as 1995, Piran proclaimed itself a Green Municipality in line with the United Nations Rio Declaration and Local Agenda 21. Successive Mayors and Councils have renewed this commitment with this prime objective as leaving to their children "their heritage in a better state than it was in, when we received it". From this statement flow a number of tasks and policies. For tourism, the Councillors say they will "support development of high quality tourism, improve accommodation facilities, create more jobs for fewer tourists who will be spending their holidays here also outside the high tourist season and promote development of soft, sustainable tourism". Such wording is not uncommon and taken with the similar paragraphs on other activities, provides a mission statement compatible with strategies, which may or may not prove genuinely sustainable. However, it would be difficult to see national government plans to extend the motorway network right up to the edge of the resort area and the major growth strategy put forward by the Portorož hoteliers as consistent with it.