In order to ensure a quality offer, and at the same time to preserve all the values of a particular national park, it is important to include a wide range of activities and stakeholders from different sectors and the local community. At the global level, looking at the time before the pandemic, an increasing number of protected areas began to encounter the negative impacts of tourism, which resulted in negative consequences for natural and cultural values, but also for the views of the surrounding areas and the quality of life of the local community. The subject of this thesis is the national parks of the Republic of Croatia, that is, their preservation and management in the form of increasing tourist activities at the local level, as well as at the level of the Republic of Croatia. The goal of the work refers to the establishment of the management direction of tourism development, based on the example of Plitvice Lakes National Park. Partial goals of the work refer to understanding the importance of national parks in tourism, as well as in their preservation. The paper showed that, in the valorization of its natural basis, where the emphasis is placed on significant investments in the protection of national parks as the most attractive domain, Croatia still lags behind European destinations. Also, the sustainable management of the destination must be based on protecting the interests of the local community in order to increase tourist demand. This is realized through the inclusion of local associations and interest groups in the planning and decision-making process. Finally, the paper concluded that, since tourism and tourism development of national parks in Croatia has become a priority in terms of generating the competitiveness of such destinations, it is necessary to effectively manage the marketing of national parks in Croatia.