Tourism is a very dynamic system in which new trends are constantly being created and the importance of the planning process comes to the fore. Planning is one of the basic functions of tourism, the process of which involves the creation and elaboration of a set of activities and goals and determining the time to achieve the defined tasks. The Republic of Croatia plans the development of tourism through action plans, which derive from the umbrella document, the tourism development strategy. Since its independence, the Republic of Croatia has developed three strategies for the development of tourism in the Republic of Croatia, which aimed at the sustainable development of the tourist offer and raising the competitiveness of Croatian tourism on the world market. Through the application of standard and verified methods with the use of data from relevant sources, the paper analyzes the success of the adopted and implemented strategies of the Republic of Croatia so far in order to identify possible shortcomings with regard to the current situation. The main goal of this paper is to show the importance of the planning process in the development of tourism and the implementation of adequate solutions that will result in increased satisfaction among the domicile population and tourists. Special attention is paid to the sustainable development of tourism, which aims at constant economic and social growth and development, while respecting the highest environmental standards in order to protect natural resources. Through five chapters, the paper explains the planning process and its features, analyzes the planned situation as opposed to the current one, and concludes with a conclusion which gives recommendations for improving the planning process in the future.