The development of aviation in Croatia began more than a century ago with the development of the adequate infrastructure, mostly hangars for building of aircraft and their servicing. In that long-lasting development of the Croatian aviation, the focus has been on the military and especially civil aviation already by the beginning of World War I, in Austrian - Hungarian Monarchy. This paper will describe the development of civil aviation but not the commercial public traffic than the sports-recreational aviation. Special care is dedicated to avio tourism, i.e. tourism that appears due to the activities connected with ultralight flying and air sports. Avio tourism and its development contribute to the total number of visits and the tourist\u27s consumption at tourist destinations which develop that kind of tourism. The paper concludes with some proposals for the development of the overall sports and recreational aviation and avio tourism
