The subject of this paper is ecotourism and its development possibilities, with a special look at Croatia. The emphasis will be on public institutions that care for environmentally protected areas which can also valorize their tourism potentials. The purpose of this paper is to show the under usage of special forms of tourism, especially ecotourism in the variety of the tourism offer in Croatia. The goal of this paper is to show how Croatia, through the work of public institutions, which are directly connected to nature management of protected areas, can use ecotourism as a marketing tool for raising awareness about protection and preservation of natural resources. In the process of writing these paper, secondary information sources are used to define terms and show statistical data related to ecotourism. As an example of a great job, The public institution for management of protected parts of nature and ecological network of Virovitica-podravina county was taken. This public institution doesn’t only take care about nature value but manages the information -education center and hostel ”Dravska priča“. The interview was used as a primary source of information to see how the public institution works and to show its impact on the tourism development of the region. Although ecotourism has an enormous potential for development, in Croatia it has often been overlooked, and that is why the work of the public institution which was taken as an example needs to be more appreciated and should be used as an example to others on how to develop ecotourism.