Theoretical aspects on the economic and social impact of religious tourism on the local environment, global trends in the tourism market, the current condition of the Croatian entrepreneurship and resources for the development of religious tourism indicate that it is the potential that has been marginalized in the Croatian tourism policy up to now. The aim of this paper is to show the importance of entrepreneurship in the selective form of tourism through the area of application and management of entrepreneurship in religious tourism. It also emphasizes the need to design an entrepreneurial model of religious tourism development that would generate greater economic prosperity of the local and regional development and of Croatian tourism as a whole as well. The number of tourist arrivals and overnight stays in destinations of religious tourism exceeds the total tourist turnover in some countries, which shows that it plays an important role in the socio-economic changes taking place in pilgrimage sites by affecting its social and economic structure which also affects employment, higher living standards of local inhabitants, education, etc. Tourism developed in the destinations of religious tourism is a generator for the development of entrepreneurship in industries such as hospitality, hotel industry, tourism intermediaries, transport organizations and complementary activities that directly or indirectly contribute to the design of products and services. Accordingly, this paper investigates the indicators of the entrepreneurship development in the field of religious tourism as a selective form of tourism and points out the opportunities of the destination development provided by this form of tourism. Setting up a model of the religious tourism development involves determining the basic guidelines of its management by identifying potential partners, their needs and positive effects through projecting the effects of religious tourism on the local community and through establishing an adequate management of enterprises in the destination. The project "Marian pilgrimage routes" tries to promote the pilgrimage phenomenon through the concept of sustainability and management models at different levels whose strategic objective is a competitive economy and improvement of tourist offer. Model of religious tourism development in terms of disposable resources in Croatia implies the construction of small family hotels/ pensions, encouraging entrepreneurial projects and infrastructure construction, the development of integrated products, the creation of cooperation of stakeholders through partnership and networking, destination management by applying the concept of destination management and sustainable development. From the above mentioned we can conclude that the implementation of such a model would result in increased consumption in the destination and would ensure a better economic efficiency and effectiveness for all stakeholders in religious tourism.