The Department of Tourism and Communication Studies dates back to 1972, when the former Teacher Training College in Zadar (as part of the former Faculty of Arts) established a twoyear study program of tourism in the field of humanities with two courses: Tourism Culture and Selective Tourism. Bearing in mind the complexity and interdisciplinary nature of the phenomenon of tourism, the primary idea of the study in Zadar was to supply the tourist industry with such experts who had never been trained in Croatia before, and whose professional profile would be extended from the indispensable field of economy towards the fields of culture, pedagogy, communications and humanities. Based on these benchmarks, in 1994 was launched a four-year university course in Culture and Tourism at the same name department, which, upon graduation, provided to its students the academic title of Bachelor in Tourism Communication. As a result of cooperation with the Universities of Zagreb and Maribor, in 2001 the Department launched the Postgraduate Master's and Doctoral program in information sciences. After the establishment of the University of Zadar in 2003, the Department changes its name into the Department of Information and Communication Studies, which after the reform of higher education system in 2005 and the introduction of new study programs in 2009 has been operating under the new and current name.
Upon implementation of the Bologna process, the Department has received accreditation from the Ministry to carry out an undergraduate study program of Culture and Tourism, and four graduate study programs: Entrepreneurship in Culture and Tourism for the professional title of Master of Economics; Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Journalism and Public Relations and the Ecology in Culture and Tourism, with the same name professional master's titles. In the academic year 2013/14 the graduate study programmes was changed and currently the Department is authorised to carry out three graduate study programmes: Entrepreneurship in Culture and Tourism; Cultural and Natural Heritage in Tourism; Journalism and Public Relations.
In cooperation with the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb and its pertaining Department of Information Sciences as a holder, a new doctoral program in information and communication sciences was launched in 2010. with the Department as a partner institution. From 2002 to 2004 the Department participated as a partner in an international Tempus project "Champions of Entrepreneurship" in cooperation with Levon Institute from Finland, ISTUD Institute from Italy and Centre for Entrepreneurship of the Zadar County, which later produced the above mentioned graduate study program in entrepreneurship. In addition, the Department has been organizing various educational tours for its students for years, which includes visits to trade fairs, agencies and tourist board offices and, furthermore, has established regular contacts with a number of related departments and research institutions at home and abroad. So far, visits have been organized to London (2002), Salzburg, Vienna and Munich (2005), Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels and Cologne (2006), Dublin (2007), Berlin (2008), Edinburgh (2009) and Milan (2009). In the same period, the Department has organized five international scientific conferences which resulted in conference proceedings: Kraglski Dalmatin - 200 Years of Zadar and Croatian Journalism in a European Context (2006); Media and Tourism (2009) and in cooperation with the University of Klagenfurt: 4th Symposium on European Issues "What Will Be? Analysis and Visions for Europe"; Pilgrimage and Sacred Places in Eastern Europe (2012); Myths of Tourism (2013).