June 30, 2020 - Darija Reic of the Croatian National Tourist Board Office in Great Britain comments on the air bridge and British interest in Croatia. 

Over the last few days, the media has been talking about negotiations between Great Britain and specific European destinations on the so-called "air bridge", including Croatia. On Sunday, the story received additional media focus, as well as concrete official outlines.

Namely, Priti Patel from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Dailymail that negotiations are underway with individual countries, regarding the establishment of an air bridge without quarantine, and that the ministry is working "overnight" to achieve them.

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Most importantly, there is a great demand, and travel agencies from the UK are overwhelmed by the demand for travel to Europe, as well as Croatia.

As Patel points out, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to enable Brits to go on vacation to the safest destinations without quarantine for 14 days, and it is expected to come into force on July 6.

HRTurizam spoke with the director of the Croatian National Tourist Board Representation in Great Britain, Darija Reic, about the possible air bridge as well as the interest in Croatia from the UK market.

When asked about the interest in Croatia in the British market, Reic pointed out that Croatia ranks high as a safe destination, since the beginning of the pandemic, and even today.

"In the last two days since the news was announced about the categorization of destinations to which it will be possible to travel from Great Britain without the need to quarantine on return, there has been increased interest in Croatia, which has been ranked high as a safe destination since the pandemic. Airlines operate their programs in accordance with the decisions and recommendations of the Government, and we already have flight announcements from the beginning of July to Pula and Rijeka, and from mid-July to Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik. The representative office in Great Britain also records high interest and increased number of inquiries from the public, especially last weekend," Reic points out.

As for the negotiations on the air bridge, they are conducted at the state level, and the CNTB office in London, as Reic points out, continuously communicates that we are open to British tourists and that Croatia is a safe destination, ready to receive guests.

Considering the corona situation, but also the economic crisis, the question is how much it has left a mark on the financial power of British tourists who are known as guests with high consumption. According to the research Thomas Summer 2017, tourists from the United Kingdom are right behind tourists from the USA in terms of the highest daily consumption per person - 139 euro. And in the past few years, consumption has certainly grown even more, thanks to the large number of young British tourists who have visited festivals on the Adriatic.

Reic points out that the British are extremely careful about the value of money, and logically, as well as their reduced travel budget, following COVID-19. "Britons traditionally like to get more for their money, and in light of the pandemic and weakened economic power, it is to be expected that price will be a strong motivator in choosing a destination."

What is important at the moment is concrete negotiations at the state level, not just media speculation, and there is great interest in Croatia from the UK market. More official positive news can be expected in the coming days around the air bridge between the UK and Croatia. 

To better position itself on the UK market, Reic points out that the CNTB campaign is underway in the UK market, and that the British will currently look for smaller tourist locations or "hidden gems" that are very common on the Adriatic coast and islands.

“Split, Dalmatia, Dubrovnik and the Neretva Valley are traditionally the favorite regions of the British. What many certainly want to experience is, for example, a visit to Dubrovnik without the usual crowds. In light of the pandemic and social distancing, tourists will look for smaller tourist locations and 'hidden gems', which are very common on the coast and islands, and they should be given special attention to communication activities. Well-known specialized travel magazines have authority and weight, and national newspapers mostly have sections dedicated to travel that serve as an inspiration to readers, with a huge reach, especially online. Nowadays, when we really spend a lot of time on mobile phones and laptops, online communication is crucial, and interactive content such as video ads attract special attention," Reic concluded.

 June 29, 2020 - How are other tourism countries preparing for the season in the corona era? We are delighted to welcome Turkey-based correspondent Maja Kuzmanovic to TCN, starting with a really interesting look at the Turkish Safe Tourism Certificate Program. 

Is safe tourism possible during a global pandemic? This question is bothering Mediterranean countries who are trying to save at least part of the 2020 summer season.

In the case of Croatia, which opened to tourism as early as mid-May, many details of the COVID-19 virus protocol (hereinafter the coronavirus) more than a month after the opening of the borders are still not clearly defined. While Croatian tourist cities are losing their nerves and renters are in a dilemma whether to open their apartments to foreign guests, Turkey has introduced a “Safe Tourism Certification Program”. The introduction of this program began in early May, two months before the country opened to tourism.

The certificate of safe tourism is a sort of HACCP for the prevention of the spread of coronavirus, it is based on 132 health and hygiene criteria and it also includes employee education.

The program embraces all facilities that provide accommodation and transportation, as well as archeological parks, museums and entertainment venues.

Thus, a special part of the program refers to airports, airlines, highways, tourist facilities and occasional transport companies that provide transfer and transport services for tourist tours. Passengers encounter the new protocol upon arrival at the airport where their temperature is measured by thermal cameras, and if it is higher than 37.8 C or there are some other symptoms, they undergo a free of charge coronavirus test.

If the test result is negative, passengers continue their journey. In case of a positive result, guests are sent to the hospital where, depending on the severity of the disease, they stay for treatment or are accommodated in a hotel. All hotels are required to provide a special section of the facility for guests infected with coronavirus and for those in quarantine. They are also required to allow sick guests to stay at the hotel's expense until complete recovery.

Treatment of foreign guests is free of charge and the costs are covered by the state of Turkey. From July 1st, Turkey is introducing the “COVID-19 tourist protection insurance” which will be available for purchase online, at travel agencies and airports. There will be three packages at the price of € 15, € 19 and € 23, which cover treatment costs in the amount of € 3,000, € 5,000 and € 7,000. According to Turkish statistics, the cost of treating a seriously ill patient with coronavirus averages € 4,000.

In order to reduce the number of visitors, only those presenting an airline ticket and with a mask on their face can enter the airport. Special attention is paid to the physical distance of 1.5 m and the signs with the direction of movement are placed everywhere, both on the escalators and in the elevators. Also, sitting in the waiting rooms, except for the disabled, is forbidden. Disinfectant kiosks can be found at every turn, and passengers are constantly warned about the rules. Upon entering the aircraft, packages with personal protective equipment (PPE) are distributed, and similar is done in the hotels too. Thermal cameras are also located at the hotel’s entrances while guests on arrival fill out a form with questions about their health and movement in the last 14 days.

Self-service in the hotel restaurants is no longer available, and the food counters and servers are separated by strips from the guests. Masks are mandatory, and even beach guards wear them. Rooms must be disinfected daily and 12 hours must elapse between the departure and arrival of guests. Tourist buses are filled with 50% of the capacity, ie every other seat, and before entering the vehicle the body temperature is measured, as well as at the entrance to the archeological parks, shopping malls and pedestrian zones.

The body temperature of the author of this article was also measured upon returning from the toilet during the break of the concert which was held on June 20 on the occasion of the promotion of the certificate of safe tourism in the ancient theater in Aspendos, near Antalya. - "This is the worst crisis that has ever hit tourism, and we must all adapt to the new normal." The program we implement requires significant investments, but offers maximum possible protection. In the process of normalization of life, one of our key points is tourism. “ - Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy stated at the press conference in Antalya.

The first official case of coronavirus in Turkey was registered on March 11 2020, schools and universities were closed immediately, and within the next two weeks normal life stopped. Traffic between cities was cut off, borders were closed and air traffic was stopped. A partial lockdown was introduced with the purpose of saving human lives and partly the economy, exempting only the working population from these measures. For citizens aged 65 and over and for the chronically ill - the most vulnerable part of the population, as well as for those under the age of 20, the curfew was imposed until mid-June. Weekends and holidays curfews for the entire population were regularly imposed in all major cities until June 1, so the Turkish people spent even the Ramadan Eid holidays in their homes.

Turkey, with 197,239 cases, is the 14th country in the world in terms of confirmed cases of coronavirus, of which 85 percent have been cured, with 5097 deaths (statistics for 28.06.2020). Wearing masks is mandatory indoors and on public transport, and in the cities of Istanbul, Ankara and Bursa outdoors as well. The fines for not wearing masks and violating the quarantine and curfews go up to € 700. While the city of Istanbul, with the population of 15.5 million, accounts for about 60% of coronavirus cases, a significantly smaller number of patients have been reported in tourist centers in southern Turkey.

Thus, in Antalya (population 2.4 million), which accounts for 48% of Turkey's tourism revenue, 500 citizens have fallen ill since the beginning of the pandemic, 14 of them with a fatal outcome.

As far as hospitals are concerned, Turkey has the highest number of intensive care beds per 100,000 inhabitants in the world (40), and hospital occupancy at the peak of the pandemic in mid-April, when the daily number of infected reached 6,000, did not exceed 80%. In April Turkey started domestic production of respirators, the mass production of surgical masks, as well as alcohol. For months, the most sought-after product on the market has been cologne, which was widely used in restaurants and households even before the arrival of the coronavirus.

The re-establishment of international air traffic began in mid-June, and flights to most EU countries, as well as to Croatia, will start on July 1st after which the arrival of the higher number of foreign tourists is expected. Until July, all the major airports in Turkey will have test stations and the passengers will be able to take the test for the price of € 15 before the return flights. Turkey as a non-EU country, already has an agreement with Germany regarding quarantine upon return to the home country. Passengers should be tested up to 48 hours prior to departure, and if the test result is negative, a 14-day quarantine is not required. Germany has the largest Turkish diaspora, and Germans are the second most frequent guests after the Russians.

Turkey is the sixth most visited country in the world in terms of annual number of visitors with 51.8 million in 2019, out of which 86 percent were foreign (source UNWTO). The economic contribution of tourism in the GDP is 12 percent, while in Croatia the share of tourism in the GDP is 25 percent. In the first five months of 2020, there was a 66 percent decline in foreign arrivals, ie 8.5 million arrivals. It is difficult to predict to what extent this number can be compensated in the second half of the year.

Time will tell whether safe tourism at the time of the pandemic is feasible in practice, but Turks did everything to minimize the risk. And the most unpredictable variable in the whole story of safe tourism is the human factor.

This article first appeared in Croatian in the print edition of Glas Istre. 

ZAGREB, June 29, 2020 - Croatia is in the final phase of entering the USA's Visa Waiver Programme and despite COVID-19 it has not put its foreign policy priorities on hold, Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic said on Monday.

"Despite the crisis caused by COVID-19, we have not neglected a single foreign policy priority," Bozinovic said after the signing of a Croatia-USA agreement on cooperation for stronger aviation safety.

Bozinovic recalled agreements signed between Croatia and various agencies, including the FBI and the DIA, which, he said, "now really makes it possible for us to say that we are embarking on the final stage" of the process of entering the Visa Waiver Programme.

US Ambassador Robert Kohorst said both governments had been working on that goal with great commitment, noting that he was thrilled because, despite COVID-19 and all the problems, the two sides had managed to work together on their partnership and had made a big step towards Croatia's entry into the Visa Waiver Programme.

Kohorst added that Croatia's entry, planned for the end of this year, could be postponed for a few months due to the health crisis but that they would do their best to honor the initial deadline.

The agreement on cooperation for stronger aviation safety between the USA and Croatia is a step towards visa-free travel to the USA for Croatian citizens.

Of the EU member states, only nationals of Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Cyprus cannot enter the USA without a visa.

ZAGREB, June 29, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Monday the Croatian Employment Service was expected to adopt today a measure on a shorter workweek for employers with over ten employees and that it would amount to HRK 2,000 net per employee a month, announcing this measure for micro-enterprises too.

He told reporters the measure was aimed at retaining jobs in companies whose work volume was reduced as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Eligible are employers that expect the monthly man-hours of all employees to drop by at least 10%. The measure may be used for at least 10% or 20% of the staff, depending on company size, provided they were employed as of May 31.

Another criterion is a drop in revenue of at least 20% from the same month last year. Manufacturing companies are eligible if the decrease is less than 20%.

ZAGREB, June 29, 2020 - The State Electoral Commission (DIP) on Monday unveiled instructions on voting in the July 5 parliamentary election at polling stations and institutions for special care in the context of the coronavirus epidemic, including instructions for persons in self-isolation.

DIP chair Djuro Sessa said two technical recommendations were adopted, one on the implementation of elections at around 7,000 regular polling stations in Croatia and the other on voting in retirement homes.

Sessa called on all voters in self-isolation to contact their polling committees by Thursday so that those committees could make a work plan for Sunday.

According to DIP's recommendations, all polling stations will have to be washed and disinfected, all members of polling committees will have to wear face masks, and it has been recommended that they wear gloves as well. Gloves will be mandatory only for those members of polling committees who identify voters and those who have hand skin problems.

Disinfectants will be available at entrances to polling stations and their application will be controlled, the distance between polling booths will be 1.5 metres as will the distance between members of polling committees.

As for voting outside one's place of residence, those who cannot go to the polls due to health reasons and people in self-isolation have to report to polling committees at least three days before the election so they can vote at home, under strict compliance with epidemiological measures.

DIP recommends that voters take their temperature in the morning on election day and that if they have a temperature above 37.2 degrees Celsius, they should contact their doctor. In that case, they must not go to their polling station, just like people infected with COVID-19.

Voters are recommended to wear their own masks at polling stations as well as their own pens even though that is not obligatory. They will enter a polling station one by one, and it is desirable that they wait in the open. In the room where there is the polling committee, the number of voters will be limited to the number of polling booths.

For the sake of identification, voters will have to briefly remove their face masks while standing at a distance of two metres from members of the polling committee, said DIP deputy chair Ana Lovrin.

Epidemiological measures will be stricter for voting in retirement homes. Members of polling stations and monitors there will have to wear face masks, gloves, and shoe covers, constantly disinfecting hands and election material.

People who end up in self-isolation just before election day will be allowed to vote if they contact their polling station.

DIP said that regardless of the number of people in self-isolation, polling committees have sufficient capacity to enable voting for those who want to vote even though that right is not absolute and it has never been stated that 100% of those who have to stay at home will be able to vote, even if they register in advance.

People infected with COVID-19 will not be able to vote.

As for voters from Bosnia and Herzegovina, compulsory self-isolation for people coming from that country will be abolished.

Detailed instructions on voting in the July 5 election are available on DIP's web site.

ZAGREB, June 29, 2020 - Croatia's first EU presidency, which ends on Wednesday, did not go as planned due to the coronavirus but everything that was possible was achieved in such circumstances, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Monday at a meeting with the chiefs of foreign diplomatic offices.

"When we started, we wanted to send a message about a strong Europe in a world full of challenges. Nobody knew that one of the challenges would be COVID-19, which didn't change only the Croatian presidency but the world, Europe, Croatia, and many countries around the world," he said.

"We started following the situation in China on January 8 already, notably in Wuhan. That enabled us to respond to the crisis at the European level already on January 28," he said, adding that "a great job has been done in managing the crisis."

Plenkovic regretted that the novel coronavirus prevented the Croatian presidency from bringing the EU closer to citizens through various events, which is what other member states did during their presidency, saying those events were replaced by video conferences and conference calls.

He said the presidency started well with the arrival of European officials in Croatia and visits to several European capitals.

An orderly Brexit was ensured, a consensus was reached within the European Council on a mandate for future negotiations with the UK, and focus was put on the European perspective of the Western Balkan states, which was crowned with the opening of accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania and the Zagreb summit on enlargement, said Plenkovic.

A summit was also organised with the Eastern Partnership and an agreement was reached on the Conference on the Future of Europe, which "is needed more than ever," he added.

He said a new round of negotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework was approaching, as well as on a European recovery plan. The EU must show through both instruments "that it stands by its member states and citizens and that it can act quickly and effectively," he added.

Plenkovic said Croatia had achieved progress in two issues not related to the presidency, drawing closer to euro and Schengen area membership.

He thanked the foreign diplomats for understanding the sudden challenges which befell Croatia during its EU presidency and for their solidarity after the Zagreb earthquake in March.

Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman said the slogan of the Croatian presidency, Europe in a world full of challenges, could not have been more appropriate, and that the coronavirus had shown that multilateralism was needed more than ever and that international solidarity was fragile.

In that crisis Croatia has again proved to be a responsible and reliable partner, he said, thanking the foreign diplomats for their support.  "You were with us the whole time and we felt your support."

On July 1, the rotating EU presidency will be taken over by Germany.

June 29, 2020 — Tourism accounts for 20 percent of Croatia's economy, but nearly all of the government and public's attention. What about the other industries in the remaining 80 percent?

Croatia's tourism industry will find it difficult to generate even 30 percent of last year's revenues. So the country must seek other sources of revenue alongside what citizens working in the EU send back home. Queue the commodities exporters, whose income is from foreign markets.

The nation's exporters saw revenues fall in the first four months fell by five percent, to HRK 34.4 billion. They're the sort of numbers Croatia's tourism industry will struggle to reach despite the government's and the media's attention.

During this time, Croatia's wood, textile and auto parts companies fell off the radar. Apart from being exporters, these are also companies that employ hard-to-employ people and are located in rural areas, so there is no alternative for additional employment.

The Croatian Association of Employers noted that the wood industry realizes over 70 percent of its turnover on the foreign market, with Italy its main partner. Currently, few consumers are considering buying furniture or adapting their residential or business space. They add that even the few goods that could be sold are stuck due to the difficult organization of transport. The association is asking the Government for help in this branch, in which most companies are currently working and in which there are no major layoffs.

The Croatian Chamber of Commerce said the situation in the main markets such as Italy, Germany, Austria, France and China shows visible signs of recovery by receiving orders from existing customers and accelerating shipments, while the furniture market shows signs of recovery as a result.

"However, the only thing that is certain is uncertainty, given that it is a durable good whose purchase is postponed by buyers in times of crisis," the Chamber of Commerce said. "Pellet producers are witnessing the normalization of demand, after a six-month disturbance in the main market of Italy, where there was a saturation of cheap products originating from Eastern Europe."

The chamber added that there are still problems with the placement of fresh beech wood on the Egyptian market, where 60 percent of those products usually ship. The market is simply oversaturated.

There is great uncertainty, according to the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, among manufacturers of parts for the automotive industry.

Some companies at the beginning of the crisis closed their plants and sent workers on vacation. Delays in the procurement of raw materials and semi-finished products also created difficulties in business.

The situation in the textile industry in Croatia is also wobbly. The first to be hit by the corona crisis were clothing manufacturers, because, they note from the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, they had difficulties in delivering raw materials.

"Considering that this is a predominantly export branch, export activities have been disabled for a long time," the Chamber said. "All stores were closed and this also affected a large loss of traffic, especially if they did not have online sales before. All of this has resulted in full warehouses and a shortage or reduction of new orders. Given the difficult situation and the inability of some companies within the textile industry to adapt to the new situation in the short term, this will in the future contribute to significant layoffs and the inability to pay salaries regularly." The production of protective clothing, which is in great demand in both the domestic and foreign markets, is the only branch that can compensate for significant losses.

President of Croatian Exporters Darinko Bago said that the Government's measures at the beginning of the crisis significantly helped all companies, including those that export. But elections and tourism have sucked all the attention and energy away from helping exporters at a crucial time, he said.

"We should have sat down and talked about how to proceed," he said. "Work out a few of the most likely variants and measures for them. Instead, elections began to dominate."

The shift away created an impression of government success, which Bago denies.

"There's this impression that there is nothing the state cannot do and there is no reason to worry," he said. "Of course not. A good part of the exporters were lucky that their partners from, for example, Germany did not cancel their orders. But what will happen from August, will customers need more stock? Supply and sales channels are still threatened."

He points out that Croatia missed an opportunity to discuss what products we can offer in the new circumstances, because production in Europe is once again becoming an advantage. While Croatia comes up with this topic, he is afraid, its companies will go out of business.

ZAGREB, June 29, 2020 - Homeland Movement leader Miroslav Skoro has said that he advocates a Croat federal unit in Bosnia and Herzegovina so that Croats in that country could become equal to the other two ethnic groups, and he criticised the attitude of Croatia's governments so far to compatriots in the neighbouring country.

"We are not satisfied with statements about the need for Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be an equal and constituent ethnic group, we have been hearing them for years and (ethnic Croats) are neither equal nor constituent. The only true solution that would satisfy those principles is a federal unit for the Croat people within an integral Bosnia and Herzegovina," Skoro said.

He said that that solution would be best for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croats themselves as it would not "push them into the embrace of Milorad Dodik, who is not hiding his separatist ambitions at all."

Skoro welcomed resolutions by the European Parliament supporting the federalisation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on which he said Zagreb had not insisted.

Skoro believes that the source of the inequality of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the 1995 Dayton peace agreement, which put an end to the war in the country, which, he said, had stripped local Croats of that constitutional right.