ZAGREB, April 19, 2020 - The Homeland Movement party leader Miroslav Škoro on Saturday criticised the government's measures to contain COVID-19 as "an economic motorway towards the Middle Ages".

He said that the measures imposed to curb the spread of the infection could "thwart the future of our children for ever."

"Epidemiologists cannot be the only measure for everything that now happens," this famous pop singer and businessman-turned-politician says in his Facebook video message.

If things do not start going back to normal next two weeks in a sensible manner, the country will collapse, the International Monetary Fund will come and our family silver will be sold off, Škoro warns, adding that the current developments are an attempt to rehabilitate the failed Socialist system.

In this context he accused the current government of making use of the containment measures for their political scores and for imposing surveillance of citizens.

He criticised all the government in Croatia since the 2000s for having failed to prepare the country for emergency situations such as the current one.

In this context he underscored that the state budget was too big and not development-oriented.

Škoro, who finished third in the last presidential elections, insists that the situation marked by the coronavirus epidemic should not be an excuse for not conducting reforms and calls for the introduction of e-voting and voting by post in elections.

More news about Miroslav Škoro can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, April 19, 2020 - Two tremors measuring 2.3 and 2.2 on the Richter scale were registered in the hinterland of the northern coastal town of Crikvenica on Saturday evening, the Croatian Seismological Service stated.

A series of tremors of smaller intensity have been registered in Croatia since 22 March when a 5.5-strong quake hit Zagreb and its environs, taking one life and causing extensive damage.

The Seismological Service says that since that strong earthquake, about 145 tremors have been felt across the country. In addition, 850 tremors weaker than 1.3 have also been registered to date.

Croatia's seismologically most active areas are a wider Zagreb area, southern Dalmatia and a wider Rijeka area.

More Crikvenica news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

April 19, 2020 - How to respond to corona on the outside, earthquakes on the inside and economic collapse all around if you are in the tourism business? Respect to the Zagreb Tourist Board and their new online campaign.

This is a period of our lives that none of us will ever forget. A period with such seismic change and total shock for all of us, where we are coming to terms that things will never be quite the same. In terms of shocks and the embedded memory, it is up there with 9/11, the 2008 crash and (for some reason, even though I have no interest in the Royal Family) the death of Lady Diana. 

And in this time of crisis - whether that crisis be health, economic, mental or social unrest, a combination of these four things or perhaps all rolled into one - there is arguably not a person on the planet who has not been affected by the corona crisis. And with so many stories of personal misery and suffering, it is totally understandable that people do not have the time or capacity to take on the pain and suffering of others. 

But if you do have the time and the capacity to hear about what others are going through, I want to tell you about an incredible city with a big heart, which has suffered much more than most, and whose resilience and determination to survive and prosper is beyond admirable. 

The city is Zagreb, the City of One Million Hearts. 

And the online response of the Zagreb Tourist Board and the Croatian National Tourist Board has been magnificent.

With the corona crisis at its height, the Croatian capital was rocked by a series of earthquakes on March 22, as reported by TCN. Those harrowing pictures of the poor mothers and their newborns went all over the world.

TCN has covered the earthquake and its aftermath extensively, and you can see the entire coverage here, but for this article I want to focus on the response of both the national and Zagreb tourist board in its online handling of the tragedy. Because it was magnificent. 

The same day as the earthquake, the national tourist board posted this very moving video, above, with the following message:

"This is my city, my streets, my love. My city with a million hearts... I hope we will smile again, drink coffee with friends and, soon, welcome new friends from around the world who will fall in love with Zagreb, just like I did."

A similar message can be seen on the homepage of the Zagreb Tourist Board.

And then this, the very symbol of the Zagreb skyline, shared by the Croatian National Tourist Board, the removal of the top of the damaged cathedral spires.

Symbols of the Zagreb skyline, the Zagreb Cathedral...
Even without both spires, still, beautiful and strong...
Video by RTL.hr
Thank you RTL.hr
#ZagrebStayStrong #Zagreb #CroatiaFullOfMemories #Croazia #Croatia

Heartbreaking, heartwarming, emotions all over the place. But once one looks at things from a more detached view, how is the Zagreb Tourist Board responding, and how to promote tourism in an age when nobody is travelling?

The Zagreb Tourist Board Facebook page became a focal point for the pictures of its residents. Some excellent pictures, such as this one from Bojan Rakic. Check out the Zagreb Tourist Board Facebook page for more.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article called Tourism in the Corona Age: 10 Virtual Ways to Discover Zagreb. The article looks at the online resources available to explore Zagreb virtually for a future visit, a strategy which the Zagreb Tourist Board has been quietly rolling out in recent weeks, using hashtags #DreamNowTravelLater and #ZagrebLovesYou. 

It includes great campaigns such as 'From Zagreb Balconies' where citizens have been sending their balcony views of the Croatian capital - a delightful cross-section of shots of the city, which you can explore here.

The Zagreb Tourist Board has also created a wonderful virtual section on its website called What to Do at Home.

This section is an excellent collection of ways to enjoy Zagreb virtually, from museum tours to theatre productions. You can check it out here.

One of the best resources for understanding the complete situation in this beautiful city under attack from corona and earthquakes is the Love Zagreb blog, another Zagreb Tourist Board project online, which brings the heartbeat of the city into your living room. There were some fabulous texts written in recent weeks. If I could pick out a few to check out, they would be:

Zagreb - A City With a Spirit of Steel

In The Times of Hardship, We Stick Together

You Can Still Have Fun While Staying Indoors

Zagreb's Virtual Farmers' Market

What people perhaps are not aware of is what is happening behind the scenes. I have had several messages from Zagreb tour guides saying that the tourist board had been in contact to discuss how best to promote the city and their agency with whatever online tools the agency had. 

Here is one such resource, which our TCN interns filmed quite independently recently, a video guide to the unique Secret Zagreb Badass Women of Zagreb Tour. 

And how about THIS? At 16:00 Croatian time today, there will be a live and free walking tour of Zagreb in English. You can follow it live on Facebook. 

Zagreb, the City of a Million Hearts, stay strong in this incredibly trying time. 

I, and many other foreigners, look forward to seeing you soon in the flesh. 

You can learn more about the virtual and non-virtual offer of the Zagreb Tourist Board on the official website. 

The first step is towards developing a vaccine against the new coronavirus (COVID-19), as well as many other research and projects, has been taken at the incredible Dr Fran Mihaljevic Clinic for Infectious Diseases in Zagreb.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 18th of April, 2020, at the Dr Fran Mihaljevic Clinic for Infectious Diseases, which has been the topic of a lot of discussion since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have managed to successfully isolate the COVID-19 virus, that is, they managed to grow the virus under laboratory conditions. Otherwise, this is the first step towards the development of a vaccine against the virus, and for Croatian experts, it provides a much needed spring in their step when it comes to further scientific research into COVID-19.

What they have succeeded in doing in the rest of the world - can also be done right here in the Republic of Croatia. The successful isolation of the new coronavirus has taken place, as RTL reports.

"We have grown the virus under laboratory conditions from a patient swab that tested positive for SARS-COV-2," said a biologist at Zagreb's Dr. Fran Mihaljevic Clinic for Infectious Diseases, Zeljka Macak Safranko.

"First of all, this is a matter of sequencing the whole viral genome [of the new coronavirus], seeing what the nucleotide sequence is like, seeing the differences it has when compared to some other strains, and getting better acquainted with some of its general characteristics. As it grows in the culture, we'll see if it's faster, slower, and we'll get to see just how much it multiplies,'' explained Ivan Christian Kurolt, a biologist at the Dr. Fran Mihaljevic Clinic for Infectious Diseases.

For all you need to know about coronavirus in Croatia, from daily updates on press conferences and the latest news to texts by eminent Croatian scientist Igor Rudan, follow our dedicated section.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 18th of April, 2020, how will we live after the coronavirus measures are eased? Will we be able to go to work, to the dentist or the doctor, or to the hairdresser? Will we be able to have a drink in a cafe? Will we be able to go on holiday? Human health is paramount, and any loosening of the anti-epidemic measures will be in line with the epidemiological situation and therefore there is no need to rush to undo all that has been achieved in Croatia, Vecernji list writes.

Workers from counties that have a good epidemiological situation, but also those whose industries are at risk and are facing a greater number of layoffs, will be able to return to work first. Metalworkers in Međimurje and employees of agricultural and food processing facilities in Slavonia have been mentioned as the possible first returnees to work.

The arrival of tourists in Croatia also depends on the travel regimes of other countries, but the domestic tourism industry is waiting for signs to begin appearing. For the Ministry of Tourism, it is difficult to expect any significant changes until June, the second scenario, after relying on Croatian tourists, would mean relying on grabbing some overnight stays in the second part of the summer and during the postseason, and no one wants to even think about the third, worst scenario.

The safest way to get to the Croatian coast will however be by car. Travelling along Croatia's motorways to the coast this summer will be cheaper than before. The government is considering reducing the price of tolls for the summer months by 10 to 20 percent, primarily to encourage Croatian tourists to go on holidays within their own borders.

Hairdressing salons are likely going to need to wait a little longer in Croatia to open their doors again, and when opened, they will only be able to accommodate a small number of people in them with mandatory safeguards such as full protective equipment and the proper disinfection of all equipment. The first hairdressers will open in Denmark on Monday, then the Austrians and the Germans will follow.

This summer - as things stand - Croatia can quite simply forget about concerts and festivals, Vecernji writes. The way things are at the moment, the borders will remain closed, so you won't be able to enter Croatia or leave the country, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) stated.

Make sure to follow our dedicated section for all you need to know about coronavirus in Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Tomislav Pili writes on the 18th of April, 2020, the decades-old idea of ​​universal income that all citizens would receive, whether they're employed or not, has come back to life once again with the outbreak of the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Although some economists consider it a necessary instrument for the recovery of economies in general, the second stream of thought nevertheless considers it an entirely utopian proposition.

For the time being, Spain is the country considering the most concrete introduction of universal income. The Spanish Government wants to accelerate the introduction of "universal income" to help people who have lost their income due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Because of this crisis, we need to urgently discuss universal income. It's essential if we're to guarantee the dignity and minimum purchasing power of many Spanish families who are now in dire straits,'' Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias, leader of the left-wing Podemos, told national television on TVE last week.

Among the last to take up the idea publicly is no less than Pope Francis. Pope Francis suggested the idea of universal income because "the poor and all those who have been excluded from society are paying and will continue to pay the most,'' in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. All in all, universal basic income is far from some sort of new idea.

It's based on the premise that all citizens of the state will be paid a certain amount of money each month, regardless of whether they're employed or looking for work, and regardless of their age group. This should provide social security in an era of rapid robotisation and automation.

It has also been defined by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a revenue support mechanism in which cash payments are provided to the entire population, or at least a large portion, without or with minimal conditions implied. Guy Standing, a professor at the University of London and a long-time proponent of the idea, pointed out to CNBC that he believes coronavirus could be the trigger for its introduction in more countries across the world.

In his view, there will be no global economic recovery without the introduction of universal income, and sooner or later, the world will have to introduce some kind of basic universal income for all citizens.

However, Luka Brkic, a professor of international economic relations at the Zagreb Faculty of Political Science, is very skeptical of the idea that universal income will become a reality. He clarified that it was completely understandable that the advocation of such an idea comes from a moral authority such as Pope Francis. "But it has nothing to do with the economy," Brkic pointed out.

"In the conditions of a world organised into nation states, the introduction of universal income is practically impossible because national interests are primary," Brkic stressed, asking what the source and fundraiser for such income be on a global scale. In theory, universal income can be introduced in any country, including here in Croatia, providing that there is political will for it.

A study by the Roosevelt Institute showed that, in the American scenario, there would be economic growth due to the greater availability of money in the market. However, the most famous universal income experiment, the one in Finland that ended back in 2018, showed that there was no shift in employment growth - none whatsoever.

Only unemployed Finns between the ages of 25 and 58 were included, who received state aid in November 2016 and were selected by random sampling.

Participation was compulsory and the net basic income level was set at 560 euros. The survey results showed that the experiment participants were no more successful on the labour market than those who received “ordinary” unemployment benefits.

With the differences highlighted between the Finnish and the American scenarios, could Croatia be the next to toy with the idea of the introduction of universal income more seriously as the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc with its tourism-based economy? The questions are both moral and economic, and it will be interesting to see how things play out in the wake of the pandemic.

Make sure to follow our lifestyle page for more.

As Glas Istre/Gordana Calic Sverko writes on the 18th of April, 2020, the Istrian company PAB Akrapovic is entirely export-oriented, and they expect their latest helmet to further progress their already impressive business results. At a premiere at the end of last year at the Düsseldorf trade show in Germany, this Istrian company based in Buzet thrilled potential customers. Orders started before the helmets could even be certified, and production begins in early May this year.

Some call the award this Istrian company has received the ''Oscar for design''. It's one of the most renowned awards for product, industrial and communication design in the entire world, it is awarded in various categories by a jury of international experts, and it just arrived in the hands of PAB Akrapovic, an innovative Istrian company from Buzet. Namely, the company's latest PAB FIRE 05 fire helmet, has been awarded the 2020 Red Dot Award for product design..

''We applied for the first time and were immediately recognised. And in such a way! The Red Dot Award, one of the most renowned awards for industrial design in the world, has definitely been received with absolute pleasure by the owner and CEO of the Istrian company, Miha Akrapovic, who praised the young team and the company's development manager, Marko Basic.

Everyone is in charge of their segment, from testing, designing, constructing… and together this company has created a product that will be sold worldwide. This level of acknowledgment is just a confirmation that they are very much on the right track.

The award-winning Croatian protective visor helmet, the fifth in a series of professional firefighting helmets, is entirely their work. They developed the new product themselves as an upgrade to all previous series' featuring functionality and aesthetics. It takes at least two years to develop such a product before its launch on the market. The helmet should be tested for impact, radiation, and temperature. Everything is done in Buzet except the main test during which the whole helmet is set on fire, which is carried out at an institute in Milan, Italy.

''When I came to this company fifteen years ago, a certificate for one helmet and visor cost seven thousand euros, and now it costs almost ninety thousand euros for certification,'' Miha Akrapovic noted.

The Buzet-based company specialising in the development and production of professional firefighting helmets, as well as those used during technical interventions, forest firefighting and altitude rescue, is unique in the national context as it is the only manufacturer of firefighter helmets in the whole of the Republic of Croatia. It is also recognisable on the global market, and for many Buzet locals, today, the Istrian company is synonymous with its founder Ivan Akrapovic, who founded it as a young engineer in 1953 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and then moved to Buzet in 1978.

Ivan, and his grandson Miha, who succeeded him in taking over the family business, is said to have established a way of working that could be called "old school." He primarily focused on product quality, so he would surely be proud of the company's remarkable latest developments.

PAB Akrapovic employs about sixty workers who are mainly from the Buzet area. These Buzet helmets are shipped almost all over the world, and are marketed through distributors. This Istrian company is completely export-oriented. Almost 99 percent of their production is marketed abroad, from Europe all the way to Brazil and China, and most notably to Middle Eastern countries. They expect their latest helmet to further strengthen their business results.

Currently, this Istrian company has stated that it isn't feeling the effects of the coronavirus crisis at the moment, but it is difficult to assess whether or not the situation will remain as such.

Make sure to follow our dedicated Made in Croatia page for more on Croatian companies, production and innovation.

April 19, 2020 - Croatian Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli talks about what Croatian tourism can expect this year and the measures in place to save the country's tourism industry. 

Tourism was the first to be hit by the coronavirus crisis. At the moment, everyone's primary goal is to survive. Whether or not there will be tourism, no one dares to forecast at the moment. However, some measures and instructions have been announced to restart business activity. In doing so, expectations are primarily on domestic guests. 

Croatian Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli explains further in an interview with Novi List, with excerpts transmitted in English below. 

How will businesses restart when the measures are loosened?

"In the coming week, we will know by sectors what can start first and how. At the moment, we believe that the first tourist traffic can be launched in segments that are actually more isolated, for example, holiday homes, i.e., private accommodation, then accommodation in smaller areas or outside major and urban destinations, and with the right prices, something can certainly be done in nautical tourism. There are also, for example, camps. So anything closer to nature, which still allows for some social distance and reduced contact with other people. However, the basic prerequisite for us is opening internal traffic and the issue of borders, especially for our important auto-destinations. Ultimately, we still have facilities that work like some hotels.

Among other things, we will also propose that in hotels, every third or fourth room would be open to guests. With the guests leaving, they would be left empty for a few days to be cleaned and disinfected according to the recommendations of the epidemiologist. At that time, a part of the rooms that were previously empty would be used; therefore, at any one time, a third or a quarter of the capacity would be available. Basically, there will be a lot of work to be done on security. One of our suggestions will also be to be among the first to open travel agencies where there will certainly be no invasion and I do not see a problem for tourists to enter the space one by one. Or into tourist boards. Also, we need to be aware that when things are up and runnning, there will not be five people at the table, but two, that not every table will be available, but every second or third. These are all suggestions we are putting on paper and are sitting down with epidemiologists to see what can be done and how. The reality is that it will be good to start anything. But I see that the experts have responded positively to this and want to talk about trying to do something at least. In this regard, we will send our proposal to the Government within a few days."

You have been analyzing a drop in traffic of 60, then 75, and in the worst case, more than 90 percent. While there is currently nothing to forecast, what are your reasonable expectations?

"We hold that at the moment, it may be the most realistic drop of 75 percent. So, to be able to accomplish 25 percent or less of last year's activities. I'm not ominous, but as the Prime Minister said, we want to speak very clearly and openly. Therefore, very frankly, if I expect business activity, then I expect it only after August 1, primarily in the domestic market, and it will be good if there are foreign guests at all. Certainly, foreign owners of houses and vessels on the Adriatic will have the most interest, be they Austrians, Slovenes, Germans, Hungarians or Czechs. They will be the first to look to Croatia. Information from the field, specifically from the marinas, indicates that foreign owners gave orders to take their ships out and prepare for navigation as if they were coming to the Adriatic. And maybe something positive can be done with charter people. Namely, the guest comes directly to the marina, to the ship with a car, and does not have to enter any marina at all. But all this clearly depends on other countries and their rules on leaving the country, returning to the country and the like. We cannot influence it, and I have no illusions here."

You have said that this year, the most is expected of local guests if the movement of people is allowed.

"In 2019, we had about 2.2 million arrivals in commercial accommodation with domestic guests, and from these data, it can be seen that the percentage of domestic guests was still negligible - about 12 percent. If we are talking about tourist overnights, we are talking about some 7.3 million commercial overnights of domestic guests. Clearly, in camps, for example, they were small, about four percent, while most were recorded in family accommodation."

What measures are being prepared for local guests? Like the Cro card?

"The Cro card, which is something that we have already prepared in the previous circumstances, will be reprogrammed and we will try to help the domestic market. So, the card is almost ready to be used, say from July. Namely, it is difficult to say that anything will go before that, it is much more realistic to talk about August and September as far as domestic guests are concerned. However, the card will be ready in any case. We will reprogram it so that it can be used in restaurants, hotels, private accommodation as well as agencies. Therefore, agencies will also be able to do certain programs, clearly for Croatia. You can use the Cro card explicitly for payment in Croatia and not for payment abroad."

What is the burden on the tourism sector through the two rounds of government-supported economic assistance measures?

"It is difficult to say how much is on tourism itself, given that it is a horizontal measure covering other activities. For example, if we take the Permanent Seasonal measure, which will continue to go at 3 plus 3 months, we are talking about HRK 11 million in just one month. So, everyone who was supposed to start work on April 1 because their six months at the Institute expired, will get three more months of entitlement, and then probably, if necessary, three more months. There were a lot of questions about job conservation measures. All those employers who made redundancies, and when they saw that the four thousand kuna plus payroll relief was very good, they asked if they could get those people back into employment. We said they could, with people having to get contracts permanently. So, we allowed them to give back to people, which is especially important. Otherwise, virtually all tourism is under job preservation measures because it simply falls more than 50 percent. This is one measure that made the most to save tourism because not only is there no traffic, but we also have a work ban. Among the measures, there are also deferrals of student scholarships for businesses. We continue to pay our share, but hoteliers do not have to now. Then they measure the concession on tourist land in the campsites and others."

A new law defining the issue of tourist land is coming to Parliament for a second reading soon, which is considered much better than the previous one. What does it entail?

"This Law is one of the most important foundations for future investments. If it were not for the corona situation, this would certainly be the most important thing for tourism at this time, given that it addresses the issue of tourist land that no one has been able to solve for decades. It is estimated that, by addressing this issue, we are opening up the possibility of three to five billion kuna in investments. No one believed that we would succeed and that the Law would be passed by May."

The sector also points to the cost-effectiveness coefficient at which some campsites will pay less for tourist land. 

"Let's take, for example, that a camper travels to a camp in Dubrovnik. He will spend one day staying in Istria or Kvarner and the trip alone will cost him more than staying in the northern Adriatic. Istria has 70 percent of the campsites, but that does not mean that we cannot help the development of camping offers in the south. We will also reduce camp fees on the islands, which, in my opinion, is realistic, given how much more it costs a camper to go to an island. We tried to balance these circumstances, but here, very soon, there will be opportunities in the Croatian Parliament to change things. But I think after the first reading, there was a consensus and we were able to find a balance. And again, no one has been able to solve the issue of the co-ownership community so far, nor that no one has paid anything for years, and that if it had been invested, it was not known what was being invested since the land was not from the camp."

What about HBOR lending? How much money is available to loan, how and who can get it?

"This is a measure we are implementing right through the Ministry of Tourism. We had certain funds that we have so far placed through the Competitiveness of the Tourist Economy (KTG) program, for which we have announced a competition every year. This year, HRK 26 million has been secured for this purpose, which this time we will pay to HBOR, thus practically subsidizing the entire interest on the loans. Loans to be distributed are worth HRK 600 million interest-free for up to three years. And if one does not manage to repay the principal in those three years, they have the right to extend the additional two years with a minimum interest rate of 1 to 1.5 percent."

Who will be able to use these loans?

"Small and medium-sized enterprises. So, for example, a small family-run hotel can run into liquidity when it goes back to work after a few months without income, and there is no money to buy groceries and generally supply and pay some obligations. As far as users are concerned, we have been looking at encompassing these, let's just say, medium-sized entrepreneurs. Namely, HAMAG-Bicro gives smaller loans, up to 25,000 euro, so we watched these loans amount to 100,000 euro or more. So we also covered these higher amounts. Small hotels have always been in the gap. With these loans, we wanted to save that part of small hotels, namely, hoteliers used to take out loans at the time, with relatively high-interest rates, and now they are in trouble because they have not been paid back and have no traffic, so we give them a chance to survive. And of course, we will talk about those old credits as well, is there anything that can be rescheduled."

When might these funds be available?

"We will receive requests safely by the end of the month, and if they are of good quality, some will be able to get funds by that deadline."

Renters as individuals are not in this arrangement?

"Private renters can apply for high-quality other credit lines. After all, we also subsidize the reclassification loan we have negotiated with banks. With that, we delayed the categorization by one year. We have written off the residence tax to the renters for six months, delayed the payment of the membership fee because it enters into the General Tax Law and it will be a topic of discussion when discussing para-fiscal levies. The flat-rate income tax for the second quarter was then written off, and the first quarter had to be postponed until March 30."

So, anyone who asked for the delay on March 31 is too late?

"They are late. I know that in some Field Tax Authorities, the interpretation was different, but the last day to report was March 30. Otherwise, as far as the measures are concerned, we will see how the situation will develop further and, if necessary, respond further."

Many will say that family accommodation may be the biggest hit in this situation. While it is difficult to predict anything, what do you expect, how will this segment sustain itself?

"In my opinion, private accommodation, nautical charter, and campsites are something that should be started first. When they decide to come, guests will first and foremost look at security, isolation, and quality. Also, foreigners who will come, that is, if the borders are open, will primarily seek security. Therefore, access to maintenance, or cleaning and disinfection, will be very important, we will have to give additional security to the guest that this apartment or holiday home has been prepared in accordance with the epidemiologist's orders. They will need to have an additional card, that is, a label, a card in two or three languages that the disinfection is really made according to the instructions of the expert services. That card will be in the apartment and we will sign it to guarantee that everything is done right."

In the end, what would you say to tourism workers in these unprecedented circumstances?

"That both public and private sectors are on the same wavelength. Our goal now is primarily to preserve those 'glass legs'. Our goal is to preserve it at least, to keep the system alive, and to try to get there by April or May next year. All that will happen in the meantime is a reward for patience, perseverance and quality and all that we will do in tourism to welcome next year. And I say again, both the public and private sectors are together. I am glad that all associations have recognized that we have done the best we can at this moment. There is still room for nautical charter, there is debate, say, about the extent of maritime concessions. If we find a solution to forgive one part of the obligations, then the charterers pay fewer concessions and have the additional benefit that will be good for them. So, we continue to discuss everything that we may not have elaborated and covered in the two phases."

How much space is left for further relief?

"Even the richer countries than us did not have such measures. We cannot, of course, compare ourselves to superpowers like Germany, but in many measures, we have come very close. And there is still debate about lifting some parafiscal taxes and the like. I can add that right now, it is clear how important it was to stabilize public finances. Having a responsible and quality fiscal and monetary policy has allowed us to make all these measures. And if we were in the eurozone now, we could have substantiated them even better. So patience and health come first. Ultimately, Croatia's health policy is already recognized internationally as one of the most rigid and restrictive in this situation. Likewise, in all TOMAS surveys of our guests' attitudes, nature and safety have always been emphasized as our strengths.

In this case, as well, potential guests will recognize Croatia as a safe country, because of all the countries of the European Union, we have taken the most serious approach to the safety and health protection of both our people and foreigners who found themselves here during the pandemic. After all, we still have foreigners living here in their homes, instead of in their own countries, because they feel safer here. This will now be our advantage, the safety of the public health system that has proven itself in this situation. With, for example, the fact that we are an auto-destination."

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.