October 1, 2020 - People in Croatia live for an average of 78 years, and the average age of COVID-19 fatalities is 76 years old

The average age of COVID-19 fatalities or those dying as of consequence of Coronavirus is 76.3 years, according to the latest statistics from the Croatian Institute of Public Health. At the time of writing, a total of 280 Coronavirus-related fatalities have so far been recorded in Croatia.

The average age of COVID-19 fatalities has decreased slightly compared to figures released earlier. At the beginning of May 2020, Croatia's Minister of Health announced that the average age of COVID-19 fatalities was 79.2 years.

Most Coronavirus-related deaths have been recorded in the age group of 80 to 89 years. There have been 81 such deaths since the beginning of the epidemic. In the 70 to 79 age group, 71 people died, in the 90 to 99 age group, 34 people died, and in the 60 to 69 age group, 31 died.

In the age group of 50 to 59 years, 21 deaths occurred, and five deaths were recorded in the age group of 40 to 49 years. There have so far been no Coronavirus-related deaths among those under the age of 40 in Croatia. One person over the age of 100 has died from Coronavirus.

There is currently no accurate data on the average age of COVID-19 fatalities worldwide. The World Health Organization has previously said that of all Coronavirus-related deaths in Europe, more than 80 percent of the deceased had at least one pre-existing chronic disease, such as diabetes, high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease. Extremely serious, life-changing and even fatal cases of Coronavirus have been recorded in the under 40s in other countries.

The figures used in this news item were originally compiled by Index journalists Ilko Ćimić and Davor Tomšić. This news item is a direct translation of their original, which can be found in Index

Neither the author nor Total Croatia News draws any conclusion from this translation, the figures reported, or their comparison.

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October 1, 2020 - Data from Booking.com revealed that Croatian travelers discovered domestic destinations this summer as the coronavirus pandemic hindered usual travel plans. 

HRTurizam reports that travel plans changed drastically in 2020, which allowed travelers to explore destinations closer to home, discovering or rediscovering hidden destinations that are practically on their doorstep.

Studying the realized trips this summer, Booking.com revealed that the average distance traveled by passengers from Croatia traveling June - August decreased by 56% compared to the same period last year, which is slightly less than the global average of 63%.

Looking at the data obtained in the summer of 2019, passengers from Croatia traveled an average of 726 kilometers per booking. This summer, that distance was reduced to only 322 kilometers per reservation, which is slightly more than the distance Zagreb-Sibenik.

As much as 68% of the distance traveled by passengers from Croatia between June 1 and August 31, 2020, was within Croatia, compared to only 17% in the same period in 2019.

Many of them took the opportunity and traveled to visit family and friends they could not meet during travel restrictions and physical distance measures. Although Croatia is at the top of the list of most popular destinations booked by travelers from Croatia this summer, followed by Germany, Italy, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, and Austria, the data shows that some travelers from Croatia traveled abroad to enjoy their travels but still stayed within the continent. 

Many travelers from Croatia have rediscovered domestic destinations led by islands for which there has been increased interest this season. This summer, domestic destinations that were in great demand are Starigrad-Paklenica and the island towns of Stari Grad, Hvar, Malinska, and Korcula.

Although some rural destinations are becoming increasingly popular, long-term proven urban favorites are still at the top of most desirable destinations. This summer, those destinations for travelers from Croatia are Zagreb, Zadar, Split, and Dubrovnik.

As far as accommodation choice is concerned, this year, travelers from Croatia most often chose to stay in camps, then in villas and holiday homes.

The increase in the reservation of accommodation in camps shows a change in travel trends, points out Booking.com, and adds that if we compare the data from the end of 2019 before it was known that a global pandemic would hamper our travel plans in 2020, only 13% passengers from Croatia intended to stay in camps while as many as 64% planned to spend their holidays in hotels.

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October 1, 2020 - The interest and demand for Croatia from Germans, Austrians, and Swiss tourists in 2020 is at least 50 percent higher than the year before, said the director of the Croatian National Tourist Board in Austria, Branimir Tončinić.

HRTurizam reports that these are the results of a survey by the online booking platform Travelcircus on changes in tourists' travel habits due to the coronavirus pandemic from the DACH region, i.e., Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

According to the results of this research, in 2020, interest in travel to Croatia, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland increased, while some countries competing with Croatia also performed worse. Namely, in the entire DACH region, interest in Spain and Italy fell by 10 percent. Only in Austria did the demand for Italy, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway fall by more than 30 percent compared to 2019.

"Data from the research reveal that Austrians showed the greatest demand for domestic travel, which put Austria in first place in terms of demand. The great news is that Croatia took second place in terms of demand, which is an excellent result in these circumstances, while Germany took third place. It is also important to note that no other country outside the DACH region has recorded positive growth in demand for holidays like Croatia," Branimir Tončinić pointed out, adding that this year the demand for hotels in the Austrian market has fallen. The demand for accommodation in holiday homes has increased.

The volume of hotel searches decreased among Austrians (-18.07%), while accommodation such as holiday homes, apartments, and houseboats increased by 13-26%. Holiday homes are the absolute winners, both in this research and in the Croatian market this year.

Guests from Austria this year looked mostly for an active holiday. According to the survey, in June and July 2019, Austrians searched an average of 13,835 times for a combination of an “amusement park” and a tourist destination. In the summer of 2020, there were 23,040 searches of the same search. This corresponds to a growth of 66.53%, and compared to 2017, an increase of an impressive 185.68% can be seen. The data clearly speaks of a trend that has been growing over the years. Now, at the time of the coronavirus pandemic, it has further jumped out and accelerated development for quality facilities, not just the sun and the sea.

Austrians also love to relax. With a growth of 30.68% since the summer of 2019, wellness holidays are the number 2 most popular types of holidays in Austria. Third place went to travel to cultural and other attractions, with a growth of 14.5%.

Interestingly, the data show that this year, those who like to travel mostly avoid last-minute vacations. Compared to the previous year, this type of vacation lost an average of 89.93% of searches. City or city break trips also suffer from a drop in interest due to the pandemic and record a search loss of 77.85%.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 30th of September, 2020, the well known Fortenova Group and the world's leading integrated tourism group TUI have reached an agreement whereby TUI will take over a 33.3 percent stake of the shares belonging to the Fortenova Group in the holding company Karisma Hotels Adriatic that manages Hotels Kolocep, Hotels Zivogosce and Adriasense Zagreb.

The total capacity of the three modern, decorated four-star hotels is 589 rooms. Karisma Hotels Adriatic realised almost 350,000 overnight stays at its facilities last year, and guests were mostly from other European countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Scandinavia and France.

"As we have already pointed out, the Fortenova group has a clear strategy of focusing on core business in retail, food and agriculture and a less complex group overall, which will enable us to achieve a better return in the future. Therefore, we were looking for the right partners to take over and improve our business in the tourism sector.

As one of our partners in the ownership structure of Karisma Hotels Adriatic, TUI was a natural choice for the realisation of this transaction, because in addition to being an international tour operator, its activities within this group brought the largest number of guests to the hotels and camps, it also knows the business operations of Karisma Hotels Adriatic well and more importantly, it has an elaborate vision of the future for this business, and that is extremely important to us,'' said James Pearson, the main financial director of Fortenova Group.

The transaction will be formally concluded after the Competition Agency approves the Karisma Hotels Adriatic concentration to TUI.

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October the 1st, 2020 - It's rare to read anything about the coronavirus pandemic bringing positive results to anyone or anything, but it does happen, and not only to companies who make masks. The Neretva Valley, famous for its abundance of fruit which can be seen sold all over the country on stands and in various stories in the colder months, has done very well indeed and is expecting a great harvest season this year.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 30th of September, 2020, mandarin oranges are the only Croatian export fruit, whose harvest officially begins during the last days of September as autumn overtakes summer. While the Neretva Valley's fruit growers are anxiously awaiting the harvest season, which will take place under unprecedented epidemiological conditions, it seems that the coronavirus could actually go hand in hand with them as opposed to against them, as has been the case with just about every other field imaginable.

Namely, higher demand is expected for the Neretva Valley's fruit, as it is packed full of vitamin C, which is traditionally used to strengthen immunity and remain healthy, writes Slobodna Dalmacija. As such, the Neretva Valley's many fruit growers hope to be able to sell their mandarin oranges just as well, if not better, than in previous years.

However, in Croatia, it has been proven time and time again that nothing is ever particularly certain when it comes to agriculture, because every year imports destroy domestic production during the traditional season of harvesting homegrown fruit and vegetables. Owing to that, it’s hard to assume that in the case of the Neretva Valley's mandarin oranges, the scenario from May will be repeated, when domestic strawberry growers sold their strawberries and still made good money because there were no imports due to the coronavirus and the restrictions that came as a result of it.

Initial estimates show that the Neretva Valley growers will have a production of about 32,000 tonnes of mandarin oranges this season, which is a mediocre crop, but good quality is expected regardless.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 30th of September, 2020, Croatian citizens have made it quite clear that they trust the various EU institutions more than they trust the actual Croatian Government, according to a survey conducted by Eurofound which is based in the Irish city of Dublin. Eurofound is otherwise Europe's leading NGO for labour market and quality of life research, Vecernji list reported.

On a scale of one to ten, Croatian citizens rated their government at a somewhat unimpressive 2.9, while giving the leadership of the European Union a significantly higher (although still not high in itself) score of 4.2. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in Croatia back in April, PM Andrej Plenkovic's team was rated four, but by July that trust had been lost.

The aforementioned Croatian publication reminds us of the fact that in that period, HDZ confirmed its mandate, and Andrej Plenkovic won a significant number of votes. Only those in power in Poland did worse than the Croatian Government in this particular Eurofound survey, with Polish citizens rating their government at just 2.4 on the scale.

Bulgarians, Hungarians, Slovenes, Romanians, Czechs and Belgians are at the back end of the list too, while the Scandinavians, Germans, Irish, Portuguese and Austrians have the greatest confidence in the moves of their respective national authorities according to this Eurofound study.

Confidence in leadership was just one of the topics of a survey of quality of life and the labour market conducted among nearly 90,000 respondents across EU member states.

Young people, women and the unemployed lost the most due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis across all of the European Union's member states. Many countries have invested a significant amount of funds to save employment, but that money has clearly not saved the most vulnerable population, reports Vecernji list.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 30th of September, 2020, the obligation of Croatian motorways (Hrvatske ceste) is to take care of the entire network of state roads, which consists of more than 7200 kilometres in total. In the last four years, they have designed more than 530 kilometres of new state roads, of which 137 kilometres are city bypasses throughout Croatia, they built 116 kilometres of new roads, and reconstructed more than 405 kilometres of existing roads. In the same period, Croatian motorways was the second largest contracting authority in the Republic of Croatia.

"I'm proud to note that we've managed to improve traffic safety in the programme period in question. Namely, in 2019, we had a 13 percent increase in traffic, and as much as 12 percent fewer accidents with deaths. We have prepared and withdrawn 100 percent of the EU funds available to us from the "Competitiveness and Cohesion" Operational Programme. It goes without saying that the Ciovo bridge, which has been talked about for more than 50 years, occupies a special place here, and we finished it despite it being an almost hopeless situation. The Nin bridges which were destroyed during the great flood of 2017, were opened this year, much to the delight of all who had the opportunity to see them.

Every project in which we solve bottlenecks, especially around Split, Vodice, Rijeka or Vinkovci, are of special importance. The crown of all these projects is the historic project of building Peljesac Bridge, which we've been dreaming about for decades, listening to stories about for years, and now we're building it thanks to European Union money. This was a period in which the work of Croatian motorways was recognised through recognitions such as the "Rexpo 2018. Best New Investment Award" for the Ciovo bridge project or the Vecernji list reader award for the construction of Peljesac bridge as an economic event in 2019. These are recognitions for all of our employees for their work,'' said Josip Skoric, President of the Management Board of Croatian motorways.

What is important to emphasise is the fact that in the last four years, Croatian motorways, in cooperation with the Croatian Government, carried out the financial and operational restructuring of society and digital transformation.

"Within the project entitled The Modernisation and Restructuring of the Road Sector (MARS), a review of the company was performed and measures and activities were defined to raise efficiency. We've set clear and measurable goals and indicators through which our managers monitor every investment and every employee, and I believe that we'll further improve our business in the coming years. Furthermore, a thorough digital transformation of the company has been initiated and largely implemented over recent years. Four key areas of transformation have been defined: project management, document management, road asset management and business information systems,'' said Skoric.

''We've made great progress in the application of the so-called BIM (Building Information Modeling) technology and methodology that we implement in all phases of the construction process - planning, design, construction and maintenance. By the end of the year, we expect the procurement and selection of a contractor for the Road Property Management System (RAMS), software that will have two key functions: a reliable and accurate data inventory easy to use for roads, buildings and other road infrastructure elements and an assessment tool which will give priority and the estimation of the costs of future periodic maintenance and remediation needs, using the latest developments in international practice. I'd also like to mention that we've published the WEB GIS portal of all public roads in the Republic of Croatia on our website,'' said Skoric, adding that the completed projects are a reminder of a successful period, perhaps a motive for launching new projects, and an idea to make greater use of the development potential of transport in the Republic of Croatia.

"We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but thanks to continuous work, state roads are becoming safer and more fluid, and by building key facilities, we're significantly raising the quality of life for people. Everything done in the previous period in terms of social development and business modernisation shows I'm right when I say that we have the necessary courage and knowledge to continue with the successful results of Croatian motorways, making maximum use of EU funds, even during the pandemic,'' concluded Skoric.

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ZAGREB, Sept 30, 2020 - The European Commission criticizes Croatia over corruption and says that its fight against corruption is insufficient, however, the Croatian justice system has made progress on reducing backlogs.

The first annual report on the rule of law in the European Union's member states, which the EC released on Wednesday, covers the following four pillars: Justice System, Anti-Corruption Framework, Media Pluralism, and Other Institutional Issues related to Checks and Balances.

The country chapter on Croatia includes serious objections to the Anti-Corruption Framework.

"Croatia has the legal and policy framework to promote integrity and prevent corruption in the public sector broadly in place. A network of authorities contribute to anti-corruption policymaking across all branches of government," reads the report.

"However, shortcomings remain both in the legislation and practices to combat corruption. Important initiatives to strengthen ethics and integrity amongst top executive functions and Members of Parliament and to regulate lobbying remain unimplemented. Corruption remains of particular concern at the local level due to structural weaknesses in the integrity framework for local office-holders and the management of local State-owned companies."

The report notes that on 18 September, the Croatian Justice and Public Administration Minister announced a new Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2021-2030.

Justice system: Progress in reducing backlogs 

The Croatian justice system is praised for having made progress in reducing backlogs and improving electronic communication in courts.

The system, however, "is still experiencing serious efficiency and quality challenges."

"The State Judicial Council and the State Attorney’s Council, autonomous and independent bodies, are facing challenges to adequately fulfill their mandate due to a lack of sufficient resources as well as the fact that their role in selecting judges and state attorneys has been reduced."

The centralized postal delivery of court documents is a positive example of saving resources in courts.

Media pluralism

Croatia's legal and institutional framework guarantees media pluralism.

The regulator Agency for Electronic Media "functions transparently, but it is not entirely shielded from political influence in relation to the selection procedure of the members of its governing body."

"The rules on transparency of media ownership ensure a solid system of ownership notification to the authorities and the public, but the identification of the beneficial owner can be problematic.

"Recent years witnessed a high number of lawsuits against journalists, threats of physical attack and online harassment, which may have an impact on the editorial policy of media companies and on the work of investigative journalists," reads the Croatian country chapter.

System of checks and balances

The system of checks and balances is supported, among others, through online tools for consultation of the public and other stakeholders, and by a People's Ombudsperson and an Information Commissioner competent for protecting the right to access public information.

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