ZAGREB, Aug 18, 2020 - The US Virtuoso association of travel agencies that organise luxury travel has conducted a survey which shows that Croatia is ranked among the 20 most desirable destinations in 2021, the Croatian National Tourist Board's (HTZ) USA branch director, Ina Rodin, has said.

"Visitors using the Virtuoso Wanderlist, a new platform for online trip planning, have created a wish list of counties they would like to travel to next year and based on their final choice, Croatia is among the top 20 destinations in the world," Rodin underlined.

Among the top 20 destinations are also South Africa, Italy, Australia, France, Japan, Great Britain, Greece, Argentina, Kenya, Botswana, Spain, Iceland, Portugal, Mexico, New Zealand, Ireland, Tanzania, Thailand and California.

Describing the news from the USA as excellent for Croatia, HTZ Director Kristjan Stanicic said that Croatia has reinforced its reputation on the US market and hopes that next year the situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic will have calmed down and that more tourists from distant destinations will come to Croatia. The US generates the most tourism turnover of all distant markets.

Rodin also said that local media in the US are constantly reporting about Croatia's beauty, including Lonely Planet which recently reported about the ten most beautiful beaches in Croatia - Zlatni Rat, Prapratno, Paradise Beach, Stiniva, Zrce, Dubovica, Kamenjak, Sahara, Punta Rata and Lubenice.

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August 18, 2020 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for flights to Croatia with updates for Zagreb, Split, and Dubrovnik.

Croatian Aviation reports that Austrian national carrier Austria Airlines has confirmed that it will continue to operate to four Croatian airports, despite measures introduced at the border between Croatia and Austria.

Namely, Austrian Airlines will continue to operate to Croatia and in September from Vienna to four Croatian airports: Zagreb, Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik.

The Zagreb - Vienna line will operate 6 days a week, every day except Saturday in the afternoon.

The Zadar - Vienna line will operate until September 12, as previously planned, four times a week (Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays).

The Split - Vienna line will also be in operation in September, from September 1 to 13, every day except Wednesday. From September 15 to 20, the line will operate five times a week (there are no flights on Mondays and Wednesdays), while from September 22, there will be three flights a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

The Dubrovnik - Vienna line will operate 6 times a week in September, every day except Tuesday.

Considering the Austrian Airlines network throughout Europe, the company has a large share of transfer passengers to destinations in Croatia, that are not subject to the new measures introduced on the border between Croatia and Austria. For this reason, the company currently plans to operate to Croatia according to the schedule we have specified.

Recall, as of Monday, August 17, all travelers arriving from Croatia have to carry a medical certificate proving a negative COIVID-19 PCR test.

Furthermore, Ex-Yu Aviation reports that low-cost carrier easyJet will end a handful of routes, mostly to the Croatian coast, as they close three UK bases - Stansted, Southend and Newcastle. The discontinued routes include Stansted to Dubrovnik and Split, from Southend to Dubrovnik and Pula, and from Newcastle to Split. The closure will come into effect from September 1. 

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ZAGREB, Aug 17, 2020 - Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) head Krunoslav Capak, who is a member of the national COVID-19 response team, said on Monday that a Science and Education Ministry task force would define detailed measures for the start of the new school year and that he did not expect any major changes in that regard.

"I have to say that we are actually not late because after the lockdown was lifted we defined measures for the continuation of the school year and there won't be any major changes in that regard as nothing has changed significantly," he said.

"Both the task force and the people we have talked to believe that children should go to school and that the measures will be adjusted subsequently, if necessary," he said.

"Of course we should have a fallback option, if someone contracts the disease and has to self-isolate, they will switch to online or video classes, we have to be prepared for all possible scenarios," said Capak.

He could not say if children would have to wear masks in school and who would have to buy them.

"I cannot say who will buy masks. Smaller children and children in the age group from the first to fourth grade will most certainly not be wearing masks because that is not appropriate to their age and they will be in close contact with one another anyway, whether they wear masks or not. As for other age groups, the matter should be discussed to see what other countries have done in that regard. We will see. We are closely following the relevant literature as well as information from the World Health Organisation," said Capak.

August 18, 2020 - Health Minister of Slovenia, Tomaz Gantar, said on Monday that he would propose that the government introduce quarantine for Slovenes returning from Croatia by the end of the week, stressing that this was the "unique opinion" of medical experts.

T.portal reports that if the government makes such a decision on Wednesday or Thursday, then tourists from Slovenia who want to avoid quarantine would be given "another two or three days at most" to return home, Gantar said on television.

The minister does not believe that this could change in the event of a drop in the influx of coronavirus through Slovenian tourists spending their summers in Croatia, or if a decrease in the number of daily infected occurrs, because Croatia "already has an exponential growth" of the coronavirus infection recently.

He also pointed out that it is not possible to introduce a "selective" approach, according to age and quarantine, only for those aged 15 to 35 who are most often infected or to those who come from epidemiologically less risky counties, for example from Istria.

Gantar explained that the first would be irrational because most families with children travel to Croatia, while regarding the second option, he said that Slovenia has always applied a single criterion by country, not region, to compile a list of risky destinations.

However, he failed to say that a month ago Slovenia put the whole of the Czech Republic on the "red" list, and after a letter from Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis to Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, it kept the warning for only one mining region where infections jumped.

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August 18, 2020 - The Croatian film crew Coincidence Picture Production shot a documentary during the Alka and the Assumption of Mary in the Sinj area.

Coincidence Picture Production, i.e., producer and director Elvis Bilalic, was included in the list of world-renowned professional filmmakers in 2019, thanks to the production of the documentary Say Yes to Happiness! With the mentioned film, shot in 2018 in Kenya, Dubai and Sweden, they won the first place in the competition of international documentary film at the Around International Film Festival - Berlin in 2019.

They arrived in Sinj to shoot the documentary Waterways (Putevi Vode).

The project includes 29 rivers and 17 natural lakes, which include national parks, nature parks and water and areas under special protection. Filming began at the source of the river Mirna in the smallest town in the world, Hum, after which the film crew went on a journey through the remaining destinations to the last and smallest river Ombla in the Dubrovnik area. They stayed in the town of Sinj during the Alka festivities on August 9 and 10, and on August 14 on the eve of the celebration of the Assumption of Mary. 

Through a Documentary Film project, Waterways seeks to defy oblivion, recalling instructive information about flora and fauna of the beautiful landscapes of the Republic of Croatia, but also its autochthonous, resourceful and cheerful inhabitants along rivers and lakes. This project also aims to contribute to the preservation of high-quality values of our natural resources and through the lives of people in those areas to penetrate the hearts of viewers, both nationally and globally.

The criterion according to which the script was made included the recording of natural lakes and rivers that begin and end in the Republic of Croatia, with the documentation of exceptional, autochthonous life stories and the development of the environments in question throughout history. In the area of Sinj, recognizable at the national level and beyond the Alka and the celebration of the Assumption of Mary, the patron saint of the city, the Coincidence Picture Production team filmed, among others, the Miletin spring, the Petrovac fountain, the Mostina mill (Milardovic family) on Han as well as the preparation of Sinj arambaš (restaurant Dubrovnik).

Namely, during the filming of the documentary, famous chef Zlatan Molnar from the show "3, 2, 1 - cook!" prepared specialties characteristic of different areas of Croatia.

Historical determinants important for irrigation and water supply of the city of Sinj were presented by professors Velimir Borkovic, author of numerous publications on water and the city of Sinj, Branimir Zupic, curator of the Museum of Sinj Alka and Danijela Banovic Petricevic, curator of the Museum of Cetina Krajina in Sinj. Adventure sports, like kayaking down the Cetina and hiking in our mountains, was introduced by Ante Romac, an adventurer and mountaineer, who passed the entire Via Dinarica, while Marko Vukovic arranged a carriage ride through the city to the Miletin source.

It should be noted that this extremely creative six-member film crew, due to the volume of museum material and rich intangible cultural heritage of the Cetina region, is coming to Sinj again to shoot additional material to complete the rich film material for the documentary.

With this commendable project, the City of Sinj will get an exciting promotion, especially because this film will be screened at international film festivals. The Sinj Tourist Board is one of the sponsors of this documentary.

The Sinj Tourist Board would like to thank Hit Radio, which hosted a part of the team on its show, as well as everyone who selflessly helped to achieve a successful recording in the area of the city of Sinj.

August 18, 2020 - Italian newspaper Il Giornale published an article stating that Croatia has found itself under the magnifying glass of Europe after the increase in the number of new coronavirus infections, although Croatian figures are significantly below the number of new cases in Italy.

T.portal reports that the Italian newspaper claims the most probable cause of the deteriorating health situation in Italy is the return of those who decided to spend a few relaxing days on the Adriatic.

"But what are the real numbers in Croatia? First of all, we must emphasize that the number of new daily infections is significantly below the values recorded in Italy. On Sunday, Croatia had 151 new infections, while in Italy, there were 479, or more than double. This gives rise to debate: Are Croats really a time bomb, or has someone exaggerated? The real answer could be the latter. And for a straightforward reason. Infections in Europe have risen almost everywhere. Croatia did not have to fight with significantly higher numbers, as is the case with Spain or France. But it still ended in the middle of a storm," writes Il Giornale.

On August 15, as reported by the Adnkronos agency, Croatia recorded 162 new cases of infection and two deaths. Admittedly, the current numbers are worse than in February, during the first wave. But on the other hand, it is a reduction in numbers given that there were 208 infections on August 14 and 180 on Thursday. The peak of the first wave, discovered on April 1, stopped at a maximum of 96 newly infected in one day.

Minister of Health Vili Beros was very clear in explaining the situation to RTL: "We consciously accepted the risk and decided to continue our life with tourism. Without tourism, one of the key sectors for Croatia, things would be worse for us."

President Zoran Milanovic is of the same opinion. In order not to lose control of the situation, a decision was made that bars, restaurants and nightclubs must close at midnight.

The number of confirmed cases since the beginning of the epidemic has exceeded the threshold of 6,500 people, while the number of deaths is a total of 166. There are 1,062 active cases, while for comparison, in Italy, there are 14,404. This shows that it makes no sense to consider Croatia a dangerous destination. 820,000 foreign guests are indeed in Croatia, and the movement of these tourists may spread the infection from one country to another. But figures show that the risk is not higher than in other locations.

Infections of returnees from holidays or from abroad can be a cause for concern. Several young people who returned home from Croatia transmitted the coronavirus to relatives and friends, creating real hotspots. This was also the reason for the alarm and the decision of the Italian government to introduce measures for the return of tourists from Spain, Greece and Croatia.

"But what is indisputable is that we need to emphasize the attitude of some of the tourists, both in Croatia and in other countries. Several young Italian men said that only a few wear masks in clubs in Croatia. Some of them, as in the case of young people with whom Tg1 spoke on Pag, show that they significantly reduce the real danger of coronavirus. In any case, it would be good to silence the alarm towards Croatia," they concluded.

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August 18, 2020 - A look at how Austria, one of the tourist champions of Europe, has tried saving their season by hurting Croatian tourism. 

Saving the tourist season threatened by the coronavirus pandemic is not only a priority for Croatia this year, but also for other European countries whose tourism revenues have a significant share in GDP.  

Index.hr reports that one of them is undoubtedly Austria, a country without a sea, which is one of the tourist champions of Europe in terms of earnings and in which tourism revenues make up about 15 percent of the GDP. Furthermore, 13 percent of employed Austrians work in the tourism sector, so saving the tourist season is also a matter of saving jobs.

Back in May, Kurz declared Austria the safest country for tourists

Authorities in Vienna have not hidden at all since the first corona lockdown lifted and said they would do everything they could to save the Austrian tourist season.

Thus, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz promised at a press conference in Vienna in late May that a holiday in Austria, despite the coronavirus, would be as safe as in any other country in the world. He explained that he would invest in testing and test as many people as possible who are in contact with travelers.

"I am glad that we will provide both domestic and foreign guests with a safe and beautiful holiday," Kurz said in May.

Austrian campaign: "Like Croatia, only without sea urchins"

Austria not only wanted to attract foreign tourists this summer but also keep Austrians in the country, as tourism minister Elisabeth Köstinger has repeatedly stressed. She invited Austrians to spend their summers in their homeland, and the Austrian delay in opening the borders when the time came was significant. There was even an advertising campaign inviting Austrians to spend their holidays in Austria, with posters that read, for example, "Like Croatia, only without sea urchins. Spend your summer vacation at home."

The ruling party's campaign spilled over to the Austrian media, so the Austrian tabloid Heute published the news of the fecal spill into the Croatian sea at the beginning of June, calling it "Disgusting". The goal was obviously to disgust Austrians with the idea of vacationing in Croatia, but there was only one problem - the news was a year old, and Heute presented it as current.

Already in early June, Slovenia publicly protested against Austrian behavior, and its Minister of the Interior, Aleš Hojs, stated that he had the impression that Austria wanted to keep its citizens vacationing inside the country.

Quick decision to put Croatia on the list of high-risk countries

After everything that has happened in the meantime, it can be said that this impression is not deceiving at all.

After an increase in coronavirus infections was recorded in Croatia, Austria hastily decided to prevent its citizens from traveling on holidays in the Adriatic.

How that decision was made is also significant. In the morning, Health Minister Rudolf Anschober from the Greens refused to say at a press conference whether stricter measures would be taken against Croatia, proposing that the decision be made in agreement with neighboring countries. Schallenberg, close to Kurz, sent a press release about putting Croatia on the list of unsafe destinations. The decision within the Austrian government has done nothing to establish health security, but it has created traffic jams as panicked Austrian tourists have started returning en masse from the Adriatic to Austria.

There is no doubt that the epidemiological situation in Croatia worsened last week, but did it really worsen enough to require drastic Austrian measures?

The goal is to deter Austrians from coming to Croatia

From today, returnees from Croatia will also have to present a negative coronavirus test, which forced many Austrians to return home on Sunday and avoid the testing they have to pay out of pocket. In contrast, others were deterred from the very idea of vacationing in Croatia.

"There is a huge influx of viruses from Croatia," Kurz said on Saturday, adding that the increase is not surprising given that the holidays are underway.

"The current numbers are worrying," says Kurz. "We must do everything we can to stop the virus without introducing new comprehensive bans."

While Austria puts Croatia on the red list, Israel has lifted the obligatory quarantine for travelers from Croatia

Nearly 230 new infections were recorded in Austria on Saturday, compared to a record 282 the day before. If other EU members were guided by Austrian logic, it could easily end up on the list of countries to which travel is not recommended.

At about the same time as Kurz speculated about a "huge influx of viruses from Croatia," Israel lifted mandatory quarantine upon arrival at Tel Aviv airport for its citizens returning from 20 "green" countries, including Croatia, as well as for citizens of those countries, which was published on the website of the Israeli government.

The list of those countries, which Israeli authorities consider low-risk countries in terms of coronavirus spread, includes 15 European countries - Croatia, Austria, Italy, Germany, Hungary and Slovenia, as well as five other countries, including Canada and New Zealand. The list excludes, for example, France and the United States.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Israel imposed mandatory 14-day self-isolation for every person entering Israeli territory and pursued a very strict epidemiological policy, but now considers both Croatia and Austria safe countries, while Austria treats Croatia as the corona's worst.

The lukewarm reaction of Foreign Minister Grlic Radman

Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman predictably took a conciliatory tone towards Austria. On Friday, he stated that Austria would consider changing the decision by which it warned its citizens not to travel to Croatia due to the possibility of coronavirus infection, and that he had already heard about it twice with his Austrian counterpart Schallenberg.

"We report daily on the situation in Croatia, so on a daily basis, it is submitted to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. When it comes to the number of infected, it is generally more prominent in the east than in the Adriatic regions, so we reported the Austrian side," the minister told reporters in Baska Voda.

"The Austrians will now consider reversing their decision," Grlic Radman announced on Friday, but the announced decision came into force on Sunday at midnight, and so far, there are no signals from Vienna about a possible change of attitude.

Die Presse: The end of summer holidays in Croatia

Austrian newspaper Die Presse clearly stated on Friday evening what the Austrian authorities' decision meant when they declared Croatia a country where one should not travel and introduced mandatory tests for those returning from Croatia. "End of summer vacation in Croatia", reads the title of the article, which summarizes the consequences of the Austrian authorities' decision.

Austrian selfishness within the European Union is actually nothing new, but one of the frequent features of Austrian European politics, especially since the key figure in it is the popular and young Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Austria was also recently among the fiercest opponents of European Union aid to the member states most affected by the pandemic, resulting in a marathon summit in Brussels at which the proposed grant amounts were significantly reduced or converted into loans.

Remember how Austria spread the coronavirus all over Europe?

After all, even at the very beginning of the pandemic, it turned out that in Austria, many think first of their own benefit and then of the common good. Recall, the popular Austrian ski resort Ischgl became one of the largest foci of the coronavirus, which spread from Ischgl throughout Europe, from Scandinavia to Croatia.

"Tourists from all over Europe became infected with the virus in bars in an Austrian ski resort in the Paznaun valley in Tyrol, but despite growing evidence of what was happening, everything remained open until recently," the German newspaper Der Spiegel wrote in mid-March.

The Vienna-based Der Standard described the behavior of the Tyrolean authorities and the tourism industry at the beginning of the pandemic as "Greed and ruin in Tyrol", stating that the cable cars and ski lifts in the Paznaun Valley remained working even in quarantined parts. The goal was to extract the last euros from the tourists present, although it was known that the infection was spreading.

Meanwhile, the whole affair was being investigated by the police, and Ischgl reopened to tourists at the end of April, this time, as Chancellor Kurz said, as a place where tourists can be as safe as anywhere else in the world.

The increase in the number of infected in Croatia is an occasion for Austria to realize its plans

In any case, since the end of May, it has been clear that Austria has not looked favorably on their tourists spending holidays in Croatia, as it is the closest and most desirable destination. Months later, they have shown that some dubious moves are being made to achieve this goal.

The increase in the number of infected people in Croatia last week was a good reason for Austria to put Croatia on the red list, but when you look at the whole story, it is hard to believe that this is the only reason.

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Due to the collapsed operations of Zagreb's Franjo Tudjman Airport as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, there was immediate speculation that the concession agreement might be terminated, leaving a 196 million euro loan on the back of the state. Croatian airports on the whole have suffered catastrophic losses.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 16th of August, 2020, on average, 94 percent fewer passengers passed through Croatian airports in June than at the same time last year. Globally, air traffic fell nearly 97 percent in June. Croatia's main airport, Zagreb Airport, was eerily empty in early April. Four months later, however, there's a slightly more positive picture.

"In July, we recorded 78,000 passengers, which is still at about 21 percent of what it was when compared to July last year, a slight increase has been felt in August, but we're somewhere at 25 percent of passenger traffic in this period," said Lidija Capkovic-Martinek, a spokeswoman for Zagreb's Franjo Tudjman International Airport.

As stated, due to the collapsed operations of Zagreb Airport as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, there was immediate speculation that the concession agreement might be terminated, leaving an enormous loan on the back of the already enfeebled state. However, such a scenario has been vehemently rejected by the competent Ministry.

"Throughout this crisis, the main topic of conversation between the representatives of the concession grantor and the concessionaire were possible measures to ensure the long-term survival of this project throughout the concession, and there was no discussion on the possible termination of this concession agreement," the ministry said.

The 2012 concession agreement prescribes the conditions and circumstances under which both the concession grantor and the concessionaire may terminate the contract in the event of force majeure. Air traffic in Croatia, on the other hand, currently depends mostly on the national airline, Croatia Airlines.

"Planes fly from Zagreb to fourteen European destinations and five Croatian airports. We connect Split Airport with eleven European destinations, Dubrovnik Airport with seven European destinations and Rijeka Airport with Munich,'' said Slaven Zabo, Director of Commercial Affairs of Croatia Airlines.

The most traffic of all Croatian airpotts was recorded by Zagreb Airport, which still suffered a drop of 87 percent. They are followed by the airports of Split and Rijeka with a respective drop of 95 percent in traffic. Dubrovnik, as a well-known air destination, has experienced a drop of 97 percent, with Zadar seeing a 98 percent drop. The worst of all Croatian airports is Pula Airport with a tragic drop of 99 percent.

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