June 21, 2020 - Tourism was on hold when we started this series of articles, but most of us have plenty of time. So let's look at the virtual resources available to explore Croatia virtually. We continue our new Virtual Croatia series with the tools to discover Cavtat and Konavle.

A few weeks ago I wrote that being a tourism blogger in the corona era was about as useful as being a cocktail barman in Saudi Arabia. I feel less useless now, a few weeks later, and I am encouraged by the number of Croatian tourism businesses who are contacting us wanting to start thinking of promoting post-corona tourism. 

One of the challenges of writing about tourism at the moment is that there is nothing positive to write about. With people confined to their homes and tourism in Croatia currently not possible, many have decided to go into hibernation until it is all over. 

I think that this is a mistake, and I have greatly enjoyed the TCN series by Zoran Pejovic of Paradox Hospitality on thinking ahead to tourism in a post-corona world.  You can find Zoran's articles here.

Way back on March 14 - several lifetimes ago - I published an article called Tourism in the Corona Age: 10 Virtual Ways to Discover Zagreb. The way I saw things, now was an OUTSTANDING opportunity for tourism promotion. People have time, they yearn for their freedom and former lives, so give them the tools to thoroughly research and enjoy your destinations, and you will have then longing to be there. And when they do come, they will have a deeper understanding of the destination due to their research. 

South Africa and Portugal were the first to do their post-corona tourism promotion videos several weeks ago (Post-Corona Tourism Planning: Lessons from South Africa and Portugal), a trick which has been followed by other tourism countries, the latest being Croatia with the national tourist board campaign, #CroatiaLongDistanceLove, going live yesterday.

But while these campaigns create longing and market presence, they don't really educate. People now have time to really get into destinations. And dreams of escape to somewhere more exotic are high on the list of priorities of many. 

So TCN has decided to help with that education with a new series called Virtual Croatia, where we will be helping you discover many of Croatia's destinations with all the best virtual tools available on your self-isolating sofa at home. 

We started with Tourism in the Corona Age: 10 Virtual Tools to Discover Hvar.

After this, we put our a press release (which you can read here in English and Croatian) offering a free article to any local tourist board in Croatia who would like the free promotion in our Virtual Croatia series. 

The Sinj Tourist Board was the first to respond, and now you can see just how rich the tourism offer is in this proud Alka town - your virtual tools to Discover Sinj. This was followed by DIscover Opatija, Discover Brela, Discover Rogoznica, Discover Stari Grad, Discover Omis, Discover Lumbarda and Discover Jezera.

Today, Lucija Velizić from the Tourist Board of Konavle helps us tell you the story of the southernmost part of Croatia, of the tourism in Cavtat and Konavle. 

Discover Cavtat and Konavle - the Gems in the South

Konavle is a region with particular natural beauties and contrasts: mountain and valley, green hills and naked stone, the blue, and the green. Cavtat is the biggest town in the Konavle region.

Official promotional video for Cavtat-Konavle region, made in 2019.

A somewhat older promotional video worth watching.

Žal beach in Cavtat 

Get to know Cavtat old town and the beaches of Cavtat

When the guests really fall in love with a place, this is the kind of video they make. 

Another lovely video made by a guest of Cavtat

Look Beyond Cavtat to the Konavle Region

Intro video for Konavle

Sokol-grad, magical fortress worth a visit

A perfect location for an active vacation

A pathway commemorating Ron Brown

Official Cavtat-Konavle Website

Find more materials about Cavtat and Konavle on the tourist board website, or find out more about Konavle or Cavtat.

Cavtat has been put on the list of the safest destinations to travel to post-corona. 

Will you give Cavtat and Konavle a try this year or in the upcoming years? 

To discover more of virtual Croatia, you can follow this series in our dedicated section, Virtual Croatia. 

If you are a local tourist board in Croatia and would like your destination featured in this series for free, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Subject Virtual Croatia (and destination name)

June 21, 2020 — Croatia experienced a fourth successive day of new coronavirus infections, though the 18 reported were a leveling off from the same reported yesterday. Authorities invoked new restrictions anyway.

Croatia's had 2317 infections in total with 71 active cases.

There are ten new cases in the City of Zagreb, five in Osijek-Baranja County and one each in Zagreb, Split-Dalmatia and Dubrovnik-Neretva Counties.

Croatia's Health Minister Vili Beroš also said that there were no seriously ill people, and nine patients are hospitalized. There is no one on the respirator, and 276 people were tested.

He also said that since the last significant increase in the number of patients until today, we have 55 new cases, among which 20 are directly imported, and their contacts are 35.

Also, for the nine patients, they have no connection to any travel.

Beroš also said that the Directorate knows that social and economic life must continue, and will monitor the epidemiological situation and take the necessary measures to keep the health situation stable and satisfactory. To that end, it took some steps to slow the virus's spread.

The government prohibited visits to retirement homes in Zagreb County, Zagreb, Osijek and Split-Dalmatia County. Visits to hospital patients in Osijek, Split and Zagreb are prohibited. There will also be testing for healthcare workers returning from countries where the health situation is worse.

"It is essential that local headquarters monitor the situation in their field, that epidemiologists monitor the situation, and analyze the situation," said epidemiologist Marija Bubaš. "Sometimes some measures will be in force in a county, and somewhere they will not."

"This phase is a phase of coexistence with the virus," said Interior Minister Davor Božinović. "We must protect the helpless."

Croatia finds itself among many other tourism-dependent European countries, trying to find a balance between economic activity and acceptable risk.

"The arrival of tourists is important to us," Božinović said. "Spain opened today for all tourists from the EU, although yesterday they had over 300 new cases and 7 deaths. Germany has set a criterion for 50 infected per 100,000 inhabitants, which is much more than in our country." He added 40 percent of potential visitors from Bosnia were rejected at the border and 20 percent of passengers in Serbia.

"Measures with neighboring countries are on track, so we have opened borders for only a dozen EU countries. This does not apply to our non-member neighbors, they must prove personal or business needs," Bozinovic added.

ZAGREB, June 21, 2020 - The Voice of Entrepreneurs association on Sunday criticised the government for unacceptable ommissions in its regulations on further state aid for businesses affected by the coronavirus crisis.

The association said destination retail had been included in the government's aid measures for June owing to its insistence, however, state aid referred only to companies with up to ten employees.

On the other hand, the measure envisaging shorter working hours refers only to those employers who have more than ten employees, the association said, noting that this way many businesses were discriminated against.

It said that the government seemed to be adopting across-the-board measures, without defining specific measures for micro businesses which account for as much as 50% of all businesses and all workers in the country.

"We believe that all businesses with up to ten employees should be entitled to jobkeeping support if their turnover has dropped by more than 50%," the association said.

ZAGREB, June 21, 2020 - Apart from Croatia, out-of-country voting in parliamentary elections set for July 5 will be organised in 42 other countries, five fewer than at the presidential elections held in December 2019, the State Electoral Commission has said.

Elections for the tenth Croatian parliament will not be held in Algeria, Brazil, Chile, Indonesia and the South African Republic.

The number of voters in those countries who voted in the last election is small. A total of 88 voters voted in the last presidential election, and 126 in the last parliamentary election.

The elections in Croatia will be held on July 5 while abroad voting will be possible on July 4 and 5.

Candidates will be running for 151 seats in the parliament, including three that represent the expatriate community and eight representing ethnic monorities.

ZAGREB, June 21, 2020 - A 30-km-long cycling trail running through the countryside and vineyards from Vukovar to Sarengrad near Ilok was presented at the Vucedol Culture Museum, outside Vukovar, earlier this week.

The route is intended for the growing number of cycling tourists in eastern Croatia.

"The Vineyard Trail is an off-road route through the countryside and vineyards which we have designed because the road to Ilok is very busy and is not adapted for use by cycling tourists. The route goes past the Vucedol Culture Museum and many family farms," the head of the Vukovar-Srijem County Department for Tourism and Culture, Marija Budimir, said.

She said that last year the county had spent HRK 490,000 (€65,000) on the promotion of cycling tourism, of which 60% were grants from the Ministry of Tourism.

County prefect Bozo Galic said that Vukovar-Srijem County "has a lot of potential for cycling tourism and with the aid of EU funding we will build infrastructure for the development of this branch of tourism."

June 21, 2020 - Croatia's bloated bureaucracy is not sustainable. Glas Poduzetnika data scientist Nikola Strahija uses big data to show how merging municipalities can save 1.29 BILLION kuna (170 million euro) a year. 

When I first moved to Hvar back in 2002, I was surprised to learn that my new hometown of Jelsa had its own mayor and tourist board director. There were only 1,750 people in the entire municipality to administer. I was even more surprised to then learn that this beautiful island of 11,000 permanent residents had no less than FOUR mayors and FIVE tourist board directors, each with its own administrative support team. 

That is a LOT of public sector workers. 

Who were not that efficient, or interested in being efficient. I will never forget one tourist many years ago at the Jelsa Tourist Board office asking what there was to do in Stari Grad, as he was considering a bus trip the next day. 

"The bus leaves at these times (points to bus schedule) and the Stari Grad Tourist Board is close to the bus station. They can tell you everything about Stari Grad."

Back then, I was naive and knew nothing of Uhljebistan, the nepotism and jobs for the cousins, their families and other voters, to perpetuate the corrupt status quo. If we merged all these administrations into one, how much more efficient would we be, and how much money could we then invest in building a better country?

About 1.29 billion kuna a year (170 million euro) seems to be the answer. 

Some 18 years after my arrival, the Mighty State of Uhljebistan is facing a twin virus attack from the Terrible Twins - Transparency and Technology.  Corona has laid bare many of the system's failings, and now the Terrible Twins will expose the truth in minute detail. 

It was a real pleasure to have only my third Zoom chat ever yesterday, this time with Glas Poduzetnika data scientist, Nikola Strahija, who has compiled some quite phenomenal research using machine learning and other clever stuff I don't really understand. 

Meet the municipality which spends 72% of its budget on salaries, with 82% of its budget coming from government assistance (no, I had never of the place either), just one of the many gems Nikola's research unearthed. In the words of Glas Poduzetnika (UGP - Voice of Entrepreneurs):  

The analysis of UGP data scientist Nikola Strahija revealed facts that the Croatian Government has not been able to present to citizens for years.

By abolishing unsustainable local self-government units, Croatia can save at least one billion kuna a year.

A member of the UGP, data scientist Nikola Strahija, came up with astonishing data using machine learning - abolishing the financially unsustainable 430 units of local self-government would save at least one billion kuna a year.

Over the last ten years, the cumbersomeness of public administration and the addition of many local self-government units has been a frequent topic. It was again actualized in the coronavirus crisis, when on daily examples, all the absurdity of the division of local self-government units came to the fore. It has become apparent that some of them do not even have the basic things that residents need on a daily basis, and yet they have their own municipality and mayor. Also, there is even an example of a settlement located in two municipalities. Croatia has over 100 units that cannot function without state aid. By merging them, great savings can be made, and these funds can be redirected to many places and projects.

Due to all the above, a member of the association Voice of Entrepreneurs Nikola Strahija decided to make a map of the optimal territorial organization of local self-government units. He did this using machine learning, and used the geolocation and financial reports for 2018 as the basis of logic.

The result is approximately 430 fewer local units and about a billion kuna in savings per year.

Clicking on the new, proposed self-government unit displays all merged units and financial indicators, such as cost per capita before and after, expenditure before and after, total salaries, total benefits paid to citizens, etc.

The map goes into incredible detail with financials and showing which municipalities are not sustainable and should be merged. Have a wander around the map here.

A phenomenal piece of work, young man, and I look forward to working with you on the project we discussed yesterday. 

For the latest from Glas Poduzetnika, check out the dedicated TCN section. 

June 21, 2020 — For the third day in a row, the number of new cases of coronavirus is growing in Croatia. While there were 11 on Thursday and Friday, there were 19 new on Saturday, which is the highest in the last month and a half.

There are seven new cases in Zagreb. Six confirmed new cases are in Split, two in Osijek, one in Zagreb County, one in Dubrovnik, and one new case has been confirmed in Brod-Posavina County. Most are cases imported from abroad and close contacts of the infected. In other words, the virus is now spreading within families, according to Index.

Many are already mentioning a second wave, but epidemiologists and authorities say it has not yet happened. However, some stricter measures have already been introduced. The Croatian Institute of Public Health recommended stopping visits to retirement homes in Zagreb and Split, and Osijek's hospital reintroduced a ban on visits.

Stricter controls have been introduced on the borders with Bosnia and Serbia. Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said more and more people are not allowed to enter the country, adding as many as 70 percent of potential visitors from the two countries were denied entry.

Will we introduce stricter measures? Officials claim there is no need for now. However, there is talk of introducing self-isolation for Croatian citizens returning from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

"No matter what we call it, the new wave, the coat of arms of the old wave ... The fact is that we have an increase in the number of patients after a couple of weeks of a good situation," epidemiologist Bernard Kaic told Dnevnik Nova TV.

"If we continue to behave like this, we can expect dozens of patients a day," Kaic said, adding that the situation could be more favorable if people see that the disease is among us and stick to the measures.

Kaić added that it is logical the infection entered from outside. As for the few cases who do not know where they became infected, he says that it is a matter of relaxation.

"It's probably because people have relaxed. It's been too short to say whether the contagion curve is exponential or linear," Kaic added.

The epidemiologist does not think that the opening of the borders came too soon, but the problem, he emphasized, is that people do not adhere to the prescribed measures.

"With the opening of the borders, measures were prescribed that should be followed by people entering Croatia, which are quite good in terms of preventing the spread of the disease, because our instructions say that within 14 days after entering Croatia, one should measure the temperature every day, avoid crowds, go out only as much as necessary, wear a mask where one cannot maintain distance, but the problem is that no one adheres to that," Kaić said.

Kaic added that there was no new knowledge about the virus in the past month. That the new coronavirus was still unpredictable and that the self-isolation measure should remain for those who had been in contact with infected people until a vaccine was found.

Kaic says masks should be worn on public transport. "In public transport, a lot of people are close indoors. A mask should definitely be worn."

He also commented on the upcoming parliamentary elections and pointed out that distance should be maintained. "Voters are not very exposed, but commission members need to protect themselves and wear masks," Kaic concluded.

Minister Božinović commented for RTL Danas on the possibility of introducing stricter measures.

"There are recommendations that are very precise. And as we said from the beginning, all we achieve is done together, along with directorates and the medical profession."

Asked if this meant that there would be no binding measures, he said: "All the measures that are being introduced depend on the current situation. We do not think that more restrictive measures should restored. All contacts of the infected have been captured, these are Croatian citizens who were in neighboring countries.

"Since the measure came into force, about 70 percent [of people crossing the border from Bosnia and Serbia] have been rejected. We send people back from the border."

According to the eVisitor system, about 34,000 tourists registered in Croatia yesterday alone, of which 24,000 were foreigners. As of Saturday, Croatia has 163,000 guests, according to Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli.

Most guests come from Germany, Slovenia and Austria, and they prefer camps and private accommodation. The most visited cities are Rovinj, Vir, Mali Lošinj, Umag and Poreč.

Due to checks at the border crossings with Slovenia, bottlenecks are forming. Due to the epidemiological situation in Serbia and BiH, Croatian police have tightened measures at border crossings with those countries.

"Today we have 163,000 guests. The daily growth is 30-40 thousand. Today we will have a growth of about 60-70 thousand," Cappelli said.

He pointed out that given the growth in the number of infected, they did not receive major layoffs.

"The situation is changing from day to day and we are prepared for every possible situation. It must be clear what the procedure is, the protocol, who will pay the costs," he concluded.

June 20, 2020 - Croatian tourism's strength is in its fantastic authentic experiences, and there is nowhere quite like Blaca Monastery on Brac, especially after this outstanding renovation. Take the video tour.

One of my favourite stories about Croatia concerns the grand piano at the spectacular and very remote Blaca Hermitage monastery on the island of Brac. 

Even today, you can only reach this unique complex by foot, a 30-minute hike being the shortest approach. And so it was all the more surprising to discover that the complex has - among many other unusual things - a grand piano. The piano was apparently ordered by the head priest at the time for his nephew to play.

Carrying the piano from the bay the boat docked at to Blaca Hermitage was a gruelling task. It took 12 men 8 hours to carry the piano to its final resting place, and they apparently consumed 56 litres of wine between them on the way. The piano somehow arrived in perfect condition and sits there today. 

A little like the mysterious Dragons Cave not far away, Blaca is a fascinating attraction off the beaten track, about which not that much is known. 

Until now. 

Until this video.  

If I could give an example of how to present a fabulous cultural treasure to the world in English, I doubt I could do better than translator and narrator VivianGrisigono M.A. and the team from the Brac Cultural Centre. Not only does it present the rich history of Blaca superbly, but it also goes into great detail on the successful restoration documents. A very worthwhile watch. 

This is the story of the Blaca Hermitage, a unique historic cultural complex dating from the 16th century. Our presentation includes glimpses of the monastery's past, some of the restoration works which have been carried out, and the plans for integrated protection of this exceptionally precious cultural landscape. The primary concept for the museum is the preservation of all the heritage assets of the Blaca Hermitage, in a clean, unpolluted environment, creating a true eco-system for the future.

Production: NOVENA d.o.o. Zagreb Scenario: Jasna Damjanović, Brač Cultural Centre English translation and narration: Vivian Grisogono, MA(Oxon) Material used in the video is drawn from the archives of the Brač Cultural Centre, and photographs by Kristijan Brkić, Tom Dubravec, Jasna Damjanović, Vanja Kovačić, Aleksander Kukec, Tomislav Marić, Predrag Mandić, Franjo Mlinac and Mario Romulić. The video has been produced with support from the Split-Dalmatian County.

To learn more about the island of Brac, here are 25 things to know.