ZAGREB, June 2, 2020 - The Czech authorities said on Monday the country would open up foreign travel from June 15 after introducing a system to classify other countries according to their coronavirus risk, Reuters reported.

Prague will place 19 European states, mostly central, eastern, and southeastern nations, in the least-risky category under its new colour-coded system, and one of those 19 countries is Croatia.

According to this classification, travel to and from Britain and Sweden is in its riskiest category.

"Czechs have undone most restrictions, with restaurants and hotels fully reopened on May 25. But tourism suffered as lockdown measures hit the economy, and only short-term businesss travelers from the European Union, people in transit or students were allowed into the country," Reuters recalls.

"Czechs will be able to travel without restrictions to immediate neighbors Germany, Austria, Poland, and Slovakia, along with Hungary, Romania or Bulgaria as part of its green tier. Other safe countries include Croatia, Greece, Cyprus, Switzerland, the Baltic states, and Finland, Norway, and Iceland.

Citizens from those countries will be allowed in without having to present a negative COVID-19 test, Health Minister Adam Vojtech said on Twitter.

The government placed France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, as well as Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium in its orange tier, allowing Czechs to travel to those countries without restrictions. However, those countries' citizens will need to present a COVID-19 test.

June 2, 2020 - The songs and performers of the 60th Split Festival, which will take place at the beginning of July at Prokurative, have been revealed. At this year's jubilee music event, in addition to an evening of new compositions, the program will also have a retro component. 

Dalmatinski Portal writes that as usual, some of the biggest names in the music scene will sing their news songs at the Split Festival, and young musicians and authors who have a successful career ahead of them will have the opportunity to feel the charms of one of the most beautiful stages. Last year's winners Goran Karan and Tedi Spalato return this year, but this time each with their own song. Neno Belan and Zorana Kačić Čatipović will sing together in a duet, while the event will also feature the faithful Tomislav Bralić and Klapa Intrade, the unique Hari, Giuliano, Mladen Grdović, Klapa Rišpet and Alen Nižetić.

After last year's duet and success with Mio Dimšić, Marko Tolja returns to Prokurative this year with his own song. Jole, Ivo Perkušić and The Frajle will also present themselves to the audience with a new composition, and young singers Filomena and Adriana will make their debut.

The musical jury, composed of Eduard Gracin, head of the music department of Radio Split, Katarina Perišić, head of the music department of Radio Dalmatia, professor Nenad Šiškov, composer, producer and arranger, professor Jasminko Šetka and composer and director of the Split festival Tomislav Mrduljaš, given the number of songs received, had a great responsibility to choose the 22 compositions that will be performed at this year's Split Festival.

You can find the list of songs below:

1. BUDI ČOVJEK (Robert Grubišić-Robert Pilepić) IBRICA

2. ČAROBNA STVAR (Neno Belan-Alka Vuica) NENO BELAN & ZORANA KAČIĆ ČATIPOVIĆ
3. DOĐI, UZMI DUŠU (Marko Kutlić-Aleksandar Čubrilo) ADRIANA
4. DUGO NISAM BIO MLAD (Goran Karan) GORAN KARAN
5. FALI MENI ONA (Pero Kozomara-Sanja Tafra) JOLE
6. IDEM JUGU SVOM (Hari Rončević) HARI RONČEVIĆ
7. IZDALO ME MORE (Filomena Puljiz/Josip Grgantov-Filomena Puljiz) FILOMENA
8. KAD DUŠA BOLI (Mladen Grdović-Nenad Ninčević) MLADEN GRDOVIĆ
9. KAKO SAMO MATER ZNA (Tonći Huljić-Vjekoslava Huljić) LORENA
10. MAKA MAKA (Pero Kozomara-Lući Tukić) KLAPA RIŠPET
11. MENI TRIBA MIRNO MORE (Boris Oštrić) BORIS OŠTRIĆ & RIBARI
12. NE ZAMIRI VILO (Tedi Spalato-Nenad Ninčević) TEDI SPALATO
13. NEMA BOLJE (Ines Prajo-Arijana Kunštek) IVO PERKUŠIĆ
14. NIJE DOVOLJNO (Marko Matijević Sekul/Maja Kolarić/Boris Kolarić) ČIVRO
15. O TEBI OVISAN (Marko Tolja) MARKO TOLJA
16. OSTAJEM TU (Vinko Barčot) TOMISLAV BRALIĆ & KLAPA INTRADE
17. PISMA SPLITA (Želimir Škarpona/Dalibor Musap-Nedo Zuban) TENORI DALMACIJE
18. PJEVA MI SE ALI NEMAM S KIM (Branimir Mihaljević-Nenad Ninčević) GIULIANO
19. SAMO MI SE JAVI (Fedor Boić-Nenad Ninčević) ALEN NIŽETIĆ
20. SVE DO KRAJA (Jasminko Šetka-Ružana Kovač) KLAPA PRASKA
21. TO NE MOGU PODNIT (Darko Bakić) PETAR DRAGOJEVIĆ
22. VOLI ME GODINAMA (Marija Mirković) FRAJLE

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

June 2, 2020 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for flights to Croatia with updates from Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik, and Zadar.

Ryanair plans to resume traffic to Zadar on selected lines from July. The first line from Stuttgart to Zadar, on which Lauda operates, will run from June 28. All other lines are planned to begin operations from the first week of July. 

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

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There is not a single new line planned for this year with aircraft based in Zadar. Also, no routes from France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom are on offer. 

Furthermore, on all routes operating from the beginning of July, the number of flights per week has been significantly reduced. Most flights per week have been announced on the Vienna-Zadar route, twice a week from the beginning of July, with reinforcements to three times a week in August. 

In other flight news, Ex Yu Aviation reports that Aegean Airlines has delayed the resumption of all of its flights to Croatia until September. While the airline planned to fly from Athens to Zagreb, Dubrovnik and Split from the beginning of July, they will not resume operations until September 1 to Split, September 2 to Zagreb, and September 3 to Dubrovnik. 

Finally, Croatian Aviation reports that Austrian national carrier Austrian Airlines has confirmed it is re-establishing the Vienna-Zagreb-Vienna route from the end of June.

As announced earlier, Austrian will fly from Vienna to Split and Dubrovnik again this month, so it was logical to expect the introduction of a route to Zagreb, on which, in addition to Austrian, Croatia Airlines also operates regularly.

From June 29, Austrian Airlines will once again connect the capitals of Austria and Croatia with one flight a day.

In the morning, a departure from Vienna to Zagreb is planned at 06:40, with arrival in Zagreb at 7:35. Departure from Zagreb to Vienna is planned for 8:15 am, with arrival in Vienna at 9:15 am.

In the afternoon, the plane will take off from Vienna at 13:10, and the arrival in Zagreb is planned for 14:05. The return to Vienna is at 15:15, with arrival in the Austrian capital at 16:10. In addition to direct (p2p) demand, passengers from Vienna are being offered a large number of destinations in Europe that Austrian will restart from the end of this month.

The smaller capacity aircraft, the DashQ400 and Embraer 190, are planned for the flights.

The company is currently working on a new flight schedule for July, but Austrian is expected to continue flying once a day on the Vienna-Zagreb-Vienna route in the first half of July.

June 2, 2020 - Forbes reveals that Cavtat, Zagreb and Rijeka are among the 20 best European destinations least affected by COVID-19, and thus safest for travel and tourism, according to European Best Destinations. 

On May 28, Croatia fully opened its borders to Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, and Germany. 

“According to our comparative analysis of the epidemiological situation, those are the countries with either similar progress as Croatia or the trends are such that we can adopt such a decision and enable the arrival of those countries’ citizens during the tourist season, with the appropriate epidemiological recommendations and the special application that has already been made,” Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told his cabinet then. With borders opening, flights resuming and hotels and restaurants operating - tourism in Croatia has begun. 

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Considering Croatia has had only a handful of cases in the last few weeks, and as of yesterday, active cases are down to 66, European Destinations of Excellence, which works to promote sustainable tourism on the continent, has unveiled a list of 20 destinations least affected by Covid-19 (defined as up to 600 times fewer Covid-19 cases).

The southern coastal city of Cavtat comes in at no. 3 on the prestigious list, followed by Zagreb at no. 8 and Rijeka at no. 12!

Forbes' Senior Contributor Celia Rodriguez revealed the news on Monday: 

"Popular with celebrities, families, lovers and fans of gastronomy, culture, nature and water sports, Cavtat is the destination.

Croatia is among the European countries least affected by coronavirus with up to 20 times fewer infected people per million inhabitants than in other European countries.

Croatia is also one of the European countries with the highest number of hospital beds per inhabitant. The hospital in Dubrovnik, the capital, is a 20-minute drive from Cavtat while the airport is only 10 minutes away.

 Cavtat has a large selection of private villas, tourist apartments and small family hotels (selected as travelers’ favorites this summer). In addition, Croatia has implemented hygienic and sanitary measures in larger hotels.

Reopening to travelers on July 1. No quarantine requested."

You can see the full list on Forbes and read more about Zagreb and Rijeka HERE. 

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As Novac/Barbara Ban writes on the 1st of June, 2020, as of yesterday, hotels have been opened in the popular NP Brijuni on the island of Veliki Brijun. The method of the hotels' operation is being carried out according to the instructions of the Croatian Government, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy and the National Civil Protection Headquarters, they state from that national park.

''On the occasion of the opening up of the hotels, a June promotional campaign is underway with cheaper accommodation prices. From June the 1st, 2020, the Veli Brijun passenger ship will sail to the island again all day according to the sailing schedule. An organised trip to Veliki Brijun with the guidance of an expert guide lasts four hours. The excursion programme includes transport by boat from Fazana (Istrian mainland), an hour of touring the island on an open tourist train, visits to various places of interest, (a visit to the Museum and the church is possible from Tuesday to Sunday) and the Brijuni Mediterranean Garden.

In the period from June the 1st to June the 15th, on weekdays, the regular ticket price includes two hours of bicycle use. Additionally, during the weekend, on June the 6th and 7th, and June the 13th and 14th, it will be possible to rent an electric car at promotional prices. Visitors can also visit the House for Boats centre. A golf course and some catering and hospitality facilities have also been opened on Veliki Brijun and wearing face masks indoors has been recommended, according to a statement from NP Brijuni.

In addition to guides, from this year on, independent tours of the island of Veliki Brijun are possible with the offer of additional content for visitors and more information on that can be found on the new mobile application, Brijuni Pocket Guide. In addition to the interesting features offered by NP Brijuni, the aforementioned application also showcases photo galleries and GPS location markers. The tour of Veliki Brijun has also been drastically improved by markings with numbers and QR codes of individual points placed on the island at all locations covered by the application.

The Brijuni Pocket Guide app can be downloaded on both Android and iPhone devices ans visitors are advised to download the app before arriving on the island to get acquainted with what it has to offer in advance. The application can be downloaded with content in Croatian, English, German, Italian, French, Spanish and Russian. Tickets for NP Brijuni can be purchased online and it isn't necessary to print the tickets after their purchase, it is enough to show the digital ticket on the mobile device when boarding the ship. 

If you want to buy tickets at the NP Brijuni branch in Fazana, prior reservation is required.

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As Jadranka Dozan/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 1st of June, 2020, as we reported recently, the credit rating agency Standard & Poors has kept Croatia's current ratings, although, like most others, it predicts a 9 percent drop in GDP this year, meaning that Croatian GDP will continue to feel the negative effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic for some time yet.

On Friday, state statisticians used a series of economic indicators to quantify the scale of the corona crisis on the Croatian economy.

In addition to estimating Croatian GDP for the first quarter, which the coronavirus pandemic severely affected by reducing annual growth to a mere 0.4 percent, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) announced double-digit rates of decline in retail sales and industrial production for April, Croatia's lockdown month, with the fiercest direct blow to the domestic economy.

As much as the April minuses of 25.5 percent (retail trade turnover) and 11 percent (industrial production) come as a concerning shock, they aren't really a surprise. However, Standard & Poors made sure that the weekend started with a little less bad news for Croatia.

It reaffirmed Croatia's existing credit rating (BBB-) and maintained a stable outlook for the next revision. The report will certainly not do any harm to Finance Minister Zdravko Maric's position, who should enter the international market next week with new Eurobonds, the sale of which will seek to raise significantly more money than the amount needed to refinance 1.25 billion dollars of old bond debt. S&P has kept its current ratings, although, like most others, it predicts a 9 percent drop in Croatian GDP this year, which is one of the highest projected fall rates in the entire European Union (EU) for 2020.

Croatian GDP's recovery could begin in the second half of the year, which could result in a 5.3 percent increase next year, and 2.5 percent a year later, they forecast. Overall, the return of Croatian GDP to the 2019 level, they say, isn't likely before 2023, as the recovery in the tourism sector will also be very gradual.

With this new report, the agency is early in its regular audit calendar for more than obvious reasons.

The confirmation of Croatia's investment rank (although it remains the lowest on that scale) is explained primarily by the expectation that the tourist season will not completely fail (it is likely to record a drop of about 70 percent) because Croatia is a destination to which many can drive for the largest emitting markets such as Germany, Austria and Slovenia, making it a little less dependent on air travel recovery.

In addition, the S&P emphasised the solid level of the Croatian National Bank's international reserves, as well as the recent agreement with the European Central Bank on the so-called currency swap worth up to two billion euros. This should alleviate any immediate external pressures on liquidity and on the kuna's exchange rate.

The aforementioned amount of available currency swap could be further increased when Croatia joins the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM 2), that's if it does end up joining it this summer, the report states.

After the Croatian Government submitted an official request to enter what is commonly known as the "lobby" or ''waiting room'' during the procedure to adopt the euro in July last year, in addition to which it undertook a number of ''homework assignments'', the result of all that remains to be seen.

In the meantime, the findings of the ECB's asset quality review and bank resilience testing, which affected five banks in Croatia, are expected.

As the asset quality review refers to last year, and given the above-average capitalisation of local banks, it seems that these findings shouldn't be an obstacle to Croatia's entrance into ERM 2. The government recently concluded that all points of the action plan have now been met. However, S&P emphasises that in addition to the aforementioned "tangible" benefits, joining ERM 2 could be an incentive for structural reforms.

The key risk for a return below the investment grade rating for Croatia would be the scenario of new travel restrictions and an economic downturn that would result in a more pronounced impact on the deteriorating balance of payments and a more permanent weakening of public finances and an upward public debt trajectory.

Although Croatia is heavily dependent on tourism and less integrated into global value chains than comparable countries are, S&P believes that reducing macroeconomic imbalances in recent years has created the basis that a temporary shock to the economy should not result in more permanent damage to the country's credit metrics.

With the tools at the disposal of the central bank (with generous foreign exchange reserves further strengthened by the arrangement with the ECB), S&P estimates that even in the scenario of a 90 percent drop in tourism revenues (without other serious outflow pressures), the CNB could successfully cope with depreciation pressures.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 1st of June, 2020, the Croatian Interior Ministry (MUP) is buying specialist equipment for members of the Lučko Anti-Terrorist Unit for a price tag of 9.3 million kuna. The ministry estimated that the purchase of this equipment would cost a little more than eight million kuna including VAT, but the tender reached a price that is one million and 300 thousand kuna higher.

Although only one bidder applied for some groups of equipment, and the price was higher than estimated, the Croatian Interior Ministry readily accepted the bids with the explanation that they had secured financial resources for their purchase.

The Croatian Interior Ministry received bids in the tender for an IC monocular device for night surveillance, a target system for tasks undertaken during the night, for manual thermal imaging, an optical sight for tactical rapid fire for long weapons and a target system for night tasks, Jutarnji list writes.

For the needs of the anti-terrorist police force, among other things, eight hand-held thermal imaging cameras worth a massive 1.1 million kuna are currently being purchased. The technical specification required that thermal imagers must have a built-in CCTV camera with a 36-time-zoom. These are cameras that connect to computer databases that contain biometric data of persons and allow the identity of a person to be determined in a short time based on facial features.

Since the Croatian Interior Ministry is in the process of procuring software for recognising facial features, these thermal imagers will enable members of the anti-terrorist unit to quickly search the database and identify persons.

After the tender, it was decided that 100 pieces of IC monocular devices for night monitoring would be purchased from the company MA-RA from Zagreb for a whopping 4.6 million kuna.

These are devices that are used at night or in conditions where there has been significant reduction in visibility, and can be placed on a weapon, helmet or held in the hand and used for observation. A contract will be signed with the same company for the purchase of eight optical sights for shooting from long weapons for 1.3 million kuna. This sight allows the user to shoot tactically with both eyes open.

250 pieces for target systems for night tasks worth 2.2 million kuna will also be purchased from a company called Mi-Star. These are tactical laser target markers that are placed on long weapons for precise direction.

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The new Split hotel Amphora is due to open its doors to guests in spite of the uncertain times we're currently living in.

The coronavirus crisis has left pockets much more shallow and seen many a previously planned investment shelved. The global pandemic has rocked the world in a way that few could have possibly imagined it could in this modern day and age. While the virus has done its work in reminding humankind that we are not all powerful despite what we think, the economy has tried to steady the waters.

In the popular Dalmatian city of Split, one brand new hotel with a hefty price tag hasn't let the coronavirus pandemic throw a spanner in the works.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 1st of June, 2020, the brand new hotel Amphora in Split, more precisely on Znjan, is ready and set to open its doors to guests on Monday, offering them accommodation in 206 rooms and other facilities at a four-star level. The owner, entrepreneur Zvonko Kotarac, has invested an enormous 26 million euros in the facility, a statement from the hotel said.

The hotel Amphora is one of the largest newly built hotels to open its doors in the City of Split in recent years, and in addition to rooms that mostly overlook the sea and the nearby central Dalmatian islands, there are three swimming pools, two restaurants, a wellness centre and a fitness and beach club on the hotel's two thousand square metre space.

The hotel also has several bars, one on the roof/terrace, as well as a 500-seat congress hall.

As they say, they expect business people and families from Nothern Europe such as Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries to stay at the hotel, and 80 full-time employees and 40 seasonal workers will take care of everyone.

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