ZAGREB, Aug 14, 2020 - Istria County and Istrian cities called on the Croatian government on Friday to immediately send a request to the Italian government to carry out the obligation to test all arrivals from Croatia selectively, in accordance with the real epidemiological situation in different parts of Croatia.
They called for the same request to also be sent to the Slovenian government, which had announced that entire Croatia could be put on the red list of epidemiologically unsafe countries.
"We are sure that you yourself understand that such a unilateral move by Italy, as well as announcements from Slovenia, are seriously jeopardising the tourist season, especially at a time when tourist arrivals are most numerous and a large proportion of guests are from Italy and Slovenia themselves," representatives of Istria county and cities said.
They underscored that Istria was keeping the health situation under control, just as it had been in the previous months, and that it had great results in tourism and the biggest portion of Croatia's overall tourism turnover, as a result of great effort and responsibility of all Istrians.
"Our county is safe health-wise and successful in tourism - we call on you to enable it to stay that way," Istrian officials said, noting that the state budget, which had already suffered a massive blow because of the crisis caused by the coronavirus, also depends on the results of the tourist season.
They, therefore, request that at the moment when Dalmatia's epidemiological situation has significantly worse, it should be made possible for Istria, as a safe destination, to save Croatia's this year's tourism results.
A prompt reaction by the government, the Foreign and European Affairs Ministry and the Tourism Ministry to Italy's decision and Slovenia's announcement has also been requested by the Istrian Democratic Party (IDS).
"Italy's decisions has far-reaching negative consequences for the Croatian economy and requires maximum engagement of all relevant institutions. Croatia must use all available diplomatic channels, extremely well-developed bilateral relations with Italy and diplomatic channels at the EU level to revise Italy's decision," IDS said.
