News

January the 26th, 2022 - The Toplice Hotel in Krapinske Toplice has been through the ringer and waiting a very long time for a buyer. Could it finally have a new one? Maybe. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, after the long-term plans for the Chinese investor to implement the announced project of re-doing the Toplice Hotel in Krapinske Toplice failed, this hotel in continental Croatia could finally get a new buyer. As Poslovni dnevnik has learned, the sales process with a broad and public marketing campaign back in September 2021 was started by Colliers. As is already more than well…

January the 26th, 2022 - Could Croatian 2022 nautical tourism be excellent this summer season? It seems as if Croatian charter companies have good reason to expect a record season, despite the pandemic. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, judging by the last tourist season and the current state of reservations, Croatian 2022 nautical tourism could result in record traffic, but not without some accompanying challenges. One of the challenges will certainly be disrupted supply chains due to which there will be no new vessels, but Croatia has a comparative advantage because it has a relatively young fleet. Taking everything into…

January the 26th, 2022 - The value of bills and other receipts issued in the Croatian tourism sector for 2022's maiden month of January seems to promise a good year ahead. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, across all economic activities registered in the fiscalisation system last week, the value of fiscalised bills and receipts increased by 16 percent compared to the same comparable week back in 2021, and by eight percent compared to the same period in 2020, according to data from the Tax Administration which was published on Monday. From the 17th to the 23rd of January, 2022, the total value…

January the 26th, 2022 - Eastern Croatia is often (very wrongly) overlooked, and the City of Osijek is one town that is making a stand in several ways when it comes to turning its image around. The old OLT Osijek is set to undergo a transformation, with a unique sport incubator, museums and even an Olympic swimming pool thrown in. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, the praiseworthy revitalisation project of the OLT Osijek area, one of the largest projects being implemented in Osijek-Baranja County and in the City of Osijek, is still waiting for its visible construction phase to begin.…

January 26, 2022 - TCN intern Jacob Rukavina explores why Croatia should change its passport colour from blue to red.  In August, I left my home in Vancouver to begin two years of graduate studies in Sweden. While the program itself was enticing, it was not the primary reason I moved to the land of IKEA and pickled herring. For those who may be unfamiliar, university studies in Sweden are free. Any citizen of the EU/EEA is entitled to fully state-funded education. Luckily for me, I had just received my first Croatian passport a few months earlier after a long and complicated application process.…

January 25, 2022 - During the Croatian Homeland War, there was a very poignant documentary in the UK about Croatia, titled Two Hours From London, addressing the humanitarian and cultural atrocities happening only two hours flying time from London. Without delving into the topic of human tragedy, I'm using this example to highlight that the authors of the documentary wanted to convey a message that London and Croatia were indeed so close. That happened nearly 30 years ago.  Today, it seems to me that London and Croatia are further away than those two aforementioned hours. I am a British-born Croatian who…

ZAGREB, 25 Jan 2022 - Milorad Dodik is Croatia's interlocutor and should not be subjected to sanctions, while Bakir Izetbegović "is buying time" so that elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina can be held under the election system which discriminates against Croats, Croatian President Zoran Milanović said on Tuesday. "Dodik is not an ethnic nationalist, he's not a chauvinist, doesn't spread ethnic hatred," he told the press about the Serb member of the BiH Presidency. "He is an interlocutor." Milanović said he was against the EU imposing sanctions against Dodik like the US did. "If someone from Croatia votes for those sanctions, for me…

ZAGREB, 25 Jan 2022 - Croatian Transport and Infrastructure Minister Oleg Butković said in Mostar on Tuesday that Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina would this year start rebuilding the Gunja-Brčko bridge across the Sava River and start work on a new one. The Gunja-Brčko bridge was built at the time of the Habsburg Empire and due to its obsolete state, traffic across it has been restricted to cargo transport. Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have agreed to maintain joint bridges together and this year they will start the renovation of that bridge over the River Sava. "In 2022 (Croatian road operator) Hrvatske Ceste and Bosnia…

ZAGREB, 25 Jan 2022 - Justice and Public Administration Minister Ivan Malenica said on Tuesday he had the support of the Bridge opposition party for a new referendum bill, adding that its MPs welcomed certain solutions, including signature verification monitoring. Speaking to the press, he said he received the support during the first reading in parliament and that there was no reason for representatives of referendum petitions not to monitor signature verification. Malenica said the new referendum bill envisaged the State Electoral Commission checking if enough signatures had been collected as an independent body. Bridge has recently collected over 400,000…

ZAGREB, 25 Jan 2022 - President Zoran Milanović said on Tuesday that PM Andrej Plenković's chief of staff Zvonimir Frka Petešić having registered permanent residence on the island of Dugi Otok "is an offence with a very high level of awareness of the nature of the act", for which, he said, Plenković was also responsible. "(The PM's chief of staff) resides here. Frka is a resident of Zagreb and what he has done is unbelievable. The (post-earthquake) reconstruction of the building where he lives is not the problem, the problem is the reconstruction of the apartment where he lives. The man sponges…