Travel

ZAGREB, Aug 16, 2020 - Austria braces for traffic jams on motorways and at border crossings on Sunday, as travellers are expected to shorten their holidays after Vienna put Croatia on the list of high-risk countries due to a resurgence of COVID cases. On Saturday, the Austrian Automobile Club (ÖAMTC) stated that it expected that traffic from the south to intensify in the evening on Saturday evening and during Sunday. According to some figures, there are currently 3,000 Austrians vacationing in Croatia. However, Vienna believes that there are many more people from Austria who are spending their summer holidays in Croatia. The Austrian…

From the perspective of the average tourist, who comes from a country where there are more people infected with the new coronavirus than there are in Croatia, there are no obstacles to spending their holiday on the Croatian Adriatic, in a well-known destination. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes on the 14th of August, 2020, maybe Croatia should stop bragging about this year's tourism results if it wants to continue at this same pace until the end of the season? It seems that other member states of the European Union are getting irritated at the fact that Croatia is managing to…

The coronavirus pandemic has dragged Croatian tourism to its knees. Despite some surprisingly good tourists figures so far, especially in comparison to the dire predictions from before, there are still some being left behind. Komiza on the beautiful island of Vis hopes for a decent tourist season despite all of the many obstacles. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 15th of August, 2020, the SDP mayor of Komiza, Tonka Ivcevic, explained that the argument for spending a holiday on this remote Croatian island is the isolation and the fact that no one, all these months, has been infected with the…

August 15, 2020 - Two visits to luxury Rixos Dubrovnik in a fortnight highlight the new realities in the luxury tourism market in the Pearl of the Adriatic.  Tourism is such a fragile thing. A lesson so many have learned in this most extraordinary year.  Croatia's huge fortune in this most unfortunate of times is that it has tourism markets on its doorstep which has little alternative if they are looking for a fortnight on a beach. With corona scares, limited or cancelled flights, the safest option is to get in the car and drive virus-free to the end destination.…

August 15, 2020 - Continuing our look at the secrets of the Elaphiti Islands near Dubrovnik, a visit to Lopud, home to Europe's tallest palm trees and oldest concrete hotel... with quite a history.  Depending on who you speak to, Croatia has between 1185 and 1246 islands in its pristine Adriatic Sea, but one thing is for sure after 18 years of living here - no two islands are the same, and each has its own speciality and uniqueness. Nowhere was this more evident to me than on my first visit to the islands of Kolocep, Lopud and Sipan near…

ZAGREB, Aug 15, 2020 - The Croatian Tourism Association (HUT) has warned that giving up on the tourist season in the current economic situation due to recommendations by some neighbouring countries restricting travel to Croatia would be irresponsible towards the tourism sector and citizens.  "The foundation of this year's season has been a good epidemiological situation, and in the month and a half that we have had a favourable epidemiological situation across the country, we have shown that we can be winners in the Mediterranean," HUT director Veljo Ostojic told Hina on Saturday. Statements that can be heard lately about the need to…

August 15, 2020 - Opatija Mayor, Ivo Dujmic, asked the Croatian Government and National Headquarters to divide Croatia into epidemiological regions as soon as possible. Dujmic believes that the counties of Istria and Primorje-Gorski Kotar should not bear the consequences of the unfavorable situation in Split-Dalmatia County. We have transmitted his post on Facebook in its entirety: "Urgently divide Croatia into epidemiological regions" "This way, I must express my dissatisfaction with the current situation, i.e., that the Civil Protection Headquarters is avoiding dividing Croatia into regions and thus save the tourist season in those counties that have a favorable epidemiological situation. I…

August 15, 2020 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for flights to Croatia with updates for Zagreb, Split, Dubrovnik. Croatian Aviation reports that OneWorld alliance member British Airways will reduce the number of weekly flights to Zagreb in September this year. British Airways currently operates daily between London (Heathrow Airport) and Zagreb, on A319 and A320 aircraft. Given the occupancy of the passenger cabin and reduced demand, the company decided to reduce the number of weekly flights on the said route in September this year. From September 1 on the London - Zagreb route, British Airways aircraft will operate…

August 15, 2020 - There are currently around 820,000 tourists in Croatia, and there has been no noticeable decline in tourist traffic related to the increase in the number of coronavirus cases, Croatian National Tourist Board director Kristjan Stanicic said on Friday, announcing an increase in tourists this weekend. Slobodna Dalmacija reports that tourists are currently making up about 68 percent compared to the same day last year when there were 1.2 million. Most of them, about 200 thousand, are in Istria County, followed by 160 thousand in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, while Split-Dalmatia County is accommodating 150 thousand, and Zadar…

ZAGREB, Aug 14, 2020 - Austria's foreign ministry on Friday warned against travel to Croatia, as concerns grow that vacationers could catch the coronavirus and spread it once they return, the Reuters news agency reported. Austria fears that when holiday-makers return from Croatia, which on Thursday recorded a record number new cases of the infection, that could lead to accelerating the spread of the virus on its territory. The ministry said that the warning is effective from August 17 (you can read the full text of the warning, in German, on this link). On Thursday Italy introduced a mandatory test for the coronavirus…