French airline companies and tour operators will expand their travel programmes for Croatia.
Ministry of Tourism announced that representatives of French airlines Volotea and Transavia and the Karavel Group tour operator informed Croatian Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli that they would expand their travel programmes for Croatia. Minister Cappelli met with them during his working visit to France, reports tportal.hr on January 21, 2017.
Representatives of the Volotea airline said they wanted to start flights to Pula, Rijeka, Zadar and Zagreb, with the goal of bringing 220,000 tourists to Croatia by 2020. The Ministry noted that Volotea last year opened a service from France to Dubrovnik and Split. Given last year's excellent results, this year they intend to introduce additional flights from Strasbourg and Marseilles for these towns.
Representatives of the Transavia low-cost airline, which is a member of the Air France-KLM group, have announced an increase in capacity of flights for Dubrovnik and the introduction of new flights to Zagreb and Pula, with the possibility of introducing flights to Krk (Rijeka) as well.
“We are in serious negotiations with airlines about the introduction of new lines, especially due to new luxurious hotels which are under construction. Special emphasis will be put on Zagreb, Istria and Krk, since they are close to other destinations, such as the islands and the continental Croatia, which may be of interest to French tourists because of their cultural and gastronomic offer”, said Minister Cappelli. Given that Zagreb was again declared the best Christmas destination in Europe, he proposed the introduction of weekend flights to Zagreb during Advent events.
Representatives of the Karavel Group, one of the largest tour operators in Europe, whose website is every month visited by more than 17 million visitors, reported that currently they have seven percent higher bookings for Croatia than at the same time last year, and that they plan to expand their offer for Croatia, which is seen as a very safe destination. Karavel Group includes a number of travel agencies, such as Karavel Promovacance, Fram and Plein Vent, specializing in various market niches. The whole group last year achieved 13 percent growth of sales.
In France, Minister Cappelli also met with representatives of other tour operators, such as Pierre&Vacances, Voyageurs du Monde and the Association of French Tour Operators (SETO), which also announced the expansion of their travel programmes for Croatia.
