October the 7th, 2022 - The proverbial race for a massive 2.2 billion kuna post-pandemic Croatian tourism aid package is now on, with the focus being placed on the continental part of the country as well as on the coast.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, on Wednesday this week, the Ministry of Tourism and Sport announced public calls/invitations for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Croatian: NPOO) which comes with a total value of 2.2 billion kuna.
"I'm extremely proud that we've managed to reach this step, because the road to it was extremely demanding. I consider the fact that 2.2 billion kuna has been provided for a Croatian tourism aid package within the National Recovery and Resilience Plan a huge success and a great pledge for the achievement of the goals we've outlined in our Strategy for the Development of Sustainable Tourism, which will be adopted this year.
We started this process from a position where there was no provision for funding tourism down on the coast, nor tourism that takes place during the summer, and we've reached this moment when we have 930 million kuna in grants for public tourist infrastructure and as much as 1.25 billion kuna in grants for investment in private tourism infrastructure, both in the continental part of the country and on the coast," said Minister of Tourism and Sport, Nikolina Brnjac.
To speak more specifically, this regards two public calls. The public call for grants called "The regional diversification and specialisation of Croatian tourism through investments in the development of tourism products with high added value" carries with it a total value of 930 million kuna.
Its goal is the construction and adaptation of public tourist infrastructure that can stimulate the recovery and resilience of the Croatian tourism sector, contribute to the reduction of excessive tourism in the most developed tourist areas and the stronger tourist profiling of less developed destinations. As a Croatian tourism aid package, it is seeking to ''level up'' the country's tourist offer in a more well-rounded way.
These projects will also contribute to raising the quality of the destinations they regard and enable the extension of the tourist season through the encouragement of sustainable forms of tourism and the development and further adaptation of public tourist infrastructure in accordance with EU environmental protection standards, which also contributes to the green transition.
The second public call is for private companies and is worth a massive 1.25 billion kuna, and its purpose is the construction of tourism infrastructure, the development of tourism products acceptable to the environment and the efficiency of resources, especially those in less developed touristic areas by connecting enterprises in the tourism value chain, increasing the resilience and productivity of companies, as well as allowing for their better positioning on the demanding market through the introduction of innovation and digital technologies.
"Last year, the Ministry of Tourism and Sport started holding a series of workshops with all interested parties throughout the Republic of Croatia, and both invitations were also announced at a public consultation so that everyone would have an equal opportunity to submit their comments. In order to achieve maximum transparency, grants from these two calls will be awarded through an open procedure.
The applicants will be able to enter their project proposals into the eNPOO system from November the 7th, 2022, from 12:00 to February the 3rd, 2023, until 12:00. which means that everyone in the Croatian tourism sector has another thirty days to familiarise themselves with the documentation in great detail before submitting their project applications, and they're also free to ask questions about possible ambiguities. These invitations will be open for a total of slightly longer than 120 days,'' the Ministry revealed.
For more, make sure to check out our dedicated politics and business sections.
