ZAGREB, 1 March 2022 - There are currently 18 Ukrainian refugees at the Plitvice Motel in Zagreb, three accommodation facilities in the city have been prepared for the reception of refugees and additional capacities are being discussed, Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević said on Tuesday.

"A total of 344 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Croatia so far," the mayor said, noting that the city administration was communicating intensively with the competent services regarding the reception of refugees.

Tomašević noted that refugees were arriving and continuing on to further destinations, with many of them finding accommodation with their relatives.

The mayor said that a much bigger refugee wave was expected once organised transport was established.

The city currently has 200-300 beds available for the refugees, which is more than enough for the time being, he said, noting that other services were also available by city health institutions, including epidemiological protection, psychological assistance and general health care.

ZAGREB, 8 March, 2021 - The number of tourist nights registered in Croatia's commercial accommodation establishments in 2020 was 41 million, falling by 55.3% from 2019, and recessing to levels registered about 20 years ago, according to the data provided by the national statistical office (DZS).

The DZS recalls that in 2019 Croatia saw a record high number of tourist nights, 91 million, which slumped in 2020 to levels registered about 20 years ago.

Despite travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Croatia had more foreign visitors than domestic ones, when 5.5 million foreigners travelled to Croatia and made 35.4 million overnight stays, down by 68% and 58% compared to 2019.

Broken down by country of origin, Germans topped the ranking, with 1.5 million German-passport holders visiting Croatia and making 11.7  million overnight stays, which was down by 49% and 40% respectively on the year.

In terms of nights spent in Croatia, Slovenians, Poles, Czechs , Austrians and Italians made it top six.

As many as 1.5 million Croatians travelled inside the country.

Istria registered highest number of guests

Istria County remained the most desirable destination with 1.7 million registered visitors (down 75% year-on-year), and 11.5 million overnight stays (-72%).

Primorje-Gorski Kotar and Split-Dalmatia Counties followed with 1.3 million and 1.2 milion arrivals. However, the latter had more nights, nearly eight million, while the former had 7.8 million.

The Istrian coastal city of Rovinj remained the most sought-after destination with the highest number of stays, 1.7 million. It was followed by two other Istrian destinations, Medulin and Poreč, both with 1.2 million overnight stays. Dubrovnik ranked fourth, with 776,000.

ZAGREB, 11 January, 2021 - The head of the task force for dealing with the aftermath of the 29 December quake, Minister Tomo Medved, on Monday expressed hope that the process of accommodating inhabitants of the quake-hit area in mobile homes and housing containers would be realised in the following 20 days.

Speaking for Croatian Radio, Medved said that the programme for the purchase and provision of mobile homes and containers had started on the second day after the devastating earthquake and that there were 369 of them in the quake-hit area of Sisak-Moslavina County today.

He also said that 299 mobile homes had arrived yesterday, as organised by the government and the task force, and 70 more were expected during today.

According to him, 1,500 mobile homes and housing containers are needed.

Medved said that 20 housing units had already been set up at the brickyard in Petrinja and people had moved into them, and the same had been done in Sisak's Sajmiste Street and at the parking lot of Sisak's Segesta football club, where 35 units had been set up.

It was announced that Sisak's hotel Panonia would also be reconstructed to accommodate the population, and by the end of the week temporary accommodation should be available.

Medved said that another 222 people were accommodated in Petrinja's barracks.

He said that the state-owned company Pleter had started preparing and delivering food and thanked all hospitality workers who had been preparing food for the past two weeks.

It is up to the municipalities and cities, he added, to provide data on a daily basis on food needs, delivery locations, and the person in charge of food distribution.

"You can rest assured that no one will be left without a meal," he said, announcing that the process with hospitality workers will continue as long as they can and want to.

Medved said that due to the snow and low temperatures, services and volunteers had stepped up visits to all settlements and were handing out sleeping bags, blankets and all necessary materials so that people could overcome these difficulties as easily as possible.

EU funds have opened up a wide variety of doors for Croatia, quite literally. As more and more EU funding is accessed, more former Croatian ''glory'' buildings, including old castles and palaces, are having new life breathed into them.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes on the 28th of May, 2019, in July in Suhopolje near Virovitica, a visitor's centre will be opened up at Janković castle, marking the creation of a brand new attraction for Virovitica-Podravina County, in which a total of 39.7 million kuna will be invested, of which 33.4 million kuna is being funded from European Union fund for Regional Development, permitted under the Preparation and implementation of Integrated Development Programs based on the Reconstruction of Cultural Heritage.

This is just one of the projects which directly involves the revitalisation of a series of castles, noble and ex-military buildings in the aforementioned county, and putting them into the function of tourism within the so-called. Plemićka ruta. At the moment, there are projects in their various phases of implementation or completion of a total value of up to 276 million kuna, as was revealed yesterday at the project's presentation in Zagreb by Josip Mikolčić, assistant director of the VPŽ (Virovitica-Podravina) Tourist Board. Last year, 16,033 tourists visited this continental Croatian county, achieving an impressive 40,276 overnight stays.

"Participating in EU projects is a great opportunity to rebuild many of the neglected facilities that we'll then put into the function of tourism. The county still has a bit of hotel accommodation, which we need to modify so that we can make a significant income from tourism," Mikolčić explained.

Namely, as EU funds can't provide non-refundable money for the construction of hotels, a solution has been found by the Croatian county in question to create presentation centre projects that later be turned into hotels. In addition to the multimedia exhibition hall, 5D cinema and creative lab, Janković will also have fifteen guest rooms, which will initially be registered as rooms for rent, and after five years have passed, another fifteen rooms will be added and the facility will be registered as a heritage hotel, at least that's what the current plan is.

Then, Virovitica-Podravina County will be able to sell that hotel to a private investor, as well as all of its other facilities.

As it is already known, an informative-educational centre and a hostel in a restored summer residence from the nineteenth century have been on the market for about two years now. The Heritage Hotel Kurija Janković is on the Plemićka ruta, and the opening of a museum in the renovated Pejačević Castle is expected this October.

The renovated Ružica grad from the fifteenth century will be receive its first guests within the next 1.5 years, while on the island of Križnica on the border with Hungary, former military facilities will be turned into a camp and a visitor's centre.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more.

Click here for the original article by Marija Crnjak for Poslovni Dnevnik

The Zagorje castle, with a welcome 126 million kuna in investment, is becoming a tourist attraction.

As Bernard Ivezic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 26th of March, 2019, in beautiful Zagorje, the very first scientific destination in Croatia is being built. Krapina-Zagorje County has launched a public tender for the architectural solution for the reconstruction of the castle and gardens of Stubički Golubovec.

This old Zagorje gem is otherwise one of the best preserved Croatian castles and the place in which this year's Seljačka buna will be held will be transformed into a "scientific centre". This is a new type of institution for Croatia, one that unites the functions of the museum, an entertainment park, and the innovation centre for the popularisation of science.

The county is planning to move the Science Educational and Entertainment Centre (ZEZ) to the castle's grounds. This is the same project that was supported by the City of Zagreb six years ago, it was ready to invest 200 million kuna into the project, transforming the castle into an Italian pavilion at the Zagreb Fair, but after much talk, nothing happened. A likely story.

Krapina-Zagorje County announced the plans for the creation of the centre last year, in addition, it has also announced the first tender for the beginning of its eventual realisation. The tender is a somewhat modest one, worth 1.5 million kuna, but is an introduction to an eventual investment which is currently estimated at a massive 126 million kuna.

A similar centre exists in Finland, Heureka near Helsinki, attracting an average of 280,000 visitors per year, it has become the most popular recreational destination in the country. In 2012, the AHHAA Science Centre in Estonia (with more than 500,000 visitors) was the strongest tourist attraction in that country, too. This new addition to Croatia could bring fruit, and a lot of it.

The are more and more similar institutions popping up in Europe. If this move in Croatia manages to see the numbers Finland saw, it would mean that ZEZ would exceed the number of visitors to Dubrovnik and its museums, which according to MDC's data on visits to Croatian museums in 2017, came in fourth place. With half a million visitors to the science centre in Estonia, ZEZ would become the most visited cultural destination in Croatia, overtaking the incredible Pula Arena (486,966 visitors), Diocletian's Cellars in Split (357,745) and Klović's Palace in Zagreb (314,767 visitors).

Željko Kolar, Krapina-Zagorje County's prefect, says that when taking into account examples from other countries and cities across Europe, the opening of the ZEZ Zagorje Centre represents a great development potential.

"Krapina-Zagorje County, Donja Stubica and the ZEZ cooperative, as partners in the project, realised that there's a need to popularise science and education in Croatia, and that the establishment of a scientific educational and entertainment centre would provide a good basis for that very popularisation of science and education, scientific institutions, and the economy, supporting entrepreneurship and directing young people towards science,'' stated Kolar.

He added that they are entering the modernisation project slowly because they want to preserve the rich cultural heritage of the castle and the gardens.

Davor Komerički, ZEZ's initiator, says he is now finally satisfied with the pace at which things are moving. He pointed out that the gross value of the project stands at 126 million kuna, and 85 percent can be funded from EU funds.

"We've been developing this project for a long time, and we started it in 2010, and when the EU evaluated projects that Croatia could apply for EU funds for before the accession of Croatia [to the EU], our project was one of the 20 best rated ones. We were in the eighth place out of all of the projects from Croatia,'' Komerički noted.

He also stated that their aim is to prepare the necessary documentation by September in order to retrieve the aforementioned funds. "If everything goes to plan, in two years Zagorje's ZEZ centre will be open in the castle," Komerički said.

According to the currently available data, Zagorje's ZEZ centre will occupy 5,000 square metres, of which 3,200 will be in the castle area itself. An additional space of 1,800 square metres will be built next to it. There will also be a science park with exhibits in an arboretum of 5,000 square metres. The centre itself will have as many as 30 different facilities.

"The goal is to be self-sustainable, both energetically and financially. In addition to being a great tourist bait for Zagorje, it's located just 200 metres from the section of road that connects Zagreb with Stubičke Toplice,'' Komerički said.

"Krapina-Zagorje County is the best continental destination of 2018, and with this project we'll further develop our tourism offer, of the county and of the entire region,'' Željko Kolar added, stating that he expects a major impact of the centre on both tourism and the economy in Krapina-Zagorje.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more.

Click here for the original article by Bernard Ivezic for Poslovni Dnevnik

As Suzana Varosanec/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 25th of March, 2019, under its new administration and new owners, the popular Jadran hotel group from Crikvenica is expanding rapidly and after taking over Club Adriatic, it is continuing to introduce new facilities in Baško Polje, and is now expanding to the Kvarner region.

Based on the ten-year lease of the Hotel Delfin in Omišalj, business for Jadran is beginning on the island of Krk. The offer was favourable, as can unofficially be revealed. The Crikvenica-based hotel group also signed a long-term lease for three pavilions in Crikvenica. Owing to these business moves, Jadran's accommodation capacities will increase by a significant 139 accommodation units, in Baško Polje there are about 440 new units, and this season Jadran will be able to boast about having a 36 percent higher capacity compared to last year.

And while Hotel Delfin can't be renewed this season for various reasons, this is thankfully not the case for the three pavilions that were once owned by Jadran. Since they are situated at the location of a common entity whose renewal is already in full swing, a makeover awaits.

Namely, from the Adriatic highway to the coast, Jadran's property in Crikvenica is having works carried out at Hotel Ad Turres and on thirteen pavilions, each with 27 rooms as well as works at Hotel Omorika, which will be completed in ten days.

Last year, this hotel group grew by 10 percent more than it did back during 2017, and realised an impressive 416,000 overnight stays, in 2019 they're planning for 437,000 overnight stays, marking an increase of about 6.6 percent. Slovenian guests and Croatian guests have primarily been the main group to stay in Jadran's numerous accommodation facilities, followed by those from Austria and Germany, and a similar tourist structure is expected this season as well.

Congress tourism is still being developed, and after the completion of the welcome renovation of the Omorika and Katarina hotels, Jadran is expecting an increase in those niches, too. In the health sector, however, Jadran has some big plans in synergy with some local health institutions.

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Click here for the original artice by Suzana Varosanec for Poslovni Dnevnik

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