April 14, 2021 - With the season approaching, the question on everyone's mind is will traveling during the coronavirus pandemic to Croatia bring problems for tourism in the country?' A light at the end of the tunnel still might be possible.

While many high-reputation magazines regularly praise Croatia as a top destination, this summer, the season will be only as strong as the health situation regarding coronavirus – both in Croatia and abroad, from where the country welcomes as many tourists as possible. Sadly, as Croatian National Radiotelevision (HRT) reports, due to the bad pandemic situation, many European countries, including Croatia, are canceling the travel season.

While, as we reported on TCN, many flights are returning and coming to Croatia, the measures are possibly demotivating travelers.

HRT says Croatia is declared as a highly-risked country in Germany, and returning citizens need to show a negative test that is no older than 48 hours which is a change to previous arrangments when Germans could test after returning home.

„The English planned to allow traveling from May 17 but tour operators and others don't have a big number of reservations to make it profitable so everything is postponed until June 24“, said hotelier  Domagoj Tomasović to HRT. 

British tourists were indeed expected mid-May, but as Darija Reić, director of the Croatian Tourist Board in London, said on the "Good Morning Croatia show" on HRT, there are still fines for non-essential travel.

„Travelling outside of UK is still illegal if you don't travel for essential reasons which include traveling for business, education or medicinal purposes. Otherwise, it's possible to be fined 5000 pounds“, explained Reić, as noted by Turizmoteka.

Tonči Glavina, state secretary for Tourism ministry, said for HRT that the UK is not alone in sending a message to its citizens to not travel anywhere and went on to say that may not be bad for Croatia.

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While the UK stands better in the percentage of vaccinated people than Croatia, Croatians are focusing on reaching the green zone by the end of May. Seventy thousand vaccinated workers in the tourist sector are the goal for the country.

„If that doesn't happen until the start of the season, then we need tests and it would be good if tourist board make testing zones and if we co-finance the expenses of testing to our guests“, concluded Tomasović.

The Ministry of Tourism already secured 20 million kuna to co-finance testing for tourists if Croatia doesn't reach the green zone.

PCR tests currently cost 500 kuna; quick antigen test is 150 kuna, and the translations of the results to English is 125 kuna. Twenty tourists were already tested in Zagreb on Tuesday. 

Learn more about coronavirus: news and travel in Croatia on our TC page.

For more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 13 April, 2021 - Foreign tourists who generate at least one bed night in Zagreb can be tested for COVID-19 at 50% of the price and about 20 have already been tested over the weekend, the director of the Zagreb Tourist Board (TZGZ), Martina Bienenfeld, said on Tuesday.

TZGZ is the first regional tourist board in Croatia that has opened a testing station for foreign tourists as had previously been proposed by Tourism and Sports Minister Nikolina Brnjac.

Testing to be co-financed

In addition to opening the testing station, TZGZ has decided to cofinance testing that is conducted during weekends and public holidays, Bienenfeld told Hina.

TZGZ will cover half the cost of testing for tourists, she said, estimating that the greatest demand will be in the coming period and that that will depend on the percentage of inoculated tourists from the countries they are coming from, but also of employees in tourism and citizens themselves, and finally on the introduction of Digital Green Certificates at the EU level.

Testing during weekdays will be at the normal price and already about ten Zagreb hotels are providing testing services. Testing can also be conducted at Zagreb's airport.

Providing opportunity for tourists to extend their stay

"One of the important reasons why we decided to co-finance testing in the days noted is that this provides the opportunity for tourists to extend their stay in Zagreb, because they do not have to worry where and when they can be tested when returning to their countries and they can avoid quarantine," said Bienefeld.

All the necessary information regarding testing is available at www.infozagreb.hr/korona-virus in various languages, she said and added that the first tourists tested this way last weekend (10 and 11 April) were from Italy, Denmark, Germany and Albania.

Bienefeld said that since the beginning of the year until 11 April, almost 65,000 tourists had visited Zagreb and they generated 177,500 bed nights, which is about 47% of arrivals and 58% of bed nights generated in the comparable period in 2020.

Compared to the record 2019 year, that is about 27% and 37% of arrivals and bed nights respectively. 

For more about COVID-19 in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

April the 13th, 2021 - The beautiful destination which draws visitors from all over the world for its globally famous beach, Bol on Brac island, has put in firm preparations for the 2021 tourist season this summer and has secured antigen tests.

As Marta Duic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Tourist Board of Bol on Brac island, in close cooperation with the local general medical practice operated by Dr. Markica Tomic, agreed to conduct antigen tests for the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, today (Tuesday, April the 13th), in order to enable its foreign guests to stay in Bol as and safely and securely as possible.

Owing to the aforementioned move, foreign visitors will very quickly have information on whether any virus doing its rounds around the island is the novel coronavirus or some other respiratory infection.

Beautiful Bol is also the first island town in Split-Dalmatia County to provide an antigen testing service, which is another indicator of the responsibility of this entire place and a sign of the serious preparations for the upcoming season being underway.

During the month of April, they plan to vaccinate most of the local tourism workers, and by the end of May, the local population is expected to be vaccinated in the amount of 50 percent.

Brac Airport currently has announced flights from Ljubljana, Dusseldorf, Zagreb, Vienna and Linz, and all of these flights and indeed those yet to be announced are adapting to the current challenging epidemiological situation, and the start of air traffic to this Central Dalmatian island is expected only during the second half of May.

The Director of the Airport, Mr. Tonci Peovic, pointed out that testing for coronavirus antigen testing will be organised at the invitation of individual tour operators or airlines. At the end of April, the first of Bols hotels have plans to finally open their doors, the proper face masks will be available to all guests, and all necessary and defined epidemiological measures and protocols will be adhered to.

PCR test can also be done in Supetar.

All information and contacts can be found at bol.hr

CROATIAN INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC HEALTH (Supetar)

Address: Mladena Vodanovića 24, Supetar

Test type: PCR

Testing time: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 07.45 - 8.15h (advanced booking is mandatory)

Price: 400,00 kn (450,00 kn in English)

Tel: +385 21 631 755

For more on this Croatian island, check out Brac in a Page, updated for 2021 here.