As Novac/Jozo Vrdoljak writes on the 4th of August, 2020, during this crisis, the largest hotel chain on the island of Hvar and one of the largest in Dalmatia, Suncani Hvar, lost 90 percent of its market overnight. As many as 90 percent of the guests of this hotel company were tourists from the USA, Canada, Australia, Brazil and from closer to home in Europe - Great Britain.

Every other guest came from outside of Europe in 2019. With a quick reaction in a very short time, they managed to change the market in order to get new guests from other markets. The good occupancy of the hotel at this time instills optimism in the President of the Management Board, Gordana Tomicic, and she's of the belief that in spite of the woes of 2020, this year will end positively. She is especially pleased with the occupancy of the Palace Elisabeth hotel, which, she says, is proof that exclusive hotels have their pull even in times of crisis.

How many guests are currently holidaying in Hvar Town?

According to official data obtained from the Tourist Board of Hvar Town, at the end of July, Hvar Town realised slightly more than 50 percent of the overnight stays it had when compared to the same period in 2019. Since the beginning of April, Slovenia has been the leading market for Hvar terms of the number of overnight stays realised, recording 97 percent of last year's result, followed by Croatian tourists with 92 percent, German tourists with 58 and Polish tourists with 63 percent when compared to the same period last year.

What is the situation with Suncani Hvar?

At the moment, we have 66 percent of the guests staying in the facilities when compared to last year. At Suncani Hvar, due to objective reasons of the inability to arrive, our main markets of the USA, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Australia are in significant decline. We compensated these markets with closer markets, so Croatian guests are the leading market in the number of overnight stays now, and 66 percent of last year's result was achieved. This is followed by Germany with 31 and Denmark with 73 percent compared to the same period last year, and they're then followed by other closer markets.

Which hotels are open?

As for the opening of the hotels, the Riva hotel was opened back in June, and due to the increase in demand, our largest hotel, Amfora, was opened on June the 30th. Camp Vira opened in July. In addition to these hotels, the Palace Elisabeth, the first five-star hotel on the island of Hvar, was opened in July and was completely renovated last year. We're pleased with the fact that we've had unexpectedly high demand for the Palace Elisabeth hotel, which is 90 percent full, which makes us happy and shows that exclusive products have their pull even in times of crisis. In the past few weeks, we've been working intensively on preparations for the opening of the Pharos Hotel. With its opening, we'll have more than 80 percent of the capacity belonging to Suncani Hvar in operation, with the planned high occupancy during the month of August.

What are the announcements for the coming months?

Considering the circumstances and the change in the structure of guests, the announcements for the coming months are positive, and today at the Amfora Hotel, we're recording occupancy rates at last year's levels and even as much as one hundred percent occupancy at the Palace Elisabeth Hotel.

How are you doing in terms of reservations?

The condition of the reservations being made is also very good. We're currently achieving a higher entry of reservations into the system compared to last year, although this is partly the result of higher capacity availability compared to the same period last year.

How did you attract guests?

During the lockdown due to the pandemic, we literally lost more than 90 percent of all our standard markets overnight. In addition to Dubrovnik and Split, we were the most affected in the Croatian tourism sector. We had to adapt to the new business conditions in a very short time and with timely reactions. So, we had to adjust our prices and business conditions and establish cooperation with new partners. We focused on the fact that there are those for whom Hvar was unattainable due to its exclusivity and price, so this season those people can experience the charms of Hvar at a more affordable price. In a short period of time, we managed to attract markets that aren't really dominant for Hvar. So, from the beginning of the season, we were faced with a situation that resulted in a complete change in the structure of our guests both at the level of the destination, and especially at the level of our hotels.

You say you have completely changed the structure of guests?

In 2019, in the hotels of Suncani Hvar, every second guest came from outside Europe. Mainly from the USA, Canada, Australia and Brazil. These are the countries that were or are still the most affected at this moment in time with respect to the pandemic.

As many as 90 percent of our guests arrived here by plane, so the cancellation of the operations of some airlines and the generally significant drop in flights to Split Airport further affected us. With the easing of the measures and the opening of borders, things began to change rapidly, so we've been recording an increase in guests from neighbouring countries such as Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic, as most people from there travel to their final destination by car, and with the increasing number of summer flights to Split, we're getting guests from the UK.

What else have you done? Did you lower your prices? 

These good figures are the result of price corrections, relaxed sales conditions, and adjustments to our offer and the packages that we've implemented this season. For example, one of the advantages of staying at the Palace Elisabeth Hotel and in the rest of our luxury offer is the use of what's on offer at the luxury beach Beach Club Hvar, the former Bonj ‘les bains’ beach club, which we renovated this year.

What business changes have you made as a result of this crisis?

In moments of likely revenue decline, the emphasis was placed primarily on optimising the cost side, so we reorganised our operations, we reduced our operating costs and we focused on optimising the workforce. We created an internal labour exchange and redistributed work responsibilities within the existing team of Suncani Hvar. We've reduced all cost categories that aren't necessary for current operations in a timely manner. All of our employees have been providing their contributions throughout a very difficult year. Despite the difficult business conditions, the operating staff didn't have any salary reductions. We also applied for the Government measures to help us to preserve jobs, which is crucial to retain workers and preserve the stability of the tourism system during the crisis.

What are the prospects in terms of business results?

Despite the fact that this is the most difficult tourist year in the past 20 years, we expect a positive result at the level of the year itself, which confirms the market value of Suncani Hvar, and also the potential of the destination. We don't expect the normalisation of business in terms of the return to the results we had in our most successful year of 2019 even in 2021. I believe it's more realistic to expect a return to these figures during 2022.

For more, follow our business page.

ZAGREB, Aug 4, 2020 - In the past 24 hours, 24 new cases of the coronavirus have been identified in Croatia and one person has died, the national coronavirus crisis management team said on Tuesday.

"In the past 24 hours, there have been 24 new cases of the SARS.CoV-2 virus and the current number of infected people or active cases in Croatia today is 647," the COVID response team said.

Among them, 117 patients are being treated in hospital and seven of them are on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case of the virus was identified in Croatia, 5,318 people have been infected with the coronavirus and 154 of them have died while 4,517 have recovered. Currently, 2,490 people are in self-isolation.

To date, 123,199 people have been tested for the novel virus, including 1,133 in the past 24 hours.

The national response team accepted a recommendation by the COVID response team of Vukovar-Srijem County that the epidemiological measures in place be extended for another 15 days, until August 19, in this eastern county. That means that all wedding parties in that county will be allowed in the presence of immediate family only.

Croatia Airlines was struggling with its repeated attempts to find a strategic partner and was publishing losses long before the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe, and the appearance of the new virus was the absolute last thing that the Croatian national airline needed...

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes on the 3rd of August, 2020, in addition to tourism and the role in which aircraft play in that, the coronavirus pandemic has hit air traffic as a sector on its own the hardest, with operations falling by more than 90 percent in recent months.

Even without the global coronavirus pandemic, airlines across the world have been undergoing a significant transformation over recent years, primarily due to the increasingly aggressive and increasing penetration of low-budget players, and now due to large losses, there is no national operator that isn't being held up to some degree or another by its home country. Croatia Airlnes (CA) is no exception. The company, which was touched on previously, has been undergoing a kind of business transformation and has been engaged in the search for a strategic partner for many years now.

The coronavirus pandemic stopped all of that indefinitely, and the company reported 173.2 million in losses in the first half of the year on Friday, up significantly from 89.4 million in losses in the same period last year. Croatia Airlines pointed out that they transported 330,935 passengers in the first half of the year, which is a concerning 66 percent less than they did during the first half of last year. The number of passengers in domestic regular traffic decreased by 63 percent, to 83,618, and when it comes to international flights, the decrease stood at 66 percent, down to 244,382 passengers.

Croatia Airlines aircraft has so far performed 5,661 flights during 2020, which is 57 percent less than 2019. The structure of the company's routes was adjusted to the needs of the air traffic and the Q400 fleet was used more, whose capacity is smaller than that of the larger Airbus. Croatia Airlines is currently flying from Zagreb to fourteen European destinations, with London's Heathrow remaining strong.

There are announcements for August that a total of 37 destinations could be opened, which will hopefully provide a much needed boost for Croatia Airlines.

For more, follow our business page.

As Novac writes on the 3rd of August, 2020, finally, we have crowds and traffic heading towards the coast. Currently, there are about 800,000 tourists in the Republic of Croatia, of which 200,000 are German, 135 thousand Slovenian, 130 thousand are domestic, 74 thousand are Polish and 46 thousand are Czech tourists. A boost for Croatian tourism indeed.

Most tourists are currently staying on the island of Vir, followed by Rovinj, Medulin, Crikvenica and the Istrian city of Porec.

Back in May, the Croatian National Tourist Board (CNTB/HTZ) said up to 30 percent of last year's turnover was expected. However, Croatia has already reached 45 percent of its turnover compared to 2019, and July itself was above expectations.

Foreign tourists realised 2.13 million arrivals (50 percent of last July's results) and 15.70 million overnight stays (58 percent of July 2019's results), while domestic tourists realised 325,000 arrivals (91 percent of July 2019's results) and 2.90 million overnight stays (81 percent of last July's results).

If these trends continue, we could have an August with traffic which could exceed all previous expectations for Croatian tourism in 2020. In particular, if we take into account the following data: In July, the largest number of overnight stays was realised by the German market (4.43 million overnight stays, which represents 87 percent of the overnight stays realised last July), followed by Slovenian tourists (3.44 million overnight stays, 88 percent of overnight stays realised last July) followed by Croatian tourists (2.90 million overnight stays, 81 percent of the overnight stays realised last July), Polish tourists (1.60 million overnight stays, 79 percent of the overnight stays realised last July) and nationals of the Czech Republic (1.42 million overnight stays, 72 percent of the overnight stays realised last July).

"These are, given the circumstances, great results and a good announcement for the road ahead. Intensified promotional activities, both invitational advertising campaigns and those of an informative nature, will be carried out until the end of August on the markets of Germany, Austria, Great Britain and Italy, given the fact that these are very important markets for Croatian tourism, and these are countries in which Croatia is on the list of safe countries,'' said the director of the Croatian Tourist Board, Kristjan Stanicic.

The leading destinations in July in terms of overnight stays were Vir (711 thousand), Rovinj (619 thousand), Medulin (553 thousand), Novalja (486 thousand) and Mali Losinj (475 thousand).

In the first seven months of this year, Croatia recorded 4.11 million arrivals and 26.34 million overnight stays.

For more on Croatian tourism in the coronavirus age, follow our travel page.

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ZAGREB, Aug 3, 2020 - In the past 24 hours, 34 new cases of the coronavirus have been identified in Croatia and there are currently 703 active cases in the country while four people have died, the national COVID response team said on Monday.

"In the past 24 hours there have bee 34 new cases of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the current number of patients (active cases) in Croatia today stands at 703," the response team reported.

One hundred and thirty patients are being treated in hospitals, six of whom are on ventilators. Four people have died.

Since 25 February 2020 when the first case was recorded in Croatia, there have been 5,294 cases of people infected with the coronavirus, 153 who have died, and 4,4,38 who have recovered.

There are currently 2,520 people in self-isolation.

A total of 122,083 have been tested for the virus to date and of that number 763 tests have been conducted in the past 24 hours, the response team informed.

As Morski writes on the 2nd of August, 2020, Korcula hadn't even bothered to hope for their overnight stay count for the coronavirus dominated 2020 tourist season to reach 70 percent of the amount of overnight stays recorded this time last year, but it has. In Korcula town, the very structure of the guests arriving has altered.

Most Croatian guests, who are being heavily relied on this year as tourism continues to be affected (albeit somewhat less heavily) by the global pandemic, tend to arrive on Korcula and into Korcula town in their cars. This is closely followed by boaters and the enfeebled nautical tourism sector. Although the results are getting better, the people who live and work on the island are hoping for a return of regular air travel, as Vijesti.hr/Andrea Zarak reports.

There are no crowds to be seen on the gorgeous Dalmatian island of Korcula this summer. Hotels that opened on Korcula back in late June are still only 40 percent full.

''This year, Croatian guests predominate. These are guests who come in their personal vehicles. We also have Germans, Austrians, Slovenes, and French tourists,'' said Maja Lena Lopatny, public relations manager of hotels on Korcula.

Due to the smaller number of airlines operating, travel agencies are recording a drastic drop in traffic.

''Transfers have all been cancelled, air arrivals are minimal and that's one of the main reasons why there are no excursions taking place that we normally do,'' said Vlado Iliskovic, the owner of a travel agency on Korcula.

The most sought after type of accommodation on the island is currently private accommodation, and in the very heart of Korcula town centre, you can spend the night for up to fifty euros, a dramatic drop when compared to this time last year, long before the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe and dragged the tourism industry to its knees.

''We have our lowered prices, the prices have been lowered by some 25 to 30 percent,'' said Katija Depolo, the owner of an apartment. The very structure of the guests arriving on the island has changed. They typically stay for a week or more, and accommodation outside of Korcula town is increasingly desirable.

''These are mostly guests looking for more distant places which are close to the sea, they're mostly families,'' said Hana Turudic, the director of the Tourist Board of Korcula town.

''Korcula is very beautiful and charming. Especially the old town. Last night we walked and had dinner at the tavern. It's really, really nice,'' said Manuel from Spain.

Croatian singers who can't work because of the coronavirus also recognise Korcula's sheer beauty and claim that that's why they're spending their time on the Dalmatian coast.

''I gladly come back here because this place provides me with maximum protection. This place is magical,'' said popular Croatian musician Nina Badric.

Well known for its glorious beaches, interesting history, beautiful architecture, proximity to places of interest on the Dalmatian mainland and its fascinating gastronomic scene, Korcula usually has no issue when it comes to attracting guests from all over the world and has since long managed to rest on its laurels - until now.

Nautical tourism, along with guests who have arrived either from the rest of Croatia or other countries in Europe by car are by far the most represented on Korcula at this moment in time. There are currently about three thousand and three hundred tourists staying there.

For more, follow our travel section.

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ZAGREB, Aug 2, 2020 - Thirty-six new coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Croatia in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of active cases to 738, and four people have died, the national coronavirus crisis response team reported on Sunday.

Among the people infected, 131 are receiving hospital treatment and six of them are on ventilators.

Since February 25, when the first case was confirmed in Croatia, 5,260 people have been found to be infected with the novel COVID-19 coronavirus, of whom 149 have died and 4,373 have recovered.

Currently, 2,662 people are in self-isolation.

To date, 121,320 people have been tested, including 984 in the last 24 hours.

ZAGREB, Aug 1, 2020 - Over the past 24 hours 86 new coronavirus cases have been registered in Croatia, bringing the number of active cases to 738, the national COVID-19 response team said on Saturday.

Currently 127 patients are hospitalised, including nine on ventilators.

Since February 25, when the first case was registered in Croatia, 5,224 persons have been infected with the novel coronavirus, 145 have died and 4,341 recovered.

Currently 2,695 people are self-isolating.

To date 120,336 people have been tested, including 1,381 over the past 24 hours.

August 1, 2020 - In a year full of news, breaking news, twists, and turns, one thing has gone almost unnoticed in Croatia: it seems that we can finally purchase Jadrolinija tickets through a mobile application! 

It's been a while since Jadrolinija has had their mobile application, which was supposed to make it possible to purchase the tickets online and use them on your phone, without printing or waiting in lines. I say it was supposed to, because if you'd ever tried using it, you probably left it frustrated, angry, and still walking to their booth in the hope you'd still be able to purchase the Jadrolinija tickets in person. Ever since it was introduced, it was unpredictable (at best) or completely unusable (at its worst). I have downloaded it two years ago, tried using it, failed miserably, and just gave up on it, just like many other potential users. I've heard other first-hand experiences of people trying to purchase tickets over the app as late as June 15 this year and not succeeding - this is the story the famed Croatian photographer Jadran Lazić told me!

So, when I read in mid-July that they've issued a new version of the application, with numerous improvements, AND I needed to travel to an island and buy two ferry tickets for my trip, I decided to give it a try. I figured: it's not really much of a tourist season, I was going to travel on a "light" day, what was the worst thing that could happen? I could end up spending days arguing with them to get a refund, but nothing worse than that. I installed it, and while I don't remember what the old one looked like, this new one is (this is a personal opinion of a very demanding user who is not really interested in the appearance, but usability) - good. It's clean. It's easy to understand. The process is straightforward.

One of the things I appreciate is that it's really easy to get an invoice for your company direct from the application (although I didn't need it this time, I hate it when they make it complicated, and Jadrolinija has made it as simple as possible). You get transferred to the paywall, one of the most frequently-used ones in Croatia, enter your credit card details (if I really wanted to nit-pick, I could say that they might allow payment through PayPal as well, but let's not go there) and voilà, you get your tickets in minutes. You receive a .pdf file in your e-mail inbox, and you can access your purchased tickets through the app itself. Perfect. 

However, since this is 2020 and nothing goes as planned, even if you've purchased the tickets for tomorrow's trip, I had to cancel. I couldn't go, and I didn't want my Jadrolinija tickets to go to waste. After some time spent with my best friend, Google, I had all the answers: to get refunded for the tickets you purchased but won't be able to use, you need to contact the company at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., at least 6 hours before the scheduled time on the ticket, and you will be given a refund. Not a full refund, mind you, they keep 10% of the price of your ticket, but you still get 90% back.

And that's what I did, I sent the .pdfs for my tickets to the e-mail address, received the reply from Jadrolinija office within hours that the funds will be refunded to the credit card I used for the purchase. And refunded they were, although it took them a few days to do that. It should be a big deal, waiting for a couple of days, if you know everything will be OK in the end. 

While I have not tried this myself, it should also be possible to get the refund using the same route even if you purchased the Jadrolinija tickets in person, if you do it 6 hours before the scheduled departure. If you've tried that and it has or hasn't worked, please let us know so we can update this article with additional experiences. 

If you want to give the new app a go, you can download it from the AppStore or Google Play. 

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

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For the newest information regarding the UK green list, please follow our article written on August 17, which will be updated regularly: Dubrovnik, Istria Cases Low as Croatia Passes 7-Day UK Threshold

Updated on August 9, 2020 - After much speculation, and at the peak of the season, Croatia remains on the UK green list - as it gets updated on August 7. An overview of the current travel situation to Croatia. 

A round-up of the latest developments regarding travel to Croatia, as things are constantly changing (if you want to get the latest answers to your questions about the current travel situation, check out our new chatbot on the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community (you will need to download the app).

Big news for Croatian tourism, especially those destinations further south which are much more dependent on flights - Croatia has remained on the UK green list after much speculation that it would join Spain in a UK requirement to self-isolate for 14 days on return to the UK. Croatia remains on the green list on August 7, as well, as the travelers arriving to the UK from Belgium, the Bahamas and Andorra will have to quarantine for 14 days.

The importance of this green light to destinations such as Dubrovnik cannot be understated. Mayor Frankovic told me in a meeting last week that the city is 80% dependent on tourism, with the UK and USA their prime sources of income. Tourism traffic was just 12% of last year for the first 6 months of 2020.

According to the official Koronavirus map of active cases, above, Dubrovnik region (which is totally cut off from the rest of the country by the Neum Corridor in Bosnia and Hercegovina) has just 8 active cases at the moment. Since the first case was recorded in the city in late March, there have been a total of 184 cases and 8 deaths in Dubrovnik County. 

This balance of tourism and fighting corona is an impossible balance to get right, and Mayor Frankovic explains to ABC News above the rationale and the precautions being taken. 

In more good news, the 14-day number of cases per 100,000 came even further down in the last week, according to the ECDC website, and is at 18,4 on August 8th. Above you can see Croatia's position on the list of the European countries, ordered by the number of cases per 100,000 people. Tourists from Luxembourg, which continues to have around 10 times more cases per capita a day than Croatia, can currently enter Croatia without any checks or requirements other than a valid passport, while Americans can only enter with a negative PCR test no more than 48 hours old on arrival, or face 14-days self-isolation. The same is true of all EU countries, including Romania, which currently has more than four times the per capita daily cases than Croatia. 

Croatia currently has eight people on ventilators. Only four countries have a higher death rate than 1 per 100,000 in the last 14 days - Romania, Luxembourg, UK and Bulgaria. Croatia's number is 0.7.

Croatia is currently welcoming all tourists from EU/EEA/UK without restriction, although four countries have placed self-isolation requirements on people returning to their country from Croatia - Slovenia, Belgium, Holland, and Lithuania. 

The Croatia Covid-19 website gives a daily update on the hotspots by region. It should be noted that the majority of recent cases have occurred far away from the coast - in Zagreb and eastern Croatia, while a large number traced back to weddings and nightclubs. There have been very few cases so far of tourists bringing the infection with them, or getting infected while in Croatia. 

That could all change very quickly, of course, but my general impression talking to tourists is that they are quite shocked at how lax things are here in Croatia, and how the rules are not strictly enforced on ferries for example. 

The health vs. tourism debate is one which enflames passions both sides, and both sides have valid arguments. The best way to stamp out the virus would be to have a prolonged Wuhan-style lockdown. Our Western love of democracy and rights makes that a non-starter for almost all. 

PCR Tests in Transit Airports

There has been a LOT of confusion about this. The current state of affairs is as follows:

International passengers not from countries on the EU Safe List CAN transit through Schengen airports (Frankfurt, Amsterdam etc), but only ONE Schengen transit is allowed per journey. You may NOT enter the terminal for a hotel, as that would be entering the Schengen area. 

Currently, you can do a PCR test in transit (and get the email results in 2 hours) in Amsterdam and Istanbul. Several of our Viber community have praised Istanbul's the quick, 24-hour, and very affordable service (US$16). Read more about those, and other, international testing options in our more detailed article. 

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

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