ZAGREB, 11 March, 2021 - Several contracts, worth 17.5 million kuna, for reconstruction of seaports and waterfronts in the broader Rijeka area were signed on Thursday by Sea and Transport Minister Oleg Butković and local authorities.

The contracts envisaging the upgrade of ports on the islands of Krk, Rab and Lošinj as well as the coastal cities of Bakar, Mošćenička Draga, Novi Vinodolski, Crikvenica and Kraljevica are part of the Croatian Coast Renaissance project in which two billion kuna has been invested to date, and the lion's share of this amount has been ensured from EU funds.

Minister Butković said today that investments in seaport infrastructure would continue.

(€1 = HRK 7.582776)

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

October 20, 2020 - One of Croatia's most important medical tourism conferences, CIHT 2020, will go ahead next month, albeit in a very different format.  

The Crikvenica International Health Tourism Conference will be held for the eighth time in a row, on the 12^th and 13^th of November 2020, in a virtual form. Due to the circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic, this conference, which was traditionally organized on the Crikvenica Riviera, will change its concept and move to a completely online environment, it will be completely free of charge and the participants will be able to attend via new CIHT mobile app.

In order to present world trends and European experiences in health tourism, its marketing opportunities, as well as to present the achievements of Croatia and the best examples from practice, this two-day conference will host national and foreign experts in health, tourism, and marketing. The speakers who confirmed their participation are Keith Pollard, Csilla Mezösi, Irving Stackpole, Laszlo Puczko, Elizabeth Ziemba, Jeana Havidich, Michaela Kehrer, Ilan Geva, as well as Velimir Srića and Miroslav Varga. On this prestigious list of speakers is also Ph.D. Ivan Đikić, MD, who, from the position of his profession and his own experience, will cover the complex topic of the impact of the virus on health tourism. These experts are of great importance, not only for the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County but also for the entire Republic of Croatia. Moreover, these are experts who participate as speakers in numerous eminent world health and tourism conferences and cooperate with the largest companies in this field.

In addition to the presentations by top experts, the CIHT Conference offers the opportunity to create business contacts and partnerships, exchange experiences, and arrange concrete collaborations. The priority in the organization of the CIHT conference is, first of all, the quality of the content through which the participants can gain new knowledge that they will later apply in their daily work. This year's CIHT conference continues to contribute to the application of current theoretical knowledge and trends in practice, emphasizing the strategic importance of the development of health tourism. Given that we are in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 8^th CIHT Conference is especially needed.

You can follow everything about the 8th CIHT Conference on its official website ciht.com.hr, as well as on the Facebook profile CIHT Conference Crikvenica Croatia. Highlights of last year's event are in the video below.

For more on the Croatian medical tourism story, follow the dedicated TCN section. 

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes on the 14th of August, 2020, in the first seven months of 2020, the hotel company Jadran from Crikvenica reached 53 percent of last year's turnover in the same period. Given the current state of booking, and in the event that there are no major "shocks", Jadran's management expects that the company's annual realisation will amount to more than 60 percent of last year's turnover.

This is obviously the result of Jadran's investment cycle, although the President of the Adriatic Management Board Goran Fabris notes that it must not be forgotten that this is a very difficult tourist season, which in other words means that the overall results will be significantly worse than expected at the beginning of the year. According to Fabris, this will inevitably lead to a slowdown in the investment cycle.

However, in spite of the unfavourable tourist season accompanied by the enforced epidemiological measures, with intensive preparations and completed investments, the company did very well in July. This privatised company, majority owned by the pension funds PBZ CO and Erste Plavi, has been waking up more and more over the last three years due to an investment cycle, meaning that all renovated accommodation facilities - especially those with three or four stars - have better results than last year. Such an example is the Esplanade Hotel (39 rooms) in Crikvenica, which is an investment from back in 2017, before the company's privatisation and its new investment cycle.

This year is also the first in which investments made since Jadran was privatised are starting to return, and the data on the share of Croatian guests is very interesting, as it showed that they are more significant than initially expected, not only in Crikvenica, but also in Baska. When it comes to the structure of guests, Jadran says that along with Croats, the most numerous guests are Austrians, Germans, Slovenes, Czechs and Hungarians, but the share of Slovenes and Croats is 15 percent higher than it was during previous years.

For more on Croatian companies, follow our business page.

Despite a generally dire prognosis owing to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, many Croatian companies actually ended up doing unexpectedly well in July. The Crikvenica-based Jadran is one of them.

As Novac/Andrea Koscec writes on the 8th of August, 2020, the tourism company Jadran d.d. from Crikvenica managed to generate an encouraging 78 percent of the revenue it earned back in July 2019 last month In the first seven months of this year, Jadran's total operating revenues reached 53 percent of last year's turnover during that same period, the travel company stated yesterday.

This result is all the more valuable, they pointed out, given the fact that the Esplanade Hotel was the first open facility in Crikvenica only from May the 29th, when the epidemiological situation in Croatia enabled the continuation of tourism and hospitality/catering facilities. All accommodation facilities managed by Jadran d.d., in addition to the three smaller facilities, the Zagreb, International and Delfin hotels, are currently in full function, boasting a total of 141 rooms.

In addition to hotels and camps owned by the company, Jadran d.d. is also managing three new hotels - Lisanj, Noemia in Baska Voda and the Garden Palace Resort in Umag. All of these facilities, with a total of 343 rooms and high-class four-star apartments, opened their doors to guests during June and July.

"Despite the coronavirus epidemic and all of the restrictive measures that were enforced, we at Jadran have been intensively preparing for this year's tourist season, believing that at least in July, August and September we will manage to record a period of visits and financial results," Jadran's Goran Fabris explained: "In these circumstances, we completed our investments and works to raise the level of our category of accommodation and related activities, which allowed us to exceed more than three quarters of last year's result in that period in July."

"We still have a good occupancy level and I believe that this year's season will be much better than the forecasts that were made in the spring at the time when the coronavirus crisis was at its worst,'' stated Goran Fabris of Jadran.

For more, follow our business section.

July 29, 2020 - A first in the world of French fries as Croatian company Surf'n'Fries debuts its new French Fry Vending Machine at Monty's Dog Beach in Crikvenica

A first in the world of French fries today as Croatian company Surf'n'Fries debuted the pilot of their new French Fry Vending Machine at Monty's Dog Beach in Crikvenica. Now hunger needn't call a halt to the good time your dog and kids are having by the sea; you can get fresh, hot French fries in 35 seconds.

“We started working on it three years ago,” says Andrija Čolak, whose Surf'n'Fries fast food outlet has franchises in four continents. “Automation is key to the food industry, so we thought the ultimate step would be to go to vending machines. So, we collaborated with a Croatian company called Integra and managed to make this pilot.”

“We chose this beach because it's close to our home and we can easily check on it,” says Čolak, who also runs a consultancy firm in Rijeka, the city where he co-founded the well known Kisha umbrella brand. “Also because this beach is very famous and it has a beach bar for dogs. It's a popular place. We adjusted the design and graphics of the machine so it would fit in alongside the beach bar.”

As this first machine is the pilot, it's options are limited to salt and ketchup. But Andrija's vision extends much further. “In the future we plan to add more sauces and probably chicken nuggets as well,” he told TCN from the sun-soaked first day in Crikvenica. “We'll work at this location until the end of the season. After that, the plan is to test it at the main bus station in Zagreb. It has a lot of potential; shopping malls, airports, in particular venues which operate 24 hours.”

“Vending machines are having a bit of a renaissance because you can now connect them to the internet,” reckons Andrija. “That has all sorts of implications for stock ordering and the customer experience. You could use facial recognition to recognise returning customers, ask them if they want the same again or even offer rewards.”

TCN isn't quite sure it wants recognising as a regular indulger in French fries, but if we're in Crikvenica this summer you can count on us sneaking a sample of Surf'n'Fries from the French Fry Vending Machine on Monty's Dog Beach.

July 18, 2020 - Tourism was on hold when we started this series of articles, but most of us still have plenty of time. So let's look at the virtual resources available to explore Croatia virtually. We continue our new Virtual Croatia series with the tools to discover Crikvenica, a sea-side town often considered "the beach of Zagreb".

A few weeks ago I wrote that being a tourism blogger in the corona era was about as useful as being a cocktail barman in Saudi Arabia. I feel less useless now, a few weeks later, and I am encouraged by the number of Croatian tourism businesses who are contacting us wanting to start thinking of promoting post-corona tourism. 

One of the challenges of writing about tourism at the moment is that there is nothing positive to write about. With people confined to their homes and tourism in Croatia currently not possible, many have decided to go into hibernation until it is all over. 

I think that this is a mistake, and I have greatly enjoyed the TCN series by Zoran Pejovic of Paradox Hospitality on thinking ahead to tourism in a post-corona world.  You can find Zoran's articles here.

Way back on March 14 - several lifetimes ago - I published an article called Tourism in the Corona Age: 10 Virtual Ways to Discover Zagreb. The way I saw things, now was an OUTSTANDING opportunity for tourism promotion. People have time, they yearn for their freedom and former lives, so give them the tools to thoroughly research and enjoy your destinations, and you will have then longing to be there. And when they do come, they will have a deeper understanding of the destination due to their research. 

South Africa and Portugal were the first to do their post-corona tourism promotion videos several weeks ago (Post-Corona Tourism Planning: Lessons from South Africa and Portugal), a trick which has been followed by other tourism countries, the latest being Croatia with the national tourist board campaign, #CroatiaLongDistanceLove, going live yesterday.

But while these campaigns create longing and market presence, they don't really educate. People now have time to really get into destinations. And dreams of escape to somewhere more exotic are high on the list of priorities of many. 

So TCN has decided to help with that education with a new series called Virtual Croatia, where we will be helping you discover many of Croatia's destinations with all the best virtual tools available on your self-isolating sofa at home. 

We started with Tourism in the Corona Age: 10 Virtual Tools to Discover Hvar.

After this, we put our a press release (which you can read here in English and Croatian) offering a free article to any local tourist board in Croatia who would like the free promotion in our Virtual Croatia series. 

The Sinj Tourist Board was the first to respond, and now you can see just how rich the tourism offer is in this proud Alka town - your virtual tools to Discover Sinj. This was followed by Discover Opatija, Discover Brela, Discover Rogoznica, Discover Stari Grad, Discover Omiš, Discover Lumbarda, Discover Jezera, Discover Šolta, Discover Cavtat and Konavle, Discover Koprivnica, Discover Pašman, Discover Gradac, Discover Virovitica, and Discover Bibinje.

Gordana Jelenović from the Crikvenica Riviera Tourist Board gave us a hand in putting together some resources for you to discover Crikvenica. 

Let's begin! 

Discover Crikvenica - Zagreb's Beach

Riviera Crikvenica in 4K from 2018

Beautifully safe - promo video by Tourist Board made this year

Beautifully safe - promo video by Tourist Board in English

A perfect oasis - promo video

Crikvenica without people, earlier this year

Beaches as far as the eye can see

Crikvenica beaches in 2020

Another video that will make you want to jump in right away 

A German video about the beauty of Crikvenica

XCM Bike Marathon in and around Crikvenica

Swimming marathon Šilo (Krk) - Crikvenica

Crikvenica Riviera - an Oasis of well-being

Discover Crikvenica Websites

Crikvenica Riviera Tourist Board website offers you a lot of resources, including a video section where you can find many more videos about the town and the Riviera around it. You can learn more about the Riviera, including about their history, location, climate, and more. And you can even see what's happening right now, on their web-cams.  

Are you now beginning to understand why we said that Crikvenica is popular with the people of Zagreb, and that it's not JUST because it's close?

To discover more of virtual Croatia, you can follow this series in our dedicated section, Virtual Croatia. 

If you are a local tourist board in Croatia and would like your destination featured in this series for free, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Subject Virtual Croatia (and destination name)

As Suzana Varosanec/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of May, 2020, the largest hotelier on the Crikvenica Riviera, Jadran is a company with a total of nine solid buildings in the hotel segment, and along with its bungalows and pavilions, boasts 2,500 beds. After the lockdown, they plan to raise their occupancy to the level of 600 to 700 beds by the end of June, ie to 25 percent of its hotel accommodation capacities.

The first hotel guests are expected this weekend at the Esplanade Hotel in the very centre of Crikvenica. It is a boutique hotel with 27 rooms and 11 suites where special attention will be paid to personalised services; namely, in addition to a large terrace that provides the possibility of a distant and safe stay for lunch, the Crikvenica-based company pointed out that if guests want complete security and privacy without incurring any extra charges, they can order room service.

The Garden Palace Resort in Umag is announced to open on June the 10th, and on June the 19th, the family hotel Lišanj in Novi Vinodolski will open. The President of the Management Board of Jadran, Goran Fabris, stated that they are also ready to open the Slaven Hotel in Selce.

"We're in daily communication with our partners who are waiting for the final confirmation of defining the conditions of bus transport," explained Fabris, adding that the main guests in June at the hotel are organised groups from Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

The abolition of restrictions on the movement of citizens and the opening of borders with Slovenia and Austria, along with the intensification of accommodation reservations, has already encouraged the start of operations for Jadran's camps. The first guests, mostly Slovenes were welcomed to Selce last Friday. Given the expected booking trends, as it turns out, the camp in Selce could manage to gain 80 percent of last August's traffic, and the hotels could still grab between 35 percent and 40 percent of the traffic from the same period..

July could bring a third of the amount of traffic as July 2019 in solid buildings and 50 percent in camps. Camp Kacjak has already opened, and in a week from now, Camp Basko Polje, where bungalows and mobile homes are equipped with their own kitchens, will also open its doors.

This year's total investments in the improvement of this Crikvenica-based company's capacities amount to a massive 10 million euros, which is less than planned because the company stopped the investment cycle in order to preserve liquidity in these trying times.

For more, follow our business page.

The argument of ''to wear or not to wear'' when it comes to masks has been going on ever since the coronavirus pandemic penetrated Croatia's borders. While some are die hard fans of masks, in the firm belief that it will help to at least prevent some transmission of the new coronavirus, others are staunchly against their use, for their own reasons. 

Following the introduction of Croatia's formerly stringent anti-epidemic measures, a lot of misunderstanding took place, with some people reporting that certain shops, banks and in particular post offices, weren't allowing people to even enter without either wearing a mask or covering their nose and mouth with some sort of material. This wasn't the law, yet it happened anyway and the decision seemed to fall on owners and management.

Crikvenica, however, was the only town in all of Croatia to actually make the wearing of masks in public mandatory. As of today, that rule has been scrapped.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 19th of May, 2020, the measure in Crikvenica was initially passed back in late March, but it has now been repealed due to the improved epidemiological situation in the county, but also across the entire country.

At its regular meeting at the end of March, the Civil Protection Headquarters of Crikvenica adopted special measures for the area of the Crikvenica, and it was stated that an decision has been introduced which made it mandatory to wear a face mask in open spaces and public spaces (such as in shops, various institutions, etc.).

Given the overall situation with the coronavirus in Croatia and especially in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, which has so far had some very good results, yesterday, at a meeting of the Civil Protection Headquarters of Crikvenica, they decided to abolished the obligation to wear masks and it has now been reduced to the level of recommendation.

Make sure to follow our lifestyle page for more.

ZAGREB, April 19, 2020 - Two tremors measuring 2.3 and 2.2 on the Richter scale were registered in the hinterland of the northern coastal town of Crikvenica on Saturday evening, the Croatian Seismological Service stated.

A series of tremors of smaller intensity have been registered in Croatia since 22 March when a 5.5-strong quake hit Zagreb and its environs, taking one life and causing extensive damage.

The Seismological Service says that since that strong earthquake, about 145 tremors have been felt across the country. In addition, 850 tremors weaker than 1.3 have also been registered to date.

Croatia's seismologically most active areas are a wider Zagreb area, southern Dalmatia and a wider Rijeka area.

More Crikvenica news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

As Morski writes on the 12th of January, 2020, the governing board of the Crikvenica County Port Authority has adopted the port authority's work and development plan and programme for 2020, and this year the largest investment cycle in its history, which will realise projects worth 60 million kuna, is set to continue. This investment for Crikvenica will involve several projects and phases.

Namely, the annual program of work and development of the ports under the care of the County Port Authority for 2020 envisages the continuation of investments for Crikvenica in the upgrading of the port opened for public traffic, which is considered to be important at the county level. The project has secured nearly 33 million kuna in European Union (EU) grants to be invested in the construction of the secondary breakwater and the extension of Mala palada.

''The fact that this project was the second in Croatia and the first in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County among the projects financed by the Competitiveness and Cohesion operational programme emphasises its importance,'' stated Mario Kružić for Novi list, noting that in addition to the realisation of the main bulk of the works, we can also expect the installation of a hydrant network and horticultural landscaping and much more during the first half of 2020.

In addition, as part of this massive investment for Crikvenica, part of the coastal wall in the port of Selce will be reconstructed.

At the end of 2019, a valid building permit was finally obtained for the project of upgrading the port open to public traffic (Podvorska), and the plan is currently to secure more funds through tenders from the competent ministry and from Primorje-Gorski Kotar County for the realisation of this project.

This project foresees the demolition of the existing middle pier, with the exception of the very top of the pier, and the construction of a brand new pier at approximately the same position, followed by the construction of yet another pier. The concession plan also envisages an arrangement being reached to lead to the realisation of the project's legalisation and the upgrading of the Črni mul port, which is open to public traffic, in order to better protect the vessels in the port, and to increase the number of communal and nautical berths available.

''As a key to sustainable development, the Crikvenica County Port Authority has opted for transparent and responsible operations, which we'll continue with in the coming years,'' Mario Kružić told Novi list.

Make sure to follow our lifestyle page for more on investments for Crikvenica.