August 26, 2020 - The Croatian Institute of Public Health (CNIPH) published a report for the previous week, which was marked by record numbers of new coronavirus cases in Croatia.

Vecernji List reports that from August 17 to August 24, all counties recorded new cases of COVID-19. The highest number of new cases is recorded in Split-Dalmatia County, followed by the City of Zagreb and the Sibenik-Knin and Zadar Counties, which have the same number of new cases in the last week.

HZJZ

Split-Dalmatia County also has the highest 7-day rate, followed by Sibenik-Knin and Brod-Posavina counties. According to the CNIPH, the percentage of those infected at weddings is not as high as it is thought. In the past seven days, it has been confirmed that only 1.68 percent of cases were infected at weddings.

Most tourists were infected in Makarska from July 7 to August 24, and out of the 70 infected, 63 are Austrian citizens. The largest number of patients cites summer vacations and going out to nightclubs as a source of hotspots, and recently, a significant share of sick players from smaller football clubs stands out.

"Last week, a large number of patients from NK Rudes were recorded in the City of Zagreb, and a few from NK Lokomotiva. In Split-Dalmatia County, a football player whose club played a match with NK Marsonia from Slavnoski Brod fell ill. This week, another case from a Split-Dalmatia County club was recorded, and a large number of players from NK Marsonia also fell ill. Two NK Vrbovec players also fell ill, and 5 more players have symptoms," they say.

HZJZ

Also, imported cases from Kosovo, BiH and European Union countries were recorded.

"County epidemiologists in the field have been under great pressure in the last week due to the increased influx of new patients whose epidemiological treatment, in addition to interviews (taking epidemiological history), includes contact processing - i.e., contacting all persons listed by individual patients who are not self-isolated. Despite that, according to information from the field, especially in the most affected Split-Dalmatia County, they still do not have a delay in the treatment of sick people and their contacts," concluded the CNIPH report.

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August 26, 2020 - The Mayor of Vir, Kristijan Kapovic, and the Director of the Vir Tourist Board, Srdjan Liveric, are dissatisfied with the Croatian Tourist Board's attitude towards the island of Vir, the most successful tourist destination in Croatia so far this season.

Namely, HRTurizam reports that in the last two August press releases of the Croatian National Tourist Board (CNTB) which list the most successful tourist destinations, Rovinj, Porec, Split, Medulin, Crikvenica, Dubrovnik, Umag, Zadar, Pula and Novalja were highlighted as the destinations with the most achieved tourist arrivals. Contrary to the practice of all previous years, the most successful destinations by realized tourist overnight stays are not mentioned, i.e., the total data of realized overnight stays in Croatia and the most successful counties are given.

The fact that the island of Vir has the most in Croatia until August 15 - about 1.5 million overnight stays with 80 percent of last year's record numbers - is somehow bypassed at the peak of the summer season when the impression of the most successful and best destinations this year is created. In addition, Vir is the best destination in terms of overnight stays so far in August (433 thousand). With more than 700 thousand overnight stays (the only one in Croatia), it was also the most successful tourist destination in July.

However, the island of Vir simply does not appear in the CNTB's press releases in August. It is this fact that raised the whole of Vir to its feet, and the Municipality of Vir and the tourist board are asking: Is the island of Vir fancy enough to be the best destination in Croatia?

Realized tourist overnight stays measure the success of each destination. This fact is covered up in the CNTB's August media reports, according to a joint statement from the Municipality of Vir and the Tourist Board of Vir.

"They favor destinations in which billions of kuna of public state money have been invested so far, in communal, tourist and media-marketing infrastructure, so they are obviously bothered by Vir's success, which has never gained anything from all this. However, when the CNTB's coffers are filled, one does not ask where the money comes from, and a significant amount of money comes from Vir," says the mayor of Vir, Kristijan Kapovic. Thus, millions from the island go directly to the CNTB, and hundreds of millions to the state budget, adding: “No one can deny that, but we can also ask ourselves whether the time has finally come for that money to start coming back to us. Vir certainly deserved it," said Mayor Kapovic. The director of the Vir Tourist Board, Srcjan Liveric, agrees with him and feels first hand the complete neglect of the most popular Croatian destination.

“Several million kuna go every year to the CNTB's coffers at the state and county level, and not a penny has been returned to some media and marketing campaign for Vir. We do not have the support of the system and the people within the CNTB who, among other things, are paid with real money and whose job it is to help us. We rely only on our own strength," says director Liveric and adds that it is finally time for state institutions, tourism, and others, to start doing their job finally. "If we talk about tax revenues, hundreds of millions of kunas went to the budget from Vir. We would be satisfied if we got them back if we could arrange Vir as a top tourist destination in every sense," adds the director of Vir Tourist Board.

In their joint statement, they point out that a significant phrase of the CNTB director Kristjan Stanicic, who, speaking about the most successful destinations so far, mentioned only some of them. Even then, the island of Vir was not mentioned in a single word, letter or thought. When the CNTB director was confronted with the fact that Vir was the destination with the most overnight stays in Croatia, he responded to the journalist's statement somewhat reluctantly: "Vir is a specific destination of non-commercial accommodation."

According to UNWTO, the umbrella organization of international tourism and the United Nations agency, a tourist is any person who stays or spends the night in a place where there is no residence address. Therefore, that person can have their own house, cottage, caravan, tent, or brothel in the destination if they want. Still, if they do not have a residence - it is a person who is statistically registered as a tourist. This is what is called non-commercial accommodation in the structure of tourist traffic, according to Vir.

Vir also emphasizes that for a local or foreign citizen to buy or build a house in Croatia where they do not reside, it is necessary to set aside at least about 700 thousand kuna for the minimum facility and then pay taxes and other receivables. In one move, a foreigner or a local person invests about 100 thousand euro to have a housing or tourism business facility, on which they pay taxes and all possible benefits, and further use the goods and services at the destination. Only one such owner of the facility, or a tourist in non-commercial accommodation, spends at least one million kuna at the start, and their further consumption at the destination takes place at least three or four times a year.

In the case of Vir, we are talking about foreigners who spend 16 nights on average in the previous part of the season and domestic guests with 26.7 nights on average. The so-called commercial tourists that the CNTB likes, spend 500 to 600 euro once for accommodation and maybe the same amount for goods and services at the destination where they stay for two to three days, or a maximum of one week. They do not spend more than ten or fifteen thousand kunas without a guarantee that they will be in Croatia again next year. In order to equalize the financial performance of a non-commercial guest in the future, commercial tourists would have to stay at the destination for 100 years or there would have to be 100 times more of them, Vir points out.

"All tourism professionals know that reports are made according to the realized overnight stays, because it is the practice of measuring tourist traffic. Now that Vir is the best, suddenly reports are made in arrivals, which is strange, to say the least," concludes Liveric.

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August 25, 2020 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for flights to Croatia with updates for Zagreb, Split and Pula. 

Croatian Aviation reports that British Airways has announced operational changes to its flight schedule for September this year. Direct lines from London to Zagreb, Pula and Split are no longer!

After the company had return tickets on sale at extremely favorable prices on routes to Croatia, obviously not achieving the earnings they expected, as many as three of the four British Airways routes to Croatian destinations will be canceled in September this year.

The last announced flight on the London Heathrow - Zagreb route is planned for less than two weeks away, on Sunday, September 6. All flights in September after the mentioned date are canceled.

The company is currently keeping flights on this route from October 1, but British Airways has not yet revised its flight schedule for that month. Apart from the reduced demand due to the current coronavirus pandemic, the decision of the United Kingdom that all passengers coming from Croatia are subject to a measure of 14-day self-isolation certainly contributed to this.

The airline's seasonal line between London (Heathrow) and Pula, which has operated twice a week so far, will be canceled on Saturday, September 5, and will not work for the rest of the year.

The London (Heathrow) - Split line will operate for most of September, but this line will also be interrupted earlier than initially planned, on Saturday, September 26.

The only British Airways route to Croatia that should operate throughout September is the line between London and Dubrovnik.

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August 25, 2020 - Croatia has recorded an increased number of coronavirus infections in the last ten days. However, on Monday, 136 new cases were detected, which is significantly less than in the past few days. The latest on COVID-19 in Croatia.

Index.hr reports that the National Civil Protection Headquarters, along with several scientists, believes that in the autumn, the symptoms will be significantly more severe compared to the symptoms in those infected this summer. In this context, new measures are being prepared, and the leaders of the National Headquarters have repeatedly described what the rules should look like in autumn.

In short and most importantly, there should be no new lockdown. Not all cafes, schools, restaurants, shops should be closed, like in the spring. There should be no passes, bans on leaving the place of residence, or most of what we have witnessed already. However, as Bozinovic emphasized, strict national measures are not completely ruled out, and everything will depend on the situation.

The measures to be adopted should be local. Although a ban on cafe work is currently in force throughout the country, no matter how many people are infected in each area, the Headquarters says that measures at the national level should be an exception.

What it should look like in the future, Bozinovic explained at Monday's 2 pm conference.

"We emphasized that the system will make every effort to avoid closures, to keep it active as much as possible, and for local and county headquarters to detect hotspots more accurately. This would mean that National Headquarters' decisions would not affect the same activities throughout Croatia, but would be aimed at a segment or a specific legal entity where measures of the Croatian Institute of Public Health are not applied as prescribed," said Bozinovic.

He explained that this means the more precise extinguishing of hotspots, which will give local headquarters more work, and expressed the expectation that some local headquarters will soon come up with concrete measures.

"If we see that the majority has similar requirements, a measure can be adopted that will be valid for the entire territory of Croatia. This is the best way to leave as much as possible to function, and to deal with emerging hotspots at 14-day intervals," Bozinovic said. 

Bozinovic emphasized that the meeting with the local headquarters aimed to encourage them to give the National HQ more information so that it could react.

"We deeply believe that we will not enter another lockdown, and we need to report in time for the hotspots so that we do not have to take decisions beyond what is necessary and possible at a given moment," he said.

Speaking about the hotspots, Bozinovic said that weddings spread the virus, but should not be generalized. "There are 300 or so weddings a week in Croatia and not all of them are a source of infection. They will react where something appears, try to fix it, and where we have a favorable situation, let life go as normally as possible," he said.

Bozinovic was also a guest on HRT, where he explained everything a little more. He says that local measures are nothing new, and they were adopted, for example, on Brac and Murter. One such measure is now in force in Imotski.

"This is nothing new, such measures have been so far, but there have been fewer. At the initiative of local, county headquarters, we have always responded, knowing that people in the field have a better insight into the situation and the potential hotspots because from the national level, you can't have such an insight, " Bozinovic told HRT.

Bozinovic admits that national measures have major shortcomings.

"On the other hand, the fact is that when decisions are made at the national level, they are applied indiscriminately to all activities. This was justified during the lockdown, and horizontal measures were taken. However, we now know more about the virus and how it can be can be significantly reduced by responsible behavior.

Given that there is no more lockdown, that there is no intention to close everything, that there is not even a need if the measures are applied, then we will, and we have already announced this, rely on this data from the field.

If local headquarters, which are not only the county but also city and municipal, report that something is happening in certain facilities and activities, we will quickly make decisions that will be applied. That means a lot of decisions. However, it is better to make a lot of decisions that are more precise than one that can hit indiscriminately," says Bozinovic.

Large gatherings and nightclubs are often a source of infection. Bozinovic was asked whether some measures will be adopted at the Croatian level.

“It is not our intention, nor would it be proportionate to make a decision that would hit someone who has been adhering to HZJZ measures all along,” he says.

Bozinovic says the National Headquarters cannot monitor all these gatherings at the local level.

"That is why the responsibility lies with the local headquarters, because they all, especially the county headquarters, have the task of including epidemiologists who know the job, as well as those who are in the National Headquarters," he said.

Bozinovic was asked what if there are 500 newly infected people a day.

"As long as it is possible, and I hope it will always be possible, these measures will be adopted locally, regionally. But we do not exclude national measures either. It is difficult to predict now. I am sure that if everyone engages to the maximum, we will achieve results," said Bozinovic.

The director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, Krunoslav Capak, was a guest on RTL Danas. He also commented on this new approach, which will be based on stronger localization of measures.

Asked if he had confidence that the local headquarters would make recommendations validly and promptly, Capak replied that the goal of the meeting and agreement with local headquarters was to lower the level of "snapshots of epidemiological assessments to the local level".

"We believe that those who are on the spot can best identify the problem and the source of the infection and best direct a certain measure to reduce that source of infection and solve the problems. When we have information from local headquarters about it, then the National Headquarters can take more targeted measures. So far, when we have adopted horizontal measures that apply to all counties, there is always the possibility that for someone, this measure may be too strict or they do not need it," he said, adding that the situation is always better somewhere and worse elsewhere.

"This way, we will now have the opportunity to focus on measures where the problem exists and try to solve the problem at its source. Local headquarters always have a member of the epidemiologist," Capak said.

To the additional question that the local headquarters had epidemiologists so far and whether the meeting took place too late, Capak answered that they had communicated with them in the same way so far.

"However, we have now clearly presented this possibility of working to apply the principle of subsidiarity, record the problem and direct the measures where they are most needed," Capak said, adding that the National Headquarters has supported the proposed measures of the local headquarters. He reminded of the cases of Vukovar-Srijem County and weddings or quarantine on Murter, where they obeyed local headquarters in the past.

Asked again if everything could have been done earlier, Capak replied: "We have always reacted by supporting the local headquarters. I think it is not too late. But now we have presented this possibility to all headquarters, that it exists, and that we will we certainly support when they spot a problem and give us suggestions."

Minister Vili Beros also commented on this new approach for Dnevnik N1 television. He says there will be no such closure because the economy could not stand it.

"Measures used to be general and focused on the entire territory of the country, but we have already announced that the measures will be regional and focused on hotspots. That is why we emphasized the role of local and county headquarters, because they know the situation in their areas best and give a framework, but they should detect problems locally and emphasize to us those issues that will fit into the measures," said Beros.

"There were many unknowns in the first part of the battle, but now we know the clinical picture, a number of elements are better known than before. Such closure is not even possible, and the economy would not tolerate it. By selective measures and finding ways to coexist in the second, we will learn to live with that virus as part of the fight," Beros said.

When asked how he evaluates the work of local headquarters, he says that some worked more, some less.

"At the meeting, we emphasized the role of county headquarters. And in Murter, Brac, Istria ... Initiatives were brought at the suggestion of local headquarters. I would not criticize anyone, and we should work in the field and talk to everyone. Communication should be permanent, and the information should be accurate. Some headquarters were more active, some less so, but everyone's task is to prevent the spread of the epidemic and that is why today we have confirmed this once again and consider measures together," the minister said.

Asked if he expects a drop in the number of newly infected, he says he expects it in a week or two, if there are no new epidemiological hotspots because they want to bring the situation under control by the autumn.

"We are currently controlling the epidemiological situation, and our epidemiologists believe that the measures adopted 10 days ago will now show the result and the picture. It is still possible that the number of infected will fluctuate, but that number should start falling. Our goal is to stabilize the epidemiological situation before the school year," said Beros.

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August 24, 2020 - The main tourist season in Croatia is over. Still, since tourists want to come despite tightened measures in some countries, the post-season could last, says the director of the Croatian Tourism Association (HUT), Veljko Ostojic.

Glas Istrereports that commenting in an interview on achievements in Croatian tourism this year, especially in hotels and camps of member companies of the Croatian Tourism Association (HUT), which are among the largest and leading in Croatia, Ostojic emphasizes that the foundation of success this season is safety and that Croatia is the winner of the Mediterranean this summer.

"We can all be proud of that, we had a quality epidemiological situation at the beginning of the main tourist season, thanks to the great efforts of epidemiologists, staff systems and the government, and we recorded great interest from tourists. But now, with the worsening of the epidemiological situation, we find ourselves in trouble over the continuation of the season," says Ostojic, adding that everyone in tourism warned that due to several clubs and weddings, the whole season should not be questioned, but that is exactly what happened in the end.

However, even now, after some countries put Croatia on the red list, Ostojic says that we should not give up the rest of the season, because tourism accounts for about 20 percent of domestic GDP and "giving up tourism revenues in September and October would not be responsible neither from us in tourism, nor from anyone in Croatia".

With epidemiological improvements, the postseason may take some time

On the other hand, he points out that "most countries that have tightened travel rules for their citizens in Croatia have clearly communicated the numbers we need to return to in order to go back to the category of safe countries, without restrictions. This should also be seen as a result of the continuous work of our institution, because when things are clear and transparent, then you know what needs to be done".

All this means that by the end of August, September and the future period, as well as the current tourist season, will determine the epidemiological situation in the country and individual counties and regions.

"If in the next ten days we manage to improve the epidemiological situation significantly and as a result change the travel rules from certain countries, we can expect that some hotels and camps will work until the end of October, possibly one in the destination will be open all year," he says. Ostojic, noting that hoteliers have no expectations from the congress post-season, for which they will have to wait for better times.

He also believes that the CNIPH, national and local headquarters have invested a lot of effort since the beginning of the epidemic, and the HUT has cooperated well with everyone, as well as that more can always be done, especially in communication. But instead of criticizing, he keeps looking for solutions more correctly.

Due to increased transparency and showing that the epidemiological situation is not the same in all parts of the country, HUT launched the COVID-19 regional tracker website this summer, updating data from headquarters, which was viewed by about 350,000 people.

They also published 12 weekly newsletters with the most important tourist information, which they sent to more than a thousand addresses and communicated daily, although this is not the main purpose of HUT, with domestic and foreign media, tour operators, individuals with the sole aim of making the season in Croatia better.

High occupancy of camps and hotels, but lower revenues

For the occupancy of facilities in the peak season, it reveals that it was the best in campsites, more than 80 percent, while hotels utilized more than 70 percent, in these categories of accommodation, the best occupancy was recorded by large facilities, both camps and hotels with more than 50 beds, with the fact that, as he points out, it is clearly shown that occupancy increases with the number of stars or quality.

Hotel houses in the northern Adriatic worked best, which was expected considering that this is the year of car guests, because everyone wanted to avoid the risks of joint transport, distant destinations, possible sudden repatriation and the like.

State assistance and ‘quick’ measures needed by the end of August 

However, the financial results, says Ostojic, will be lower than the physical ones, which is also expected, and the realized revenues will definitely not be enough to cover winter. Help from the state will be needed, as it was from March to August.

"We expect the measures to be defined quickly. HUT has given its proposals to the relevant ministry and we expect answers by the end of August at the latest. Otherwise, the process of taking care of extra workers will begin," Ostojic said, noting that they are satisfied with the first messages by the new Minister of Tourism and Sports Nikolina Brnjac, but also with the overall commitment to tourism of the Prime Minister and the Government.

It seems, he says, that there is an understanding in the government that tourism needs a set of short-term measures to maintain liquidity and jobs, and then a set of long-term measures to strengthen the competitiveness and resilience of the entire sector, for which they also expect concrete measures soon.

"It is certain that the EU Recovery Fund and the new financial envelope will help us all, for which we must prepare for concrete programs and projects. Talks about it have been launched and it seems to me that we are on the right track. We have a new tourism development strategy ahead of us, and we expect the active involvement of the sector and the adoption of ambitious, but also pragmatic and feasible results, because no one needs another strategy that will remain a dead letter on paper," Ostojic believes.

Recognition, quality and sustainability are still key to success, but there is still a lot of work to be done

Although tourism is at a turning point globally in these circumstances, and it seems that the coronavirus will forever change some of the established ways of working in tourism and even the expectations of tourists, Ostojic still considers recognition, quality, and sustainability the keys to success.

"We have to focus here because we have to strengthen the overall competitiveness of Croatian tourism on these 'pillars' and there is a lot of work ahead of us," he said. He believes that, in addition to the new tourism strategy, a number of fiscal issues need to be addressed - VAT brought to the level of Mediterranean competition, which is important for investment, increase the number of hotels with incentives, but also improve spatial planning, reduce bureaucracy, finalize the law on foreigners and the issue of the permanent season and to regulate the system of tourist boards with stronger control over the spending of funds.

He adds that the implementation of the Law on Tourist Land should be continued and a decree should be passed that will regulate the issue of the rental price.

"In the sector, we also expect an exemption from the payment of the fee for tourist land for this and next year due to a significant reduction in income," concludes Ostojic.

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August 24, 2020 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for flights to Croatia with updates for Zagreb and Split.

Croatian Aviation reports that in the cancellation of many routes, German Lufthansa will not return to Zagreb Airport on the Frankfurt route anytime soon. 

For many years, Lufthansa has been a regular user of Zagreb Airport, to which it operates from its two German hubs - Munich and Frankfurt. While traffic on the Munich-Zagreb route resumed this summer, the same will not happen on the Frankfurt route.

The company suspended traffic on the line during the coronavirus pandemic, and it has not been launched to date. According to the latest announcement by Lufthansa, all flights on this route have been canceled until March 28, 2021!

Lufthansa has thus completely left the Frankfurt-Zagreb route to its Star Alliance partner, Croatia Airlines, which operates on this route several times a day. We remind you that the Croatian national airline operated on this route during the "lockdown".

In the summer flight schedule in 2021, Lufthansa is again announcing two daily flights on the Frankfurt-Zagreb route. Until then, you will be able to travel with this company from Zagreb only to Munich.

Furthermore, Croatian Aviation reports that Air France has announced its flight schedule for September this year, in which there will be some operational changes on the routes to Croatia.

In this year's summer flight schedule, the company resumed traffic to three destinations in Croatia - Split, Dubrovnik and Zagreb. As the end of the summer season approaches, an increasing number of companies will stop operating on their seasonal routes, and so will Air France.

Namely, the Split-Paris line currently operates six times a week (every day except Saturday) and this will continue until the end of this month. After August 30, Air France will suspend traffic on this route and will not offer direct flights between the two cities until next summer season.

Dubrovnik Airport is currently connected to Paris four times a week, but Air France will continue to offer direct flights on this route in September. Thus, Dubrovnik and Paris will be connected three times a week, only one flight a week less than in August.

The Zagreb-Paris line continues to operate daily in September, with a morning departure from Paris to Zagreb. The company has previously given up on introducing a second daily flight on this line.

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August 23, 2020 - A total of 83,000 passengers will pass through Split's Ferry Port and Resnik Airport this weekend, while the total number of passengers who arrived at Split Airport will reach more than half a million passengers since the beginning of the year.

Slobodna Dalmacija reports that Jelena Ivulic from Jadrolinija said that 55,000 passengers and 13,500 vehicles in both directions would pass through their ferry port on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

"There are more people leaving the island this weekend than coming. However, despite the fact that the season is somewhat slowing down, there is still great interest in Brac, which is why an extra ferry line will sail across Supetar this morning," she added.

No less active is the Split Resnik Airport, where 150 aircraft will land and take off this weekend, taking 28,000 passengers. Among them are about 20 private planes.

"August this year is at 40 percent of last year's traffic, and we expect that we will have 250 thousand passengers by the end of the month. It is interesting that in the first seven months of this year, we had 277 thousand passengers, and only in August, 250 thousand passengers. Thus, the total number of passengers since the beginning of the year is more than half a million passengers. Indeed, August has lifted our declining traffic," said Mate Melvan of Split Airport.

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August 23, 2020 - Dubrovnik Mayor Mato Frankovic revealed in a live program for N1 television that, despite the coronavirus, six British planes had arrived in the city on Saturday. But how many British tourists did they carry?  

While the news certainly sounds positive at first glance, since the UK placed Croatia on its quarantine list on Thursday, let's take a closer look. 

Namely, if we look at the figures presented by Frankovic, it turns out that 352 British tourists landed in Dubrovnik, which isn't really a figure to brag about. Frankovic, however, stated that this was a positive number, and also emphasized that two more planes would arrive on Saturday night.

A brief analysis of the Croatian Aviation portal shows that 352 British tourists can't be considered good news. In fact, they call those numbers catastrophic.

"The mayor of Dubrovnik praised the media that a significant arrival of British tourists to Dubrovnik was recorded at Dubrovnik Airport on August 22 (after the mandatory self-isolation for all passengers coming from Croatia to the UK came into force). Six direct flights from Great Britain arrived with 352 passengers.

However, seven planes from Great Britain landed at Dubrovnik Airport, while the eighth will land late tonight (Saturday):

1. Jet2.com, London Stansted, 09:22h (B737-800)
2. EasyJet, London Gatwick, 09:51h (A320)
3. Jet2.com, Birmingham, 09:54h (B737-800)
4. EasyJet, Edinburgh, 10:11h (A320NEO)
5. Jet2.com, Manchester, 11:55h (B737-800)
6. British Airways, London Heathrow, 12:00h (A320)
7. EasyJet, London Gatwick, 20:12h (A320)
8. EasyJet, Manchester, 20:37h (A320NEO)
9. EasyJet, London Luton, 22.24h (A319)

As the 352 passengers on Saturday's first six flights from Great Britain to Dubrovnik have been publicly announced, we will only state the following; a total of 1,119 seats were offered on six flights in the direction of Dubrovnik. If only 352 passengers really arrived in Dubrovnik on those flights, the occupancy of the passenger cabin is only around 31%.

Given the number of seats offered and direct flights, the number of arrivals of British tourists is not good, but catastrophic."

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August 23, 2020 - If Croatia strictly adheres to measures over the next ten days, can September tourism be saved? A look at the situation in Split.

Slobodna Dalmacija writes that maybe this is not the end, but only a short break in this year's tourist season, because if Croatia manages to reverse the trends in the number of cases in the next 10 days, most of September's tourist traffic can be saved by working and behaving differently. 

This is what Croatian tourism workers and their partners from abroad have said after the UK, Germany and Slovenia placed Croatia, or its regions, on the list of high-risk countries.

This means that after returning from Croatia, their citizens must undergo mandatory self-isolation for 14 days and/or test negative for the coronavirus.

Although some public officials were shocked by the decisions of these countries, from which Croatia received the most guests this summer, no one is seriously surprised by the restrictions because, well, they weren't decided overnight.

This summer, everyone abroad was amazed by the leisure with which Croatia lives and entertains tourists, without fear, without masks, restrictions, or distance. Everything that was banned in Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria, in the post-corona era, was allowed in Croatia. And while we interpreted it with our charm and spontaneity, Europe perceived it as - irresponsible.

They monitored, watched, counted and tested citizens on their return from Croatia, and in the end, Croatia arrived in the red. Exclusively and only thanks to too much relaxation and endless tolerance in the name of tourism, weddings, cross-border entries from third countries (BiH, Serbia, Kosovo) and nightclubs were the biggest culprits.

"What is there, is there. You can't go back now. The United Kingdom, Slovenia and Germany have clearly communicated their criteria for putting us on the red list and there are no questions. They also made it clear to us that they would remove us from that list of high-risk countries as soon as the epidemiological situation improved and the number of those infected decreased. So, again, everything depends only on us. Here, the Slovenes removed Portugal and Austria from that list yesterday because their data on the number of patients is much lower. So, we can do that and be on the list of countries again without restrictions for tourists, but only if in the next 10 days we do literally everything we can to make that happen. All these countries have left the door open for us to be quickly removed from the red list if we make the situation better ourselves," says Veljko Ostojic, director of the Croatian Tourism Association.

Mandatory self-isolation and coronavirus testing, which the UK has demanded from its citizens on holiday in Croatia since their return since Saturday, have led to a large number of Britons leaving the Adriatic. There were around 20,000 in the country. The most affected by the UK's decision is certainly Split and Split-Dalmatia County, which welcomes several planes a day on flights from the UK, whose citizens are the most numerous guests in Split.

"Split is certainly the most affected by the decisions of Great Britain and Germany because we welcomed the most guests from those two countries in August, and the announcements and reservations for September were above the planned and expected. But we do not want to talk about the end of the season in any way because we have not given up on tourism even in more complex situations and times. We continue to be present in all markets important to us, primarily those with which Split is connected with about 60 airlines. We hope and will do everything to make the epidemiological situation better and that this is the reason for the arrival of guests who planned to spend September in our city," said Alijana Vuksic, director of the Split Tourist Board.

And it is the air connections with Europe, which have been heading to Split since July, that have brought Split to the very top of traffic in Croatia in August. Thus, Split, as in the best tourist years, was in third place in terms of tourist visits in August, just behind Rovinj and Porec. Airlines to Split have been confirmed for the whole of September with excellent aircraft occupancy, so the question remains whether the new situation will change those plans.

At Split's Resnik Airport, the two largest markets in terms of the number of passengers are those from Germany and Great Britain, from where there are a dozen daily flights to Split from several airlines. In August, instead of the planned about 150 thousand passengers, 250 thousand of them arrived in Split, while for September, about 130 thousand passengers were planned to land at Resnik.

However, as both Germany and the United Kingdom update their list of high-risk countries every seven to 10 days, if the situation in Croatia improves in the coming days, tourist traffic in September and already made reservations can still be achieved.

Slovenia also stated that it is ready to react quickly and put Croatia back in the yellow travel zone if the figures confirm it.

"There are currently about 100,000 Slovenes in Croatia and they should return in the next three days. Slovenia wanted to bring the epidemiological situation under control before the start of the school year, now that 80 percent of Slovenes were already on the Adriatic. We in Slovenia really hope that in the coming days, the numbers of cases in Croatia will start to drop and that September will be the most beautiful month of vacation for Slovenes on the Adriatic. There are a lot of older Slovenes and those with preschool children who come to Croatia in September and I believe that will be the case. Now it is like this; we hope that this is a temporary closure and that the unhindered arrival of Slovenes in Croatia will continue again soon. Our government updates the list every week and as soon as Croatia has better numbers, it will be removed for sure. No one is interested in this situation and we hope that it will change quickly," said Primoz Longyka, editor of the Slovenian tourist magazine "Fokus Plus", a good connoisseur of Croatian tourism.

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August 22, 2020 -The Croatian National Tourist Board has created a new website dedicated to the Croatian part of the new Mediterranean cycling route EuroVelo 8, as part of the EU project MEDCYCLETOUR, in which it actively participates as one of the eight project partners.

HTZ announced that this interactive page in Croatian and English would help in planning a cycling holiday and better navigation in the seven Croatian tourist regions through which the EuroVelo 8 cycling route passes in Croatia.

"Cyclotourism is generally one of the fastest-growing tourist products, which in these market circumstances can make a significant contribution to the faster recovery of tourism, given that it is a year-round, healthy and safe activity that basically absolutely respects social distancing measures. I believe that the Croatian part of the beautiful Mediterranean route will attract many domestic and foreign cyclists, who can now find comprehensive technical and tourist information on our website to create their trip," said the director of the Croatian Tourist Board Kristjan Stanicic. 

The new page invites you to explore and discover the natural beauties, cultural sights and rich tourist offer of destinations on the coast, islands and hinterland, offering information on twenty main and eight alternative Croatian sections of the Mediterranean route. The Croatian section of the route covers the entire coast from Istria to Dubrovnik, 1116 kilometers long, while the total length of the entire Mediterranean route, from Cadiz to Cyprus, is about 7500 km and passes through the most attractive parts of eleven countries in the Mediterranean region, namely Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece and Cyprus.

Let us remind you that Croatia is integrated into the EuroVelo network of bicycle routes, which connect the entire European continent via 17 bicycle routes in the length of 90 thousand kilometers, through 42 European countries. Marked routes throughout Europe can be used by tourists on excursions, those who are on multi-day and multi-month trips and the local population who walk shorter sections of the EuroVelo route in daily cycling or enjoy them on cycling trips.

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