ZAGREB, July 28, 2020 - The Croatian National Tourism (HTZ) Board director, Kristjan Stanicic, said on Tuesday that so far this year Croatia had reached 44% of the volume of tourist trade in the corresponding period of 2019.

This is higher than expected by the HTZ considering the COVID-19 pandemic, Stanicic said during a visit to Dubrovnik.

In July alone, the turnover is equal to 60% of the turnover recorded in July last year.

"We will do our best to make sure that our southern destinations reach the current national average, but all this depends on air transport," Stanicic said, adding that further developments would depend on the epidemiological situation.

Currently, there are over 80 flight services bound for Dubrovnik and Split.

Of 100 registered hotels in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, about 60 are open, and their occupancy rate is at 33%. Private commercial accommodations have reached 50% of the results in 2019.

The islands of Korcula and Mljet as well as the peninsula of Peljesac are doing better than, for instance, Dubrovnik and destinations inland from Dubrovnik, the county's authorities said.

On the occasion of the 64th meeting of the UNWTO Commission in Zagreb, Croatian National Tourist Board director Kristjan Staničić met with UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili with whom he spoke about innovations in tourism, air transport, and themed promotions of tourism products such as gastronomy. They also announced the opening of the Croatian Tourist Board office in Madrid next year, reports HRTurizam on May 29, 2019. 

“I think that now is the right time to open your office in Madrid,” said Pololikashvili, offering all of his support in the office opening process. 

"We plan to open the office in Madrid in January next year, just before the FITUR fair, the largest tourism fair in Spain. Future representation is especially important for UNWTO's headquarters, but also because of the growing number of Spanish tourists who last year made about 290,000 arrivals and more than 640,000 overnight stays, which represents a 13 percent increase compared to 2017,” said the director of the Croatian Tourist Board, Kristjan Staničić, adding that the Spanish market is also crucial because of its connection with South American countries.

The meeting also discussed the flights between Zagreb and Madrid, as well as the overall better connections between Spain and Croatia, but also Croatia and China, which was marked as a strategically important and very potent market for Croatian tourism.

They discussed the special promotion of Croatian gastronomy, within which Pololikashvili invited a Croatian delegation to the 4th Global Conference of UNWTO dedicated to wine tourism, to be held in Chile in early December 2019.

Recall that the newly established offices of the Croatian Tourist Board opened in Shanghai recently, along with HTZ offices established in Seoul and Los Angeles. 

The meeting of the UNWTO Commission for Europe (CEU), which is taking place in Zagreb on 27-30 May, was formally opened on Tuesday morning by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković who described the event as a compliment to Croatia and its tourist trade.

The meeting, which is taking place in Zagreb for the second time, has brought together representatives of more than 40 countries and Zurab Pololikashvili, the Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), who praised Croatia as a good example of the development of the tourism sector and the whole country.

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

ZAGREB, October 8, 2018 - The interest in Croatia as a tourist destination is growing among Swedish senior citizens and that population group is an opportunity for Croatia to better position its tourism on the Swedish market, these are the reaction from the Senior Fair in Stockholm (Seniormassan) at which Croatia presented its tourism services.

The Croatian National Tourist Board focuses their efforts on health tourism.