September 7, 2021 - The good tourism news keeps on coming, as tourists from 70 countries in Croatia this year made 2021 one we won't soon forget. 

In the first eight months of this year, more tourists came and stayed in Croatia than last year from more than 70 countries, with fewer arrivals and overnight stays from only five countries - Indonesia, Korea, China, Japan, and Kosovo, reports Index.hr.

This is shown by eVisitor and eCrew data from the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ), according to which, as expected, Germans are traditionally far ahead of everyone, both in terms of arrivals and overnight stays.

2.1 million German tourists realized almost 16 million overnight stays or 23.3 percent of the total overnight stays in the first eight months of this year, which is 53 and 42 percent more than in the first eight months of 2020. However, compared to the same period in 2019, 2021 saw 200 thousand fewer German arrivals and about a million fewer overnight stays.

Behind German tourists are domestic tourists, with 1.7 million arrivals and 10.1 million overnight stays, which is an increase of 31.6 and almost 10 percent compared to the first eight months of 2020, while compared to the same period in 2019, there were about 100 thousand fewer arrivals and about a million fewer overnight stays. 

Of the ten markets with the highest number of overnight stays, only Austria and Slovakia had more than 100 percent more overnight stays than last year, i.e., Austrians at 4.8 million (+110 percent ) and Slovaks at 2.2 million overnight stays (+107.6 percent). They rank fourth and seventh in overnight stays among foreigners.

However, the largest increase (212.4 percent) was achieved by Dutch tourists with 1.8 million overnight stays in the first eight months of this year, which puts them in ninth place among foreign tourist overnight stays.

From other markets in the top ten, increases are slightly smaller. Poles are in third place among foreigners (or fourth overall, if domestic tourists are taken into account) with 5.7 million overnight stays or 43 percent more than in 2020.

Slovenians are in second place, just behind the Germans (or third if you count domestic overnight stays), with 7.9 million overnight stays or 3.4 percent more than in the first eight months of 2019. After Austria in fourth (among foreigners) is the Czech Republic with 4.5 million overnight stays or 44.5 percent more, and Hungary with 2.3 million overnight stays or 80.2 percent more.

Italy is in eighth place among foreign markets with 1.9 million overnight stays or 41 percent more (behind Slovakia in 7th). In tenth place, behind the Netherlands, is Bosnia and Herzegovina, with 1.6 million overnight stays or 80.5 percent more than in the first eight months of 2020.

Although neither Germans, domestic tourists, nor tourists from other markets have achieved the results of 2019 this year, many markets have seen a large increase in overnight stays, from some over 300 percent, and others 600 percent compared to 2020! In 24 markets, overnight stays have grown by more than one hundred percent.

The largest increase in overnight stays (679 percent) was realized by Kuwait with slightly more than 2780 overnight stays. Still, significantly more overnight stays, 663 thousand, and an increase of 301 percent were realized from the USA. Russia achieved an increase of 351 percent with 561.7 thousand overnight stays.

Oman recorded an increase of 275 percent compared to the first eight months of 2020, but with only 435 overnight stays, while the same increase was from Norway, but with a little more than 76 thousand overnight stays.

And from other Scandinavian countries - Sweden and Denmark - the growth of overnight stays was high, 128 and 129 percent compared to 2020, while Finland was the only one among all markets to have fewer tourist arrivals, by four percent but 42 percent more overnight stays.

Turkey is the only country where more tourists came (6 percent), who spent fewer nights than last year (15 percent).

An interesting fact among all markets is that, for example, from northern European countries this year there was also significantly more overnight stays in Croatia than last year - from Lithuania 101.5 thousand or 181.3 percent more, Latvia 48.7 thousand or 128 percent more, Estonia 45.1 thousand or 105 percent more, and Iceland 145.6 percent more with four thousand overnight stays.

The large increases in overnight stays from Mediterranean countries, i.e., Croatia's competitors, is also interesting. For example, tourists from France realized 1.1 million overnight stays in Croatia by the end of August this year (which puts them in 11th place among foreigners) or 126 percent more, and Spanish tourists 194.4 thousand or 166.3 percent more overnight stays than 2020.

Portuguese tourists achieved 111.2 percent more overnight stays or 51 thousand, and Maltese tourists 168 percent more with five thousand overnight stays.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

August the 25th, 2021 - Will the coming of autumn be of significance for Zagreb tourism, which is usually the case? As the fierce summer heat finally dies down for another year and with the capital boasting significantly more hotel rooms than it did this time last year, things could be on the up.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, the months of September and October are traditionally important months for Zagreb tourism, which in good years carried a fifth of the annual turnover, in terms of business and private events as well as in terms of growth of holiday guests who want to avoid the summer heat and crowds.

Although the Croatian capital is experiencing a weaker recovery in tourist traffic when compared to Adriatic destinations, and with fears of new epidemiological measures still firm, the sector wants to be optimistic about autumn and the rest of the year and expects significant improvements next year.

The vaccination programme and covid certificates should bring some calmer days, especially for Zagreb tourism business events, which should start returning in live in part this autumn, according to numerous organisers. A very important segment, which includes weddings and other private events for hotels could finally come back to life, perhaps regardless of the epidemiological situation, if the practice of covid certificates is properly established. There are also announcements of new flights to Zagreb, boosting Zagreb tourism's overall picture.

"The summer went well enough for us so far to hope that the same scenario as last year won't be waiting for us in autumn. Vaccinated people no longer want to go back to how things were, they no longer care about the red zones, because they want to return to normal life, which means freedom of movement and travel,'' stated Josipa Jutt Ferlan, president of the Hotel Association at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and director of the Hilton hotels cluster for Zagreb.

As has since been found out from the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ), which extracted statistics on traffic and the accommodation structure in the capital city from eVisitor, from the beginning of the year to the end of this weekend, Zagreb had 327 thousand visits and 523 thousand overnight stays, which is about 38 percent more overnight stays than last summer, and about 44 percent of the realisation from the same period in 2019. As it is known, Zagreb realised less than a third of the turnover from the year before, when there were a total of 2.6 million overnight stays.

Although tourist traffic in July and August this year was twice as high as last year, in August that still meant 64 percent of turnover from the record 2019 was realised. August is also the best month so far this year for Zagreb tourism, and since Zagreb hasn't yet "reddened" on the ECDC map.

The events that attracted visitors this summer also contributed to more people visiting the capital, which is often somewhat empty during the hot summer months as residents flock to the coast.

A big loss for Zagreb tourism is still the absence of its traditionally important markets on the distant markets of Korea and China, and this summer, the British were also somewhat more absent than usual. Most of the overnight stays this summer were realised by Croatian guests and Germans, while the Americans doubled their numbers compared to last year, but American arrivals are still much weaker than before the pandemic struck.

With a total of 290 thousand overnight stays, August was also the strongest month back in record 2019, when a total of 2.6 million overnight stays were realised in Zagreb. September and October in 2019 saw about half a million overnight stays in Zagreb, which was about 20 percent of the annual turnover for Zagreb tourism. Last September, the city had only 77,000 overnight stays, barely more than a quarter of the turnover from the year before.

Zagreb is, as mentioned above, entering autumn with slightly more hotel rooms than it had last autumn, which isn't the case with private accommodation, which is weaker by about 1000 beds than it was back during 2019, as it now has about 6.2 thousand beds to offer in private apartments.

For more, follow our travel section.

August the 19th, 2021 - Croatian tourist numbers for for the remarkably good summer season so far in 2021 have well and truly overtaken the figures from the whole of last year, which was dominated by the pandemic, issues with travel and no vaccine.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, according to data from the Croatian eVisitor system, 55.3 million overnight stays have been realised in Croatia since the beginning of this year, which exceeds the number of overnight stays from the whole of 2020, when 54.4 million overnight stays were realised in the entire twelve months of the year, the Ministry of Tourism and Sport announced.

Of the total number of overnight stays realised in 2021, 46.6 million were realised by foreign tourists, while 8.7 million were realised by Croatian tourists. Since the beginning of this year, 9 million tourist arrivals have been realised, meaning that 1.2 million more tourists have visited the Republic of Croatia this year than last year.

"Given the trends in the travel industry, our goal was to maintain the stability of the tourist system, preserve jobs and the recognition of Croatia as a safe tourist destination. We want to continue with these results and that is why it's important that we all continue to adhere to the epidemiological measures. This creates the foundations for next year and the continued development of Croatian tourism.

This year has first of all shown that safety and quality are crucial in choosing a destination, and that guests are willing to pay even more for that. Ultimately, our desire is to create sustainable tourism in which the focus is not on the number of tourists who come, but on the quality and on tourists who will consume as many offers in destinations as possible, generate more spending, which will further encourage new investments in tourism,'' said the Minister of Tourism and Sport, Nikolina Brnjac.

Looking at Croatian tourist numbers for 2021, there were 46 percent more arrivals and 37 percent more overnight stays recorded than in the same period last year. Compared to the same period in record, pre-pandemic 2019, 61 percent of arrivals and 72 percent of overnight stays were realised. More than a million tourists are currently in Croatia. Most of the foreign tourists are Germans (297,000), Poles (81,000), Slovenes (74,000) and Italians (61,000).

For more, follow our travel section.

August the 18th, 2021 - The very height of the Croatian 2021 season has been going remarkably well in the face of previous worries of a repeat of the dire summer of 2020 which was dominated by the pandemic. With the vaccination rollout continuing and with the epidemiological situation more favourable, things have taken a surprisingly positive turn, much to the shock of many. 

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, on an almost daily basis, new figures keep arriving that confirm the significant acceleration of the pace of Croatian tourism recovery in the past few weeks.

It can often be heard that more rooms and beds are wanted, and in addition to recording the state of overnight stays and arrivals, we learned recently that 878 thousand vehicles, or a quarter more than last year, were recorded on Croatia's highways, with 49 million kuna in tolls collected, which is 29 percent more than last year.

The encouraging financial signals are provided by weekly updates from the Tax Administration's data on fiscalised turnover across the country. According to the latest such report, the value of last week's fiscalised bills/receipts at the level of all activities is one third higher than in the comparable week last year.

In the tourism sector, ie accommodation and food preparation and food service activities, bills worth 1.68 billion kuna were issued, which is almost 60 percent more than in the second week of August last year, when 1 billion kuna was reported.

As such, the tourism and hospitality sector, measured by the value of issued bills and receipts, has exceeded the pre-pandemic figures for the comparable August week of 2019 by 23.5 percent. A solid positive sign in these comparisons has been being recorded for several weeks now, and even the Minister of Finance Zdravko Maric has referred to this month as ''strong''.

The peak of the Croatian 2021 season in any case looks much better than its beginning or even its pre-season. Apart from the better epidemiological picture across Croatia than in some of its main Mediterranean competitors, the number of foreign tourists in relation to the initial signals was also contributed to by climate disasters in some European tourist destinations.

If we remain ''in the orange'' on the so-called corona-map of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), it could easily happen that this year's Croatian National Bank projections of total tourism revenue at the level of 70 percent of those from 2019 prove to be conservative and ultimately exceed the projected figure of around 7.4 billion euros.

These financial indicators come with some time lag, and in the meantime some more rapid signals remain. For example, an interesting aspect regarding the consumption and spending of foreigners in Croatia is provided by the reports of the central bank on non-cash payment transactions in Croatia.

The latest available data within the statistics of international payment transactions refers to the first half of the year, and indicates a significant increase in the reading of bank cards issued abroad.

During the month of June, for example, the value of card transactions by bank cards issued outside of the Republic of Croatia, which includes purchases of goods and services through various devices (from ATMs to POS devices and purchases with e-money) amounted to 1.85 billion kuna.

In the first six months of 2021, on the other hand, transactions worth 3.85 billion kuna were performed with foreign cards, which is about 1.5 billion kuna more than last year. However, in the first half of pre-pandemic 2019, foreigners (more precisely the holders of cards issued abroad) spent more than 6.7 billion kuna on Croatian cards, exceeding one billion kuna in April and 1.5 billion kuna in May.

The peak of arrivals and even the consumption of foreigners usually occurs during July and August. In the pre-crisis and record-breaking 2019, 10.3 billion kuna was spent on foreign cards in Croatia in those two months alone, and in July and August last year, the value of these payment transactions dropped to just 5.9 billion kuna.

These indicators of foreign consumption realised through foreign cards for the peak of the Croatian 2021 season will have to be waited on for a few months yet.

However, the trends indicated by the fiscalisation data suggest a significantly better overall picture of consumption than in the middle of the year, and the spending being done by foreign tourists certainly contributes to this.

If we look at the past two weeks of August in tourism and catering, more than 3.3 billion kuna of fiscalised turnover was recorded, compared to two billion recorded in the same period last year. This year's August is stronger than that of pre-crisis 2019 (mid-month) by more than a fifth or more than 600 million kuna.

These increases were realised on a smaller number of issued bills, which suggests higher average consumption, including the impact of higher prices of certain services. The impact of tourism, of course, is also visible in the trade sector. Over the past two weeks, the turnover in the wholesale and retail trade category was higher by 1 billion kuna (6.55 versus 5.5 billion) than last year, and compared to the comparable two weeks of the previous year, by about 660 million kuna.

The Tax Administration periodically provides a somewhat more detailed picture of spending and consumption by activities. For now, this more detailed data has been available for the end of July. And that information, for example, shows that in restaurants and cafes (ie food and beverage preparation and serving activities) in Croatia last month there was a turnover of 2.59 billion kuna.

That’s 755 million kuna, or 41 percent more cash turnover (which, along with banknotes, includes cards and other payments, excluding remittances to transaction accounts) than last July. Although the data refers to the whole of Croatia, this jump in the turnover of caterers largely reflects the impact of the recovery in tourist spending.

In any case, the July fiscalised turnover of restaurants, cafes and related activities was more or less equal to that seen back in the July of pre-pandemic 2019, in which 2.6 billion kuna in turnover was reported.

If June is counted, over the past two months, caterers have issued bills worth almost four billion kuna in total. Compared to last June and July, this is equal to one billion kuna more, but compared to the same period in 2019, it is still about 10 percent less.

For more on how businesses are doing in the Croatian 2021 season, follow our business section.

August the 16th, 2021 - Finance Minister Zdravko Maric has referred to the current quite remarkable numbers we're seeing coming from the Croatian tourism sector as strong. Few expected a summer season as successful as this one so far.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Maric stated that the first twelve days of August, Croatia has recorded 10 billion kuna worth of fiscalised receipts/bills, which is 12.5 percent more than in the same period in pre-pandemic, record 2019.

''Since the beginning of the year, we're 1.3 percent better than we were even back in 2019. Let's carry on and do everything we can to continue these trends. We need to focus more on the cost side of the budget, because revenues, obviously, aren't going to fail. The key to our success in the long-term sustainability of public finances lies in expenditures,'' Finance Minister Zdravko Maric told Jutarnji list.

The Croatian tourist season, given the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, is unexpectedly good and is somehow breaking the records even from 2019. According to the Tax Administration, the increase in the total amount of fiscal bills and receipts issued in the first week of August seems to be due to rising prices, especially in the provision of accommodation and food services.

In the first statistical week of August, the number of receipts issued decreased by 13 percent compared to the same week of the record year 2019, but the total amount of fiscal receipts increased by 23 percent. A slightly lower decrease in the number of fiscal receipts issued compared to the first week of August 2021 and 2019 was also observed when they were issued for all activities - this decrease currently stands at just 4 percent.

“Of the activities within the fiscal system, we're mostly monitoring retail trade and tourism. Compared to 2019, trade is 6 to 8 percent better, depending on whether we look at trade in total or just retail, and total tourism is currently in the red by 21.5 percent. That said, in July, tourism was 5 percent better than it was back in July 2019, and in the first 12 days of August, it's as much as 20.4 percent better. Of course, it would be more correct to wait until the end of the month and compare ''the same with the same'', but these are also very strong figures for August,'' concluded Finance Minister Zdravko Maric.

For more, follow our politics section.

August the 13th, 2021 - Croatian air traffic has well and truly outshined the dire situation we experienced last year as the vaccination rollout continues globally and restrictions on travel and tourism slowly but steadily allow for more flexibility. 285 percent more air passengers arrived in June 2021 when compared to the same month in 2020.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, although the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is far from totally over, all indicators suggest that almost all trends and figures in terms of freight and passenger traffic in national and international traffic, if not already returned to their pre-pandemic levels, are very much on track for a safe recovery.

The data from the Central Bureau of Statistics on traffic in Croatian seaports and airports also confirm this. According to that data, traffic in seaports doubled in June this year, and tripled in airports when compared to last year. Croatian air traffic has certainly been on the rebound, and it hasn't come a moment too late.

According to the aforementioned CBS data, 5.43 million passengers embarked and disembarked in Croatian seaports during the second quarter of 2021, which is an increase of 81.8 percent compared to the same period last year.

Compared to pre-pandemic, record 2019, this is still a drop of 41.9 percent, but that isn't really surprising. Circumstances caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus back in 2020 directly affected the decline in passenger and vehicle traffic across all Croatian seaports, and things are now finally showing signs of steady and sure recovery.

After a six-month break, in the second quarter of 2021, the return of passengers on cruise ships began. There have so far been 12 thousand passengers, but compared to the same quarter of 2019, traffic in that sector fell by a depressing 97.6 percent.

In the second quarter of 2021, there was an increase in vehicles on Croatia's roads when compared to 2020, but compared to 2019, 19.5 percent fewer passenger vehicles and 78.6 percent fewer buses were loaded and unloaded on/from vessels.

The total turnover of goods at the level of the Republic of Croatia increased by 10.2 percent when compared to the same period back in 2020, which was caused by the increase in the turnover of dry bulk goods by 42.5 percent, which has a share in the total turnover of goods of 26 percent.

Current cargo turnover, with a share in the total turnover of goods of 51 percent, decreased by 2.6 percent when compared to the same period back in 2020. Of the five ports that account for 92 percent of the total turnover of goods in seaports, the Port of Ploce (57.7 percent), the Port of Rijeka (18.1 percent) and the Port of Split (18.1 percent) all saw increases in 2021's second quarter.

In the first half of 2021, compared to the same period in 2020, the total number of ships arriving in Croatian seaports increased by 30.3 percent, the total passenger traffic by 40.7 percent, and the total cargo traffic by 12.5 percent.

A similar situation, but with more pronounced growth, can be seen in Croatian air traffic, which suffered tremendously throughout 2020.

In June 2021, the total passenger traffic at Croatian airports amounted to 320 thousand or 285.4 percent more than in June 2020, when Croatian air traffic brought only 83 thousand passengers into the country. For comparison, back in June 2019, the turnover was 1.56 million passengers.

In June 2021, 20.6 percent of passenger traffic from June 2019 was realised. The largest amount of passenger traffic was realised by Split Airport, with 115 thousand passengers, which is 360.1 percent more than in June 2020, followed by Zagreb Airport with 100 thousand passengers and Dubrovnik Airport with 59 thousand passengers.

For more, follow our travel section.

August the 13th, 2021 - Just how do Croatian tourism figures stand up against Mediterranean competition as the pandemic continues to cause issues for travel? As it turns out, the country is still by far the safest in the entire European Union (EU).

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, the Republic of Croatia is still the safest European Union tourist destination in the entire Mediterranean, which can be seen in terms of traffic, which is better than the rest of the Mediterranean this year, says the analysis of the Croatian Tourism Association (HUT).

As such, since the beginning of this year, Croatia is close to 70 percent of the results it saw back in record, pre-pandemic 2019, nearby Greece is at about 60 percent, neighbouring Italy is at about 50 percent, while Spain is suffering with new minuses, but the data for the Spanish peak season isn't yet known.

"The excellent tourist season so far and the high number of reservations for the rest of the season and postseason are the result of excellent preparation for this season and the continuously high level of responsibility for the quality of the epidemiological situation of all those on whom the tourist season depends, namely tourism workers, the government, the civil protection directorate and the public health system.

Croatia is currently the safest country in the Mediterranean for key emitting countries, which is why we're attracting great interest from tourists. Our common task is to preserve the good epidemiological situation for as long as possible, because in addition to the excellent main season, we can also have a long post-season, until the end of October,'' said Veljko Ostojic, director of HUT.

After the results for the month of July, when Croatian tourism figures were excellent, with the country recording 80 percent of tourist arrivals and 81 percent of overnight stays when compared to 2019, August brought even better numbers. In the first 10 days of August, many Croatian destinations have been recording tourist results that even surpass those of 2019, which is quite remarkable. For example, the Rovinj Tourist Board, a city that is regularly first on the list of most visited tourist destinations in all of Croatia, confirmed that in August they've so far achieved up to 2 percent higher tourist results on a daily basis compared to the same days in 2019.

HUT compared the ratio of achieved physical tourism indicators from the beginning of the year and in the last summer month for which there has been data released, and in relation to the result from 2019, for Croatia, Italy, Greece and Spain. They used publicly available data and information obtained through the HOTREC network, the European association of the HoReCa industry. They once again confirm that Croatian tourism figures so far have been brilliant.

Italy thus realised 49.3 percent of overnight stays from the beginning of the year to the end of July compared to 2019 (where the number of domestic guests was lower by 28.4 percent while foreigners were 71 percent less). A better result was achieved in July, and the month for the Italians ended with a 12.4 percent lag in tourist arrivals compared to July 2019 (there was an increase of 6.4 percent of domestic guests and a decrease of foreign guests of 31.7 percent). In July, Italy therefore had stronger numbers than Croatia compared to the time before the pandemic struck the world.

From the beginning of the year to the end of July, Greece had 58 percent of tourist overnight stays when compared to 2019. A better result was achieved in July and the month ended at 66 percent of the results from 2019.

Spain, which has unfortunately been in the epidemiological red zone for a long time, is expected to have the weakest result of all, and data is known only for the first half of the year. From the beginning of the year to the end of June, Spain was visited by 5.4 million tourists, which is a decrease of 50 percent compared to the already very poor 2020. In terms of tourist overnight stays there was a minus of 14 percent compared to 2020, which is 74 percent less compared with pre-pandemic 2019.

For more, follow our travel section.

ZAGREB, 8 Aug, 2021 - There are 1,055,000 tourists vacationing in Croatia - 886,000 foreigners and 169,000 Croatians, the Tourism Ministry said on Sunday. 

Among the foreign tourists, the most numerous are Germans (257,000), followed by Slovenians (125,000), Poles (81,000) and Austrians (68,000).

The largest number of tourists are staying in Istra County (271,000), followed by Primorje-Gorski Kotar County (180,000) and Split-Dalmatia County (170,000).

Croatia has registered 7.4 million arrivals and 44.5 million overnights this year to date, respectively 58% and 68% of the results logged during the same time in 2019.

In the first seven days of August, there were 981,000 arrivals and 7.4 million overnights, respectively 78% and 91% of the figures recorded in the first week of August 2019.

For more on travel, follow TCN's dedicated page.

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August the 5th, 2021 - Not even a brilliant summer season this year will automatically lead to Croatian tourist industry recovery, as the coronavirus pandemic has hit this sector with unimaginable strength, and it will take much more than tourists with deep pockets to fix things.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, even if the 2021 tourist season ends with the realisation of over 70 percent of the physical and financial results from back in pre-pandemic, record 2019, Croatian tourist industry recovery is far from set in stone. This hard-hit sector expects strong medium-term consequences of the coronavirus crisis.

The biggest challenges that companies operating within this sector are already facing are the decline in profitability and the severe personnel/staffing crisis, which will lead to a decline in the level of investment and a decline in added value and quality of the service.

This is the result of an incredible drop in income last year and a reduction in the number of workers in tourism, according to a financial analysis of the Croatian hospitality sector conducted by the 505 Consulting (Savjetovanje) company based on annual reports published by Fina.

Director Sanja Cizmar points out that these indicators must be taken into account in all further expectations of Croatian tourist industry recovery in the future, regardless of the possible good results this season.

"The analysis shows that in terms of financial effects, this is the strongest tourism crisis of the last century. Of particular concern are two indicators, the first is the rate of reduction of disposable earnings before interest, depreciation and taxes (EBITDA) of as much as 86 percent compared to the market norm from back in 2019, which jeopardises the investment potential of tourism in the medium term.

Another alarming figure is the reduction of the number of employees in the sector by 15 percent in just one single year, including permanent and seasonal workers, which is worrying due to the transfer of employees to other sectors, which also further complicates the already complex conditions for attracting employees,'' revealed a worried Cizmar.

Last year, the accommodation and catering/hospitality sector (with the exception of craft owners who don't have published reports from Fina) saw a 44 percent drop in revenue compared to 2019, operating profit fell by 86 percent and 89 percent in the hotel business, and labour costs fell by an average of 12 percent, with the largest taking place in the accommodation segment (hotels and campsites) - amounting to 14 percent.

At the same time, the accommodation segment fared significantly worse than cafes and restaurants did, where the number of employees per hour worked fell by 5 percent, compared to a high 26 percent in hotels and camps.

The drop in net profit margin in the accommodation business stood at a worrying 35 percent. It is interesting to note that micro and small enterprises have shown a higher degree of resilience to the coronavirus crisis when compared to medium and large companies, pointed out Cizmar.

In addition to that, micro and small enterprises operating in tourism (excluding craft/obrt owners) generate as much as 61 percent of the total income of the tourism sector in Croatia and employ 68 percent of the total average number of employees based on working hours alone.

“Micro and small companies have shown greater resilience to this crisis, given the lower rate of revenue decline and the lower share of revenue loss. This is partly due to the pronounced seasonal concentration of tourist demand in 2020. Medium-sized and large enterprises generally have a more balanced business throughout the year, and last year they had an extremely high seasonality due to the pandemic and population mobility,'' explained Cizmar.

In any given normal market period, tourism directly and indirectly employs 23 percent of all workers in the country, and generates 11 percent of total investments. The dramatic negative impact of the coronavirus crisis will therefore have far-reaching consequences, not only on employment and the financial accumulative power of the sector but also on the investment potential and operations of other, related segments of the economy, warned the author of the analysis.

The height of this tourist season is going well, and at the level of the year, depending on maintaining the stability of the epidemiological situation, we can expect over 70 percent of the physical and financial effects of tourism in normal market years, but again, this does not equal Croatian tourist industry recovery following such a blow.

''While last year the biggest challenges were in restructuring the business in terms of cost rationalisation for survival, this year the key challenges are operational in nature, how can we ensure the quality of services when burdened by a severely reduced number of employees?'' asked Cizmar rhetorically.

She pointed out that Croatia's focus when it comes to tourism should be on preserving its competitiveness in the Mediterranean, and that the issue of labour is crucial here. Therefore, we need to activate additional joint and coordinated activities of all stakeholders from the public and private sector to attract employees to the tourism sector.

This will certainly not be helped by a drop in wages of an average of 9 percent in tourism, which is also a consequence of the pandemic-induced crisis, but this trend further highlights the gap between average wages in hospitality in Croatia and those abroad, and negatively affects the long-term competitiveness of this sector, the analysis explained.

For more on Croatian tourist industry recovery, follow our business section.

August the 2nd, 2021 - The coronavirus pandemic has taken an unimaginable toll on global travel and tourism, and countries which rely very heavily on this economic segment such as Croatia, have taken a heavy blow indeed. That said, things have dramatically improved when compared to 2020, and Valamar Riviera's traffic at the height of the season is more than encouraging.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, in the first six months of this year, Valamar Riviera generated an impressive 291 million kuna in total revenues, which more than doubled the revenues they had during the same period in 2020. At the same time, a positive operating profit of 19.6 million kuna was achieved, which is an increase compared to 2020, but it is also 67 million kuna less than in pre-crisis 2019, the company announced recently.

The achieved revenue growth is the result of the easing of travel restrictions, high demand from key markets, good season preparation, the opening of most facilities in June and significant investments in Valamar Riviera's wider portfolio in previous years.

Despite the continued impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a significant improvement in operating profit compared to 2020 was achieved through the general rationalisation of operations and internal austerity measures, as well as the continued implementation of the "Pause, Restart" programme which was adopted in April 2020. On top of that, the further use of measures the government introduced last year for support for job preservation also plays a role, Valamar explained.

In July 2021, Valamar generated about 90 percent of the board's revenues realised in the same month in 2019, which, together with the semi-annual results, indicates the beginning of recovery for tourism, which hasn't come a moment too late.

"In July, Istria and the northern Adriatic destinations achieved a result similar to that of 2019, while Dubrovnik and the southern destinations are still lagging behind. The trend of bookings for August is improving in southern destinations, and in the north it's almost reached the levels we saw back in 2019. The level of uncertainty for business results in 2021 remains high due to uncertainty about the further development of the pandemic across Europe and the generally low vaccination coverage here in Croatia. We expect that the tourism sector will continue to be affected by the crisis throughout 2021, while a return to regular operations is expected in 2022 and 2023,'' they concluded in their recent announcement.

For more, make sure to follow our dedicated business section.