July 25, 2020 - The Croatian Tourism Association (HUT), has launched an epidemiological map where you can monitor the number of coronavirus cases in each Croatian county.

Namely, HRTurizam reports that the Croatian Tourism Association launched the website www.croatiacovid19.info to timely and accurately inform the public about the number of COVID-19 cases in Croatian regions.

On the map, Croatia is divided into four regions: Northern Coast (Istria and Kvarner); Southern Coast (Dalmatia); Central Croatia (Zagreb and surroundings) and Eastern Croatia.

"We hope that this corona region tracker will help in planning a vacation for all guests coming to Croatia," said the Croatian Tourism Association. 

The main story is that the private sector could no longer wait; in this case, HUT. Thus, they reacted and created a platform, which should have been made by the state.

Unfortunately, if the public system, primarily the Ministry of Tourism and the Croatian National Tourist Board, in cooperation with the Croatian Public Health Institute, epidemiologically mapped and set up the same platform for each county, especially because tourism is 20% of Croatia's GDP, we would have a much more positive image of Croatia as a safe tourist destination. And the situation we now have with the Netherlands would certainly be avoided, writes HRTurizam.

Interestingly, precisely through the diplomacy of the Croatian Government, Slovenia started to epidemiologically map and look at each Croatian county individually, which was great news for Croatian tourism. Because if it were the opposite due to the epidemiological situation, the whole of Croatia would already be on the red list.

Croatian experts had spoken about epidemiologically mapping regions for weeks, and in this crisis situation and "media and political war", we have to and had to react much faster and more efficiently for every guest. But unfortunately, again, the system was too slow and too late with reactions and communication.

As Nedo Pinezic recently pointed out: “Croatia is a 'thorn in the eye' due to its high attractiveness and accessibility to individual guests. Hence why the media is hunting Croatia. We are in a position to defend ourselves, but we are doing it quite clumsily.” We are simply lost in this crisis situation, and we have to admit it to ourselves so that we can react better tomorrow, HRTurizam adds.

Well done to HUT, but it is a pity that the system itself did not react much earlier, especially to the wave of diplomatic success in the context of Slovenia. Communication and proactivity are always, let alone in crisis situations, extremely important. And when looking at the example of the Netherlands, they are crucial.

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ZAGREB, July 22, 2020 - In the first 20 days of July Croatia recorded over 1.5 million tourist arrivals and over 11 million nights, which was half the arrivals and nights this year so far, the Croatian Tourism Association (HUT) said on Wednesday.

This year Croatia has logged over 3.2 million arrivals and over 18 million nights.

HUT says in its "Croatia Tourism & Travel Weekly" newsletter that last week saw nearly five million nights, with over 630,000 per day recorded over the past four days.

The Croatian coast has the best epidemiological situation this month, as evidenced by the rise in the number of tourists along the whole coast, including Dalmatia, according to the newsletter.

Of the coastal counties, Zadar is recording the best results, having reached 62% (200,000) of last July's arrivals and 67% of nights (2 million).

The most numerous foreigners come from Germany, followed by Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Austria and Poland.

Open at the moment are 802 hotels and 407 campsites.

As Novac writes on the 28th of May, 2020, the director of the Croatian Tourism Association (HUT), Veljko Ostojic, welcomed the Croatian Government's decision to liberalise the facilitation of entry via the country's border crossings on Thursday. He says that this sent a clear message that Croatia is now open to tourism, and that is absolutely crucial for the arrival of foreign guests.

Here is the Croatian Tourism Association's press release in its entirety.

''Today's decision of the Government on the additional liberalisation of border crossings for citizens of countries with a good epidemiological situation is crucial for Croatian tourism because Croatia is one of the first countries in the European Union to send out a clear message from the highest level that it is open to tourism. This is extremely important at this stage when for Croatia, due to the quality of its epidemiological situation, there is growing interest from tourists from our traditional emitting markets.

The announced application, where all foreign guests will be able to announce their arrival in advance and get all of the epidemiological instructions they need online as well as the introduction of special lanes at border crossings for faster crossing, are additional incentives for foreign guests to arrive this season.

Faster border crossings apply to citizens of Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany, and they make up a significant proportion of our guests.

Hoteliers and tourist staff are ready to welcome guests. Currently, 231 hotels and 86 camps have been opened, and in the coming days, all leading tourist companies have announced the opening of additional capacities. All standards of the safety of guests' stay have been implemented in accommodation facilities, restaurants and other tourist facilities according to the recommendations of Croatian epidemiologists, the World Health Organisation and with regard to the recommendations from Croatia's key emitting markets.

Croatia has been managing the crisis very efficiently throughout the epidemic, and according to international organisations, it is among the most successful countries in managing the coronavirus crisis. New cases of the infection currently appear only sporadically, and Croatia has one of the best epidemiological situations in the entire Mediterranean, which is why the world's leading media point it out as one of the most desirable tourist destinations,'' concludes the statement from the Croarian Tourism Association.

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March 28, 2020 - The Croatian Tourism Association (HUT) has drafted measures that would help preserve employment and businesses in the tourism sector.

Dalmacija Danas reports:

"As tourist traffic is at a halt, with completely closed accommodation and catering facilities across the country, and growing uncertainty throughout the main tourist season, the largest domestic tourism companies assembled in the Croatian Tourism Association (HUT) have drafted measures that would help preserve employment and businesses in a sector that generates nearly 20 percent of Croatia's total GDP.

Under these conditions, in the fight against the pandemic caused by the coronavirus, it is quite certain that a significant portion of tourism revenue will be missing this year. In such conditions, and because of the exceptional seasonality of Croatian tourism, which in four summer months generates 85 percent of total traffic, it is realistic to expect that the tourism sector will have business problems until spring 2021.

At HUT, we strongly support the Government's primary goal expressed in the presentation of the first set of measures to assist the economy, which is to save jobs and businesses in these extreme conditions. We think this is necessary because only in this way can we make a quick return as soon as the health and market conditions are created.

The proposal for tourism measures is divided into four groups.

1. The first priority is to keep jobs until next spring. For this, we need formal and material assumptions, and we propose the urgent formalization of the 'waiting workers' institute, which realistically reflects the present position of the vast majority of hospitality workers. While on hold, workers should receive a minimum wage of 60% of their net wages, which is otherwise the unemployment benefit, and employers would not pay taxes and contributions since workers do not work. The measure should be secured by next spring when we expect the normalization of business to begin.

2. The second group of measures relates to the payment of taxes and contributions and various fees.

We propose that taxes and contributions and those fees and compulsory membership fees (communal, maritime property, tourist land, water fee...) are not paid until the catering facilities are operational. After work begins, in particular, with the opening of 50% of the available capacities, the mentioned fees are paid in the amount of 30-50% to enable the beneficiaries of these benefits "survive" and have the means exclusively for the necessary functioning. This payment system is valid until 01/05/2021.

That is, we are all aware that this year's tourist turnover will be significantly reduced and it is entirely logical for employers to be exempt from paying such taxes. The delay in payment itself does not make sense, since it is already obvious that there will be no possibility of payment, but it is necessary to preserve employment and business systems until the full business is restarted.

3. The third group of measures relates to the financing of liquidity and the preparation of the next tourist season, therefore, we propose to provide grants and/or to provide favorable loans through HBOR and commercial banks for this purpose.

4. The fourth set of measures relates to reprogramming existing credit obligations for all entities that are necessary for business survival. We have also sent the measures to the Government and we expect them to be considered and adopted through the announced new economic assistance package, which is necessary for the survival of the overall economy."

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