January 20, 2021 - It should be a busy year for Austrian tourists in Croatia, who have chosen the country as the most sought-after destination this year.

HRTurizam reports that well-known Austrian travel organizer Gruber Reisen conducted market research titled "Travel Barometer in 2021". The results of the research show that Croatia is the most sought-after destination for the Austrian market.

Copyright Gruber Reisen

According to the research results, after the leading Croatia, which achieved a share of 36 percent, the demand is followed by Austria with 33 percent, Greece with 30 percent, Italy with 28 percent, and Spain with a 15 percent share.

"When booking a trip, consumers pay special attention to safety in the destination, and the possibility to change their booking for free or other cancellation options at minimal cost is significant to them," commented Branimir Toncinic, director of the Croatian National Tourist Board in Austria.

The results also show that the demand for travel in this market is very pronounced as 23 percent of respondents have already booked a trip in 2021, while 73 percent of respondents will book their trips when the conditions for travel are created. Only 2 percent of respondents said they would stay home this year due to the coronavirus and their own sense of insecurity.

Of the activities during the trip, the most preferred is a beach holiday, which 58 percent of respondents mentioned, and the share of visits to cities, cruises, and wellness, which are becoming more and more interesting, is growing. When it comes to the number of trips during the year, 39 percent of respondents want to go on vacation twice a year. When it comes to the average duration of vacation travel, 47 percent of respondents chose trips lasting up to a week, while 45 percent expressed interest in two-week trips.

Half of the consumers or 54% of respondents seek expert advice from a travel agency, with 50% of them still listing travel catalogs. A third attaches great importance to friends and acquaintances' advice. In addition to travel brochures, social networks are also popular as a source of inspiration. A total of 53% of survey participants noted great importance to the possibility of using re-booking, i.e., cancellation through flexible booking conditions with little or no cost.

"These are excellent indicators in the significant Austrian market. This is a consequence, among other things, of continuous promotional activities that we carry out in the most important markets, which aim at positioning our country as a safe, diverse, quality, well-prepared, and close tourist destination," added the director of the Croatian Tourist Board Kristjan Stanicic.

The research was published by the popular online professional magazine Traveler Online and is available HERE.

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January the 19th, 2021 - Stobrec, which is located along the central Dalmatian coastline not far from the City of Split, isn't often on the front pages when it comes to tourism, despite boasting a more than reasonable tourist offer, particularly in the form of campsites. One Stobrec autocamp beach has won the Dutch ANWB award.

As Morski writes, the beach in front of the autocamp in Stobrec has been highlighted as one of the fine examples of good management of maritime property under concession.

Confirmation of this has arrived recently from the Netherlands in the form of the ANWB award. Namely, the Dutch Royal Tourist Club ANWB - an association of travellers in the Netherlands that supports all ways of travelling - declared the best photo to be the one of the camp in Stobrec near Split.

This photograph won the first prize called "Photo of the Year" at the competition "ANWB Camp to the future event". The second place was won by Camping Hell in Tyrol, Austria, while the third place was won by the Slovenian Forest Camping Mozirje. The concessionaire for the economic use of the beach in front of the camp in Stobrec is otherwise the company Excelsus d.o.o.

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January 16, 2021 - Which unique COVID protocols are planned for the 2021 tourist season in Croatia? Croatian Tourist Board Director Kristjan Staničić gives us a closer look. 

After the Croatian National Tourist Board launched the communication platform "Croatia Full of Magic" on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at the end of last year, which will be active for a few more days, a new online campaign, "Croatia Full of New Beginnings," marked #CroatiaWishList2021, will begin in target markets, reports Slobodna Dalmacija.

The beginning of the year is usually a period of travel planning. Still, as the coronavirus pandemic has turned all established patterns of life upside down, it has dealt one of the strongest blows to tourism. Its recovery will largely depend on the development of the pandemic, and in the Mediterranean, workers in the tourism industry agree, a battle will be fought for every guest. The keyword “safety” will play a significant role when choosing a holiday destination.

For example, Turkey, whose huge advertising budget Croatia cannot compete with, is conducting a fierce campaign on digital platforms under the slogan "Safe in Turkey," and on the website "Safe Tourism Go Turkey," it is possible to find everything a tourist needs to stay in that country - from potential accommodation and catering facilities to travel agencies, and transportation, with the indispensable label of safety.

Greece is also at a low start, where the introduction of COVID passports is mentioned. Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis announced that there would be two categories of tourists by the end of the pandemic, those who have not been vaccinated and those who have. For them, he explained, the condition for entering Greece would be neither quarantine nor a negative COVID test, but only a vaccination certificate and the option of mutually recognizing certificates between countries of departure and destination is being considered.

For those tourists who are not vaccinated, Greece plans to expand border control measures, which could affect the flow of guests and ultimately contribute to fewer holidays in the country. Minister Theoharis believes that the vaccination will affect tourist reservations from the countries they are interested in, namely Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and France.

Will Croatia implement special COVID protocols for tourists in 2021? And will Croatia introduce COVID passports? Slobodna Dalmacija asked Kristjan Staničić, director of the Croatian National Tourist Board (CNTB).

"Croatia is a very active member of the European Travel Commission (ETC) at whose last session the emphasis was placed on the importance of the post-pandemic recovery of tourism, i.e., the importance of implementing uniform health and hygiene protocols and promoting tourism and tourism products through joint promotional campaigns. In this context, a large global ETC campaign has been announced this year, and co-branding and transnational campaigns are planned, which will be partly co-financed by the European Union," says Kristjan Staničić, emphasizing that the level of security in Croatia will be further raised through active vaccination of tourism workers, who themselves are aware of how important the safety segment is in these market circumstances.

"The Ministry of Tourism and Sports is also preparing a special safety label that will be available to all tourism service providers if they meet all prescribed epidemiological safety measures and protocols. Namely, an important message to everyone is that the precondition for a successful season will be a high degree of vaccination of the population," adds the Croatian National Tourist Board director.

Thus, he reveals, the CNTB will launch a unique campaign in February that will highlight all the advantages of Croatia as a safe tourist destination through seven specially prepared "safety" videos, which will show all potential guests that Croatia is a well-prepared destination that guarantees a quality and safe stay.

"The campaign will be conducted on our subpage, which is updated daily with all relevant information related to travel in these new circumstances caused by the coronavirus pandemic. We will start implementing the main promotional and invitation campaigns in March, i.e., in the spring when the first major realization of tourist traffic in Croatian destinations is expected," says the Croatian National Tourist Board director.

He believes that this year, especially its first quarter, will be marked by the intensity of epidemiological measures being taken in significant markets to slow down and curb the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, he explains, we cannot hope to establish more substantial tourist flows. Still, the arrival of spring and periods of nice weather will undoubtedly positively affect the epidemiological situation and travel.

"We expect a distinct last-minute demand, as well as that for safe, and at the same time quickly and easily accessible destinations. There will be greater demand for accommodation that provides additional security, such as holiday homes, accommodation on boats, in camps, and staying outdoors in nature. A positive effect is also expected from the vaccination of the population, which is confirmed, for example, by the data of the tour operator TUI Nordic, which recorded an increase in reservations as soon as the news of the vaccination process was published. In general, this year we expect, measured by overnight stays, achieving about 60 percent of the results from the record 2019, as well as maintaining the position of our country as one of the leading destinations in the Mediterranean," Kristjan Staničić concluded optimistically.

The online campaign "Croatia Full of New Beginnings" will be active until mid-February, focusing on 18 markets.
"The campaign aims to draw attention to Croatia through new beginnings and new beautiful and positive wishes in 2021. Visuals of lesser-known Croatian places will be used, with short and interesting stories as suggestions on what to visit, taste, and how to spend a holiday in Croatia. The focus will be on products such as eno-gastronomy, natural beauty, hiking trails, and nautical tourism. From the end of January, we will start implementing a special promotional campaign to position Croatia as an attractive destination for digital nomads, especially in the US, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, and Sweden," said the Croatian National Tourist Board.

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January the 16th, 2021 - The ongoing coronavirus pandemic dealt the tourism industry across the world a heavy blow throughout 2020, and in Croatia, which relies heavily on tourism, that blow will be difficult to come back from for some time yet. Croatian winter tourism is the sector being affected currently, but one agency has little to complain about...

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, the travel company Croatia Luxury rent, which rents out about 450 accommodation units in private accommodation across the country, is satisfied with the Croatian winter tourism traffic during the Christmas and New Year period, which is contrary to general expectations due to the partial lockdown.

Compared to last season, they had a drop in the number of reservations of only 9.3 percent compared to last season.

“In preparation for the sale of festive period reservations during October, November and the first half of December, the announcements and sales results were positive. Primarily because private accommodation offered security to guests in the form of isolation and non-exposure to possible infection. Based on that, the number of arrangements sold by mid-December was even slightly better than last year’s realisation in the same time period. Due to the introduction of anti-epidemic measures aimed at preventing the spread of the pandemic before the festive period, sales were completely stopped and 8 percent of the arrangements sold until that point were cancelled,'' revealed Josip Stulic, the company's founder when discussing Croatian winter tourism traffic.

The largest number of realised reservations were to Croatian guests and to a large extent to Croats with addresses in other EU countries. Arrangements sold during the festive period mostly covered the area of ​​Istria and Kvarner, while a smaller share was positioned in the central Adriatic with an emphasis on the Zadar area. The surprise came in the form of a significant increase in reservations of accommodation units in Gorski Kotar. The most popular destinations, as before, were Porec, Umag, Rovinj and Krk, and Pag, Delnice and Zadar, which recorded an increase of 7 percent compared to last year, mostly due to the increase in the number and level of quality of accommodation units in the area over the last couple of years.

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January the 15th, 2021 - Just how might future Croatian tourism look in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic? As the vaccine is rolled out across the globe and travel continues to be hindered, let's look at what might be in store.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, although official decisions are yet to be made at the level of the Euripean Union and the national governments of its member states, Croatia will almost certainly not ask tourists to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, but visitors will most likely need a current PCR test in order to enter the country. Additionally, in order to make tourists feel as safe as possible, a new national safety label is being launched in the conditions of the ongoing pandemic called Safe Stay in Croatia.

As has been unofficially learned, the sector itself, the Ministry of Tourism and the Croatian Tourist Board are all working together on the new label, and all activities are to be done in accordance with the protocols of the World Tourism Council (WTTC).

The new label, for which all actors in the hospitality and tourism industry will be able to apply, will be presented to the public in a few weeks, and will be accompanied by very detailed protocols in all segments of the tourism business - everyone from apartments to hotels to those in nautical tourism will once again receive very detailed instructions on what is to come in terms of future Croatian tourism.

The new label will very soon start being communicated in marketing messages in domestic and foreign markets. With the advent of the coronavirus vaccine, which will be available to wider segments of society in the coming months, there has been a wide debate globally on how we can use the vaccine and apply it in the tourism sector, which has been the most affected segment of the economy during this pandemic.

Within the EU, there hasn't yet been an official debate on the subject, and the first to raise the issue of vaccinated tourists are the Greeks, who in 2020 had a drop in tourism revenues of more than 10 billion euros. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has thus proposed the establishment of a vaccination certificate against coronavirus at  theEU level. Greece has already created its own standardised certificate proving that an individual has been vaccinated. According to the ideas of the Greeks, the EU certificate could be used when entering all forms of transport.

"Although we won't make vaccination mandatory or a precondition for travel, those who have been vaccinated should be able to travel freely," the Greek prime minister said in a letter.

There are other approaches, and Israel will do everything it can to vaccinate as many employees in the Israeli tourism sector as possible, also with a desire to give additional security to their guests. The Israelis aren't yet commenting on whether they will ask tourists to arrive in the country already vaccinated against the virus, and so far the country has managed to vaccinate as much as 20 percent of its population.

Globally, there is nobody heading in the direction that the vaccine serves as a travel pass, at least at the WTTC level which is perceived as a strong authority in the sector and in this pandemic. WTTC Executive Director Gloria Guevarra was very clear the other day and explained why she opposes the idea of ​​vaccinating against the novel coronavirus as a condition for travel.

"If we go in that direction, we go in the direction of discrimination, and tourism cannot do that," said the head of the organisation. A ban on unvaccinated people would have a dramatic effect on traffic itself, as it would limit travel to entire generations who will be the last to be vaccinated. Children and young people make up a huge number of the world's tourists, and this should include the family they travel with.

The WTTC established security protocols and the Safe Travels label, an international safe travel label, as early as last May. Croatia received this label back in August, and the year 2020 ended with a total of 200 countries bearing the label "Safe Travels". The label and protocols were created primarily to restore passenger confidence in a year in which travel and contacts posed a health risk, and the WTTC believes the goal was largely achieved despite a number of travel restrictions that continue to remain in place. New issues and situations in the travel industry are appearing almost day by day as the pandemic develops and wanes.

While Croatia is recording a slightly better situation these days and future Croatian tourism is something we can now dare to imagine, ithe situation is still very serious in other European countries. Germany doesn't believe that it is possible for a German return to the Croatian market before the Pentecost in late May, the Austrians have discovered that the British brought a new strain of coronavirus to the ski resort in Tyrol, and the British are fighting a new strain, as well as the rather embarrassing woes of Brexit.

Precisely with the aim of preventing the third wave of the ongoing pandemic in Croatia, the National Civil Protection Headquarters made a new decision restricting unnecessary travel to Croatia, especially from countries where a new strain of coronavirus is spreading, such as Great Britain and South Africa.

The list of these countries will be adopted by the Croatian Institute of Public Health, and special epidemiological measures will be applied to passengers from these countries, said the Chief of Staff Davor Bozinovic at a press conference recenrly, explaining that the decision is not related to citizenship but to the country from which a person is coming. Passengers from these countries must show a negative PCR test which is no older than 48 hours when entering Croatia and will have to undergo 14 days of isolation.

''At the moment, Great Britain and the Republic of South Africa are on that list,'' said Bozinovic. He added that their quarantine could be reduced to seven days if they perform a PCR testing in an authorised institution and if the test returns a negative result.

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January 14, 2021 - Croatian hoteliers on the coast are readying for a new year and are optimistic about the new tourist season, even though it is still uncertain, given the current epidemiological situation. 

Jutarnji List reports that although it is still early for any predictions of the 2021 tourist season, mainly because we do not know how and under what conditions travel will happen this year, tourism workers cannot afford to wait.

One example is hotel Romana in Makarska, which plans to open its doors for Easter and employ up to 250 workers, if the epidemiological picture allows, showing optimism and expectation that the season will be successful. The management of other hotels on the Riviera shares the same optimism. Valamar plans to open all hotels in Makarska this summer, and the Meteor hotel is currently in the final phase of renovation. Everything should be finished in the coming days. 

Tonči Andrijašević, director of the Quercus Hotel in Drvenik, says that if there are no changes, they will open on May 1, and more serious work is expected in mid-May.

"We have published the program in the Czech Republic, Poland, France, and Slovenia. It’s a plan that is subject to change, but it definitely has activities, even in the Chinese market for October, through a Compass partnership. As for partners, a lot is happening, it’s alive, but we can’t talk about the numbers yet. I am an optimist, but this is a mildly moderate optimism. I hope that through vaccination, the situation will be brought under control a bit, so, all in all, I still expect a much better year than 2020, although still not close to the results from 2019," says Andrijašević.

Drago Nosić, director of Sol tourism, says that both facilities, hotels Miramare and Biokovo, will open on May 1.

"We are preparing for the season as if it will be more intense than last year, but if it were a normal year, at the beginning of January, we would already have some more concrete indications. Anyway, we have to do everything as if it will be normal. Here, today we are inspecting the rooms to see what we have to adjust," says Nosić, who agrees that the vaccine is positive news, but that we still do not know the dynamics of vaccination or conditions for travel.

"It is good that all partners are more or less interested in starting as soon as possible, but I do not know how tour operators and airlines will solve this. Also, to prepare, you have to invest; if you invest, you expect to earn something, and at the same time, you do not have solid or clear indicators that you will succeed because there are many unknown factors. We are, therefore, guided more by optimism and hope than by logic. In general, everyone is cautious, and we see that the number of flights has decreased by 20 percent compared to 2019. However, it is a good thing that none of our partners is in trouble," says Nosić, who says that demand will certainly be considered when the criteria are clearer. But if the restrictions continue, it will be a problem.

Currently, the biggest problem regarding investment is not investing in hotels because they are relatively new, but the workforce needs to be addressed for the season.

"If it is 70 percent from 2019, we will be satisfied. Anything beyond that is a bonus. It would be unrealistic to expect that 2020 will happen again because now we still have some tools," Nosić emphasizes.

Marko Luketina, director of the Morenia resort in Podaca, says that they are preparing as if everything will be normal, with full capacity and employment, believing that the results will be at the level of 2019, or even better. They open on April 10 and close on October 31, if all goes according to plan.

"We will even extend the cooperation agreements compared to 2019, and we expect 55 to 60 thousand arrivals. This is our plan according to realistic settings; without that, you can't even plan. If there is not enough vaccination, it will affect us to achieve less, but we should expect a plus-minus of 5 percent compared to what was expected by all accounts. I do not believe that there will be major deviations," Luketina is extremely optimistic and assesses the German government's reaction to the situation with TUI, which is crucial for the Croatian market. The problem is aviation tourism, without which the hotel industry cannot work, and that area is still unclear.

"These are all real issues, flights, the issue of conditions related to vaccination, and we know little about it. But there is no choice; we have to act and be prepared as if nothing happened and as if we will have a normal season," concludes Luketina, who added that Morenia achieved extraordinary numbers in 2020 as well.

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January the 13th, 2021 - When will Croatian tourism return? As 2021 brings the vaccine to the world, what might be expect for this year following a dire 2020, and when might we expect to see tourists arriving like they did back during the ''old normal''?

As Novac/Barbara Ban writes, the German Government isn't counting on the normalisation of the tourism market whatsoever before the summer, according to the German Government's commissioner for tourism, Thomas Bareiss, in an interview with German media yesterday, adding that he believes that in the next two to three months, travel will continue to be difficult to imagine. Bareiss expects that the tourist market will begin to recover in the second quarter and fully revive by the summer, which means that Croatian tourism can't expect a recovery from the German market before Easter.

“If we really manage to vaccinate most citizens in the second quarter, then we'll have a relatively safe situation when it comes to travel,” Bareiss said.

The Croatian tourism sector assessed the assessments of the German Commissioner for Tourism as positive. According to the people involved in the operation, they have already prepared for the fact that the start of the pre-season will be worse due to the epidemiological situation throughout Europe. This year, Easter also falls earlier.

Croatian Minister of Tourism Nikolina Brnjac said that Croatia had begun preparations for the season and that they were in contact with representatives of the tourism sector and economic entities in Germany.

"The basic message of all meetings is that the health and safety of all of us must come first. Although it's difficult to assess when the epidemiological situation will normalise, it's certain that with the arrival of the vaccine we're entering a new phase in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. A sufficient level of vaccination will certainly affect the perception of all tourist destinations this year, including Croatia,'' said Brnjac, adding that vaccination is a message of responsibility.

"In addition to vaccination, there are health security protocols for all stakeholders in tourism, which the Ministry will soon present and market in emitting markets. Personally, I hope for a higher level of vaccination, both in Croatia and in our emitting markets, because it will bring us the normalisation of tourist traffic,'' the Minister noted when discussing when the Croatian tourism return.

"I think the statement that the tourism market will start recovering in the second quarter is good news for us. How long the preseason will be depends on a lot of factors. It should be better than it was last year when it didn't even exist. Objectively, Easter falls very early and every overnight stay is precious, especially in this situation, we should be realistic and expect good numbers from the second half of May onwards,'' said the president of the Croatian Tourism Association, Veljko Ostojic.

The head of the Uniline travel agency, Boris Zgomba, says the bigger challenge will be prices wars and competition when it comes to the general Croatian tourism return.

"Turkey, Greece, Spain, Italy are all returning and there will be a struggle for prices, services and promotion. There will be a lot of last minute deals, bookings and riots on the tourism market. Financially speaking, we can't expect a big recovery yet. According to my estimate, we'll be at 60 percent of the traffic we had back in 2019 this year," Ostojic concluded.

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January 11, 2021 - As the Croatian National Tourist Board delights in its inclusion in yet another meaningless list, a look at the competition illustrates the point, as Croatia tops Mars and 'any airport in the world.'

One of the things I have learned writing online is that the title is everything. A sad - and rather dispiriting - truth I have learned blogging for the last decade is that less and less people read these days. It is often the case that an article has more Facebook likes than actual views, more comments based on the title in the social media share than the considered reflections of a commentator who has actually read the article. 

Such is the world in which we live in 2021.

Over the last few years. I have noticed the Croatian National Tourist Board use this reality to great effect. In the absence of any obvious tangible strategy (at least to me), shouting from the rooftops in some inane list in international media has been a key part of the 'promotion' which supposedly justifies the investment that is 70-80 permanent jobs at head office and an annual budget in the region of 40 million euro. 

Today provided the latest perfect example of this, as the national tourist board's PR department purred at Croatia's inclusion in yet another 'meaningful' list, this time USA Today's article, Greece, Japan, More: 100 Places We Hope to Travel in 2021. No mention of Croatia in the title, which headlines with one of Croatia's strongest competitors, but we will let that one slide for now.

"One of the most widely read American dailies USA Today published a list of the 100 most desirable travel destinations in 2021, and Croatia ranked 11th," said the official press release. The title of the press release was even more appealing - USA TODAY RANKED CROATIA AMONG THE MOST DESIRABLE TRAVEL DESTINATIONS IN 2021.

Incredible stuff. Amazing work, Team National Tourist Board. Eleventh in the world is quite an achievement, accompanied by the detailed explanation of why Croatia was number 11:

11. Croatia: It’s been on my list for a while, and the wanderlust is real. Will be ticking off as many spots as possible in 2021. – Hines

Croatia: You've seen these spots on 'Game of Thrones'; now see them for yourself

Incredible stuff, and if I didn't live in Croatia already, I am sure I would be packing a suitcase. 

I was curious to see which 10 destinations managed to beat Croatia in this exclusive list, and it was then that I realised that it would be tough for Croatia to break into the top 10, despite the incredible promotional efforts of the Croatian National Tourist Board. 

4. As far as my saved-up Delta miles will take me

How could the beauty of Croatia possibly compete with that?

5. Anywhere my mom wants to go

Maybe Mom would like to go to Croatia.

9. A COVID-19-free cruise

A little bit like the two above, anywhere will do. 

But this is a great promotion of Croatia, worthy of a press release, and shared among the Croatian media. 

Unlike in Greece, which made this list not once, but twice. 

Or France, which made the list four times, with Paris featured twice, including above Croatia - nestled between As far as my saved-up Delta miles will take me, Anywhere my mom wants to go, and a COVID-19-free cruise. 

It should be acknowledged that Croatia did beat off some very serious competition to make it to number 11 in the latest pointless list the Internet. These include:

58. Any airport in the world: I look forward to arriving early for a flight, getting coffee and an I-only-eat-this-when-I-travel muffin and watching waves of travelers heading off to great adventures and into the arms of those they love. – Harriet Baskas, USA TODAY travel contributor (Twitter: @hbaskas, Instagram: @hbaskas, StuckatTheAirport.com)

and 

100. Mars: Honestly, at this point, why not? After spending most of 2020 quarantined at home on Earth, I’m wanderlusting for anywhere in the galaxy. – Trepany

Even though Croatia is an elite destination, presumably its price competitiveness compared to a holiday on Mars helped edge it above Mars in the final rankings.  

Style over substance - the classic strategy of the Kingdom of Accidental Tourism. It is in evidence wherever one looks.  

Just before Christmas, for example, national tourist board director Kristjan Stanicic was quoted in the Croatian media, enthusiastically promoting a new tourism idea - something called digital nomad tourism. According to Stanicic:

We plan various activities to position our country as an attractive destination for digital nomads. The focus of marketing campaigns will be on the fact that Croatia can guarantee a safe and quality stay for digital nomads. We will emphasize the excellent transport connections and the geographical position of an EU country in which many speak English and which has an excellent infrastructure and quality of offer. In the promotion, we will focus on the fact that our life is accessible according to European standards, that we have good health care with well-known benefits such as a favorable climate, beautiful nature and rich cultural and historical heritage. At the beginning of 2021, an online campaign is planned in Great Britain, the USA and Australia, and we will soon start teaser activities, ie posts with initial information about the legislative changes on social networks Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn - says the director of the Croatian Tourist Board Kristjan Stanicic.

(Read more in After Digital Nomads, Will Croatian Tourism Chiefs Act on 4 More Gifts?)

As this was the first innovative idea I could recall in my time in Croatia from the national tourist board, I eagerly checked out their website for the latest information about digital nomad tourism:

Let's hope that someone else publishes another meaningless clickbait list soon so that we can keep the promotion going and justify the efforts of those 70-80 dedicated souls and that enormous budget. 

For more on travel in Croatia (with an absence of meaningless lists), check out the TCN Travel section.  

January 10, 2021 – Despite pandemic and earthquakes, the number of well-to-do guests in Croatia in 2020 grew. They spent 98 euros a day, 32 more euros than six years ago, and they were looking for the highest quality and the most expensive tourist offer.

As Radmila Kovačević / Večernji list writes, a thin but much better tourist season than it seemed in the spring brought Croatia 7.7 million guests and about 54 million overnight stays in eleven months. Every other overnight stay from the record 2019 was realized.

The earthquakes did not have a particular impact on the number of guests. The last month of the year, regardless of the disaster, could not bring any fundamental change. Excluding Zagreb Advent and New Year's guests on the Adriatic, the number of tourists in December varied between a modest seven and ten thousand a day, which was about a third of the tourist traffic last year in that month.

Croatia is a discovery in terms of offer and quality

About 3,000 foreign tourists are sharing the current earthquake drama with the local population. The atypical year has intensified some trends, and one of them is undoubtedly digital nomads. Among those 3,000 foreigners are hundreds of guests who do their regular jobs from Croatia.

An increase in demand for holidays in separate villas and holiday homes was expected, given the pandemic. Still, many hosts were surprised by the jump in demand for the highest quality and the most expensive of what Croatian tourism offers.

Hosts first noticed this in Istria, wherein some weeks this summer, it was practically impossible to find a free bed in luxury holiday homes or small family hotels.

Tourists in Rovinj / Copyright Romulić and Stojčić

It was similar in restaurants – well-to-do guests did not skimp on olive oil, wine, prosciutto, and similar treats as a "souvenir "from a Croatia vacation. Many of these guests said that they regularly go to some of the more famous Mediterranean resorts and that Croatia, in this case, Istria, is a discovery for them, both in terms of offer and quality.

Continental destinations can be profitable

The transformation of the domestic tourist offer from mass, ready-made to more refined, boutique offer is not since yesterday. This is evidenced by the growing revenues from tourism, i.e., the average consumption of our guests.

For comparison, in 2014, tourists spent an average of 66.3 euros a day on vacation in Croatia. Three years later, in the 2017 season, average tourist spending jumped to 79 euros per person per night. And according to the recently published comprehensive survey Attitudes and Consumption of Tourists, published on the new interactive website of the Institute of Tourism, guests in Croatia spent as much as 98 euros a day from May 2019 to March 2020.

Tourists in Rovinj / Copyright Romulić and Stojčić

For the first time, the research was conducted outside the summer months and in the whole of Croatia, not only on the coast. It also revealed how profitable tourism in the interior could be than at sea. Namely, it turned out that in 2019 guests spent an average of 97 euros a day on holiday in coastal destinations, and in continental destinations, such as Slavonia or Zagorje, 115 euros per person.

BiH Guests, who spent 67 euros per person per day, had the smallest budget for holidays in Croatia. The most generous guests were the Japanese, with daily consumption of as much as 206 euros. The generous guests include tourists from the USA with 174 euros per person, the Republic of Korea (157 euros), China (150 euros), and Asian countries in general, whose average consumption is 155 euros. Among Europeans, the British stand out with daily consumption of 143 euros.

First guests already for the Easter holidays?

Altogether, a good start for 2021, in which the tourist sector, which these days are busy helping the victims in Banovina, could expect the first wave of guests as early as in the Easter holidays.

"The number of 54 million overnight stays is proof that our tourism has quickly and efficiently adapted to the new circumstances. Croatia was recognized as a safe destination, and we must work on that in 2021, and then again, we can expect good results. Glad the fact that tourist spending is growing. Our goal is the same or higher revenues than in 2019. But not through an increase in the number of tourists in the summer, but by a more even distribution throughout the year and throughout Croatia," commented the Minister of Tourism and Sports Nikolina Brnjac.

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Two small but very significant things for Croatian tourism happened in one Facebook post just before Christmas. 

The post was by arguably the most communicative senior member of the government on social media, State Secretary for Tourism, Tonci Glavina, who regularly updates his followers on good news regarding Croatian tourism and government activity, communication which is very welcome. 

And Glavina's status update of December 23 caught my attention in particular, for two reasons, and opens a small window of opportunity for progressing tourism strategy in Croatia:

The post was significant firstly as this was the first time (to my knowledge) that a senior government official had given a concrete statement on the reality of the Croatian digital nomad visa since Prime Minister Plenkovic tweeted his intention in late August to act on a LinkedIn open letter from Dutch entrepreneur Jan de Jong asking for the introduction of a digital nomad visa for Croatia. As regular readers of TCN will know, digital nomad tourism is something we have been advocating for more than 18 months now, as well as reporting on progress on the visa every step of the way, from the law changes in the Aliens Act and the tax code. You can follow the TCN digital nomad coverage past, present and future here. Having a senior government official confirm what we have been reporting for months is most welcome, as is the additional news that Glavina brought that there will soon be a big global promotion by the Croatian National Tourist Board to attract digital nomads to Croatia. 

The second thing that was significant in Glavina's post was his acknowledgment that this was an initiative from the private sector, namely the efforts of de Jong and those supporting his initiative. I have long advocated for the private sector to play a more active role in shaping Croatia's tourism, simply because the private tourism sector understands tourism so much better than those running Croatian tourism (in my opinion), and in many cases they manage to succeed in spite of official tourism strategies, rather than because of them. So to see the Croatian tourism chiefs not only recognise a private sector initiative but to make it a key theme for 2021 promotion is a very encouraging development indeed. And one I hope will be a precedent for future development. 

National tourist board director was also ebullient about the prospects of digital nomad tourism and was quoted in Vecernji List, timeline December 23, 2020:

We plan various activities to position our country as an attractive destination for digital nomads. The focus of marketing campaigns will be on the fact that Croatia can guarantee a safe and quality stay for digital nomads. We will emphasize the excellent transport connections and the geographical position of an EU country in which many speak English and which has an excellent infrastructure and quality of offer. In the promotion, we will focus on the fact that our life is accessible according to European standards, that we have good health care with well-known benefits such as a favorable climate, beautiful nature and rich cultural and historical heritage. At the beginning of 2021, an online campaign is planned in Great Britain, the USA and Australia, and we will soon start teaser activities, ie posts with initial information about the legislative changes on social networks Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn - says the director of the Croatian Tourist Board Kristjan Stanicic.

This is all wonderful (and I mean that sincerely), but I have a question which is important if we are to develop this concept of public-private cooperation:

If de Jong had not posted his online appeal to Plenkovic, and if there had been no private sector initiative regarding the digital nomad visa, would our Croatian tourism chiefs even be talking about digital nomads as a tourism strategy? 

A few weeks before de Jong posted his LinkedIn request, I request a meeting with the national tourist board to present three new initiatives for Croatian tourism. The three ideas were a concept to brand Trogir the first digital nomad town in Croatia, a new sporting event to celebrate Dalmatia's unique sporting heritage and tradition with the Olympics of Traditional Dalmatian Games, and a concept for developing religious tourism based on the only certified miracle in Croatia, the Eucharistic Miracle of Ludbreg. 

I left the meeting empty-handed but with plenty to think about. Funding rules had changed and I was advised to approach regional tourist boards on the financial side. And while I was more than a little surprised that one of the senior tourist board members couldn't name Croatia's only miracle, it was the reaction to the digital nomad project that stayed with me. While my Trogir idea was apparently good, I was advised to check on taxation rules for nomads planning to work in Croatia. With the situation as it was, it was not something that they could officially promote.

And that, I believe, is how the situation would be today without de Jong's initiative and all that followed.

Private initiatives to promote digital nomad tourism continued, and there were more receptive ears. None more so than Dubrovnik, who not only embraced the concept, but acted on it very quickly. After a very cordial meeting with Mayor of Dubrovnik, Mato Frankovic, in July, wheels were set in motion to prepare for an international digital nomad contest to work with the city on improving its digital nomad offering and branding. 

Corona budget issues have delayed that project until April/May 2021, but Tanja Polegubic from Saltwater Nomads suggested Dubrovnik start the discussion by organising Croatia's first-ever digital nomad conference, Digital Nomads for Dubrovnik, in October, in partnership with the Dubrovnik Tourist Board, City of Dubrovnik and TCN.  

News of the imminent visa and the Dubrovnik conference caused quite a buzz internationally, and there were many articles in the international media about Croatia as a new hot spot for remote workers, with the Dubrovnik for Digital Nomads conference even getting a mention in the Washington Post. 

And there was plenty of more niche promotion within the digital nomad community, with TravelOffPath co-founder Kashlee Kucheran, a website and community dedicated to global travel information for remote workers, extolling the virtues of Croatia as a destination for digital nomads - you can learn more in this TCN interview with Kashlee. 

Zagreb has also been very receptive to the digital nomad opportunity. Sadly, we had to cancel plans for a Digital Nomad Bootcamp as part of Advent in Zagreb due to the pandemic, but we will be announcing a great initiative in partnership with Zagreb in the new year. 

And yet, despite all the activity and December 23 announcement and upbeat quote from Director Stanicic, not a single word about this new tourist sector on the national tourist board site. This is what greets you when you search the national tourist board website for information about digital nomads (see above).

The main point of this article is to show how important the private sector is for tourism and what a positive effect it could  - and should - have, and so it is worth taking a closer look at the origins of this initiative, as well as looking at others which may exist. As Jan de Jong has explained, he is also quite new to the concept of digital nomad tourism. Back in May, he was due to speak at a tourism conference and asked me for some advice about tourism initiatives. I sent him a few articles to read including two about digital nomad tourism, both written in mid-2019, a full 18 months before Director Stanicic's enthusiastic embracing of his new initiative. 

How Croatia is Becoming Increasingly Attractive for the Digital Nomad Lifestyle (June 19, 2019)

Branding Croatia for the Future: 5 Gifts and Trends to Focus On (June 9, 2019)

If these articles planted a seed in de Jong's mind regarding digital nomad tourism, who in turn planted a seed in the Prime Minister's mind with his LinkedIn post, who in turn planted more seeds for Croatian tourism chiefs, which results in a visa and strategy for digital nomad tourism for Croatia, then I will be very happy. There have been lots of people involved from the private sector on the way as I explored in Croatia's Digital Nomad Visa Story: The Expat Contribution.

The big question is that if this approach of private initiative which is helped along the way with a collection of different skillsets and influences can be embraced by the Croatian tourism chiefs, are there any other such ideas which could yield similar fruit? And the answer is an emphatic YES! Here are just 4, and let's go back to that 2019 article, Branding Croatia for the Future: 5 Gifts and Trends to Focus On. 

1. Medical Tourism

One sector which is a real growth opportunity for Croatian where the private sector is trailblazing is medical tourism. It is an area I have written a lot about in the last three years, not only about Croatia, but also internationally, and it was a real honour to be named International Medical Travel Journalist of the Year in Kuala Lumpur recently by one of the star performers of the global medical tourism industry - the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council. 

I have attended several conferences, both national and international, and interviewed many of the bigger names in the medical tourism industry over the last few years. I have been constantly struck by how big the potential is for Croatia, whose reputation within the industry is very high, so at odds with the delivery of effective official promotion. At the same time, the private medical tourism companies are achieving great visibility and partnerships in order to develop not only their only clinics and hospitals, but also the Croatian industry as a whole. It is quite telling that the brand of the Kvarner Health Cluster has a bigger brand within the industry than Croatia as a national brand, for example. 

Unlike digital nomad tourism, which as we have seen has yet to get a mention on the official website despite the apparently lofty plans for 2021, there have been sporadic - and particularly ineffective - efforts to officially promote medical tourism. The video above is a case in point - dating back to 2017.  Some pretty drone shots of Croatia and some footage in some clinics, but with no coherent message, and with almost no engagement - 43 likes and zero comments despite over a million views suggests another paid campaign that failed to engage. 

Fast forward two years and a shiny medical tourism conference called Health Spot Croatia.

All the big names were there in terms of sponsorship, and the list of speakers was no less impressive as an official show of strength. 

No less than two ministers, the president of the Croatian Chamber of Economy and Mayor of Zagreb in the welcome speeches alone. 

And the dividend from the conference once the lights went off, the initial column inches written? Very little. Indeed my understanding is that the health tourism department of the Ministry of Health was disbanded earlier this year. 

Meanwhile, in the private sector, Croatia is excelling on the global stage, working with the biggest names in healthcare. 

St. Catherine's Specialty Hospital, a member of the Leading Hospitals of the World, became the first place in Europe to offer the RightMed OneOme pharmacogenetic test, developed in partnership with Mayo Clinic.  

Cleveland Clinic has also been taking an interest in the Croatian medical tourism story after links were forged by Ognjen Bagatin of Bagatin Clinic on a visit to Cleveland. Cleveland Clinic CEO Tom Mihaljevic pledged his support for perhaps the most ambitious initiative to put Croatian medical tourism on the map - EPIC 2020.

But for the pandemic, EPIC 2020 would have been Europe's first European Patient Experience and Innovation Congress, organised by Bagatin Clinic in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic, with a world-class list of international speakers, including several from Mayo and Cleveland Clinics.  

Bagatin Clinic has become synonymous with Croatian medical tourism excellence globally, thanks largely to the extraordinary efforts of Ognjen Bagatin, who has travelled the globe several times over to promote Croatia and its health tourism story. He has done more than perhaps anyone to develop this sector of Croatian tourism, as well as being an authoritative and inspirational speaker on the global level. It was a pleasure to witness him collect the award on behalf of Bagatin Clinic for Best International Cosmetic Surgery Clinic at the International Medical Travel Journal awards and conference in Berlin in 2019. IMTJ is the leading medical tourism conference in the world, attracting exhibitors from all over the world. While official promotional bodies were out in force from the biggest countries in the industry, including South Korea, Malaysia and Germany, the Croatian presence was limited to Bagatin and the Kvarner Health Cluster.

Unlike digital nomad tourism, which is just in its infancy, there is considerable experience and expertise in the private medical tourism sector in Croatia, as well as a vision and international credibility. If de Jong's private initiative for digital nomads could be replicated for the medical tourism industry, the possibilities are enticing indeed.  

2. Lessons from Portugal - retirees and the Golden Visa. 

A little legislation change is what is required to bring in the digital nomad visa, thereby making Croatia more accessible to remote workers to come and live in Croatia and contribute their spending power to the Croatian economy. 

And a little more legislation change in another area could also boost the State coffers. With its temperate climate and relaxed lifestyle, Croatia is an ideal destination for pensioners to spend at least some of their retirement time. The lower cost of living compared to Western countries also makes Croatia an attractive option.  

Just as I have come across many digital nomads from outside the EU looking to spend more time in Croatia, so too people wanting to retire and spend time here.  

And spend money. As Portugal has figured out, retirees looking to relocate to the sun are independently wealthy and not going to take away and local jobs. And they tend to have affluent friends and family who come to visit. The Portuguese Golden Visa programme has been a big success, something which can easily be emulated by Croatia - Lessons from Portugal: Taking Advantage of the Retirement Lifestyle Opportunity. 

3. Wine - Home of Original Zin and 130 Other Indigenous Grape Treasures

You will not be in Croatia long before you hear about how great the wines are. And they truly are. Home of the original Zinfandel and 130 other indigenous grape varieties, Croatia also offers some very diverse wine regions and exceptional tasting experiences. With the popularity of gourmet tourism in France, Spain, Italy and Germany, the potential for Croatia to present its world-class food and wine offering is there. After all, didn't the late, great Anthony Bourdain wax lyrical about Croatia's "world-class food, world-class wine, world-class cheese" back in 2011. 

And yet... 

Where to go to find the information about the wine roads and wine tasting experiences? 

Dalmatia may be the home of original Zinfandel (a FANTASTIC hook for the American market in particular), but there is no Dalmatian wine road. In fact, trying to find information about any wine roads is rather a challenge. A few years ago, I asked the national tourist board to send me a list of wine roads for Croatia. They were very helpful saying that they did not have that information but would contact the county tourist boards individually and get the information of wine roads by county. They did send information on all but one county, in varying degrees of quality, but mostly it was just a list of names. Which was better than the help from the Ministry of Tourism, who insisted that there was a map of the Biokovo Wine Road, a wine road which no wine professional in Croatia I have spoken to knows ever exists. 

That is not to say that it is all bad. I was much cheered on a recent visit to the Zagreb County Tourist Board to come across this very useful map for the wine lover. On the one side, a map of the 11 wineries on the Zelina wine road, and on the other all the contact details, opening hours and tasting experiences on offer, details which you can also find on the official website. 

How hard would it be to do this on a national level, and to put up some signs for wine roads on a national level? To actually make finding information about wine roads and wineries user-friendly? There are signed wine roads at a local (and sometimes regional) level, but it Croatia wants to be taken seriously as a wine destination, it should start taking its wine promotion seriously. Need some help? Lessons from Macedonia: How Croatia Can Learn How to Market Wine. Interestingly,  Macedonia's biggest export market is... Croatia.

4. Maximising the Tesla (and Rimac) brand

 Was Nikola Tesla a Serb or a Croat? If you are looking for the answer in how he is promoted in both countries today,  then there is no contest. Despite visiting Belgrade only once, the international airport bears his name, and Serbia celebrates Science Day each year on his birthday, July 10. 

By contrast, the birthplace of Tesla, the village of Smiljan in modern-day Croatia near Gospic, is a very humble affair, and a great opportunity for Croatia which is currently very underutilised. As I wrote in my 2019 Branding Croatia article:

From Tesla to Rimac - the home of clean energy and innovation

Nikola Tesla was a genius, whose inventions transformed the way we live. He was also an ethnic Serb who was born and grew up in the village of Smiljan, in which is today modern Croatia. Tesla only visited Serbia once, and yet Belgrade named its international airport after him. Meanwhile in Croatia... 

Smiljan is a lovely spot, with plenty of space. As Telsa's birthplace, it is also the symbolic home of the Tesla revolution. So let's give people a product to match that potential, an Old Trafford Theatre of Dreams for the e-mobility generation. I have been fortunate to have taken part in the Nikola Tesla EV Rally a few times. One of the undoubted highlights of the trip for these Tesla car converts is a visit to Smiljan, a chance to pay homage to Nikola Tesla and where it all began. 

Looking forward, as branding Croatia should be doing, something like 75% of tourists to Croatia arrive by car. By 2030, there will be 21 million new electric vehicles on Europe's roads. From a tourism and economic viewpoint, it would make sense for Croatia to be at the forefront of the e-revolution, but with a gift of the Tesla birthplace, a brand to build on and develop for sure. Especially when Croatia has a modern-day Tesla in the shape of Mate Rimac, whose electric supercars and technology is taking the world by storm. 

The energy this year to push the Croatian digital nomad story forward has been inspiring, as well as encouraging. If Croatian bureaucracy really can work that fast, and if the Croatian tourism chiefs really can react to private initiatives such as de Jong's visa proposal, then it can do the same in other sectors, for the ultimate benefit of tourists, tourism providers, and the Croatian economy. So with the digital nomad box almost ticked, can we now turn our attention to legislation for foreign retirees, empower the medical tourism industry to realise its vision, coordinate a unified and comprehensive introduction to Croatia's wine potential, or raise the level of Nikola Tesla promotion to the level the great man deserves? 

As with the nomad visa, none of these is overly taxing, and the benefits for Croatia will be considerable.