As Marija Crnjak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 22nd of May, 2020, so far, as many as 80 percent of clients of Croatian travel agencies have agreed to accept vouchers instead of refunds, and with ''voucher measures'' and the introduction of a moratorium on refunds, agencies are protected with around 200 million kuna, the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies (UHPA) revealed.

However, the turnover of Croatian tourist agencies is still close to zero, nobody has started entering their branches just yet, even though they have opened again, and the question is how these agencies will survive if the minimum wage measure is not extended.

In addition, due to the general uncertainty, it's more difficult today to find insurance companies that will gladly agree to issue guarantee insurance policies, which is a legal obligation of such agencies. In her open letter, Sonja Lovrentjev, the owner of a Zagreb agency called Obord, which normally organises the travel of preschoolers, warned of these issues.

"Insurers are telling us that they don't want to issue this type of insurance, because the risk is too great, but in the event that Croatian travel agencies issue travel vouchers or sell trips without a valid insurance policy, they operate against what the law prescribes. Therefore, it isn't clear to us whether vouchers can be issued only by those Croatian travel agencies that currently have a valid guarantee policy, and what if, at the time of issuing, the voucher the agency provides has a valid insurance policy, but it ceases to be valid in the new travel period?'' asks a concerned Lovrentjev.

UHPA President Tomislav Fain confirmed that UHPA is aware of the problem of guarantee insurance, and is currently in negotiations with two insurance companies that will issue it, namely Triglav and Adriatic osiguranje.

“Insurance companies are private companies that also need to assess their own risks, but we still managed to agree to continue with these policies, and in addition to the insurance policies, the Act also provides bank guarantees,” explained Fain.

Additionally, Fain is convinced that the Croatian Government will comply with the UHPA's request to extend the minimum wage measure for agencies for more than three months, noting that only those with a drop in turnover of 70 percent will receive compensation. He stated that it was worth remembering that Croatian travel agencies were the first to feel the negative effects of the ongoing coronavirus crisis and will probably be the last to get out of it, too.

"We're aware that due to the possible danger of contracting the infection, it isn't possible to open everything we want to open and that it isn't possible to start working in the way we did before the pandemic struck. We're all aware that there is a period ahead of us in which we will generate very little income, and I'm glad that some of my colleagues had their first groups on day trips to Plitvice Lakes National Park last weekend, which reduced ticket prices encouraged by our letter. In one TV show, we discussed the drop in traffic, and our colleagues from other industries talked about how much traffic fell and for whom it fell, and when it was my turn, I said that we have no traffic, that our turnover is 0.00 kuna,'' concluded Fain.

For more, follow our business page.

May 22, 2020 - Update travel advice from the Croatian Ministry of Tourism following a TCN media request (republished in full). 

Dear Mr. Bredbury,

Thank you for your interest in promoting Croatian tourism and providing information for tourists. Below you can find information regarding your questions prepared by the Ministry of Tourism.

Border crossing information

The Decision on the Temporary Ban of Transit through Border Crossings of the Republic of Croatia and the Decision on the Amendment of the aforementioned Decision from 9 May 2020, allows:

1. Croatian citizens to enter into Republic of Croatia and go abroad.
2. The return to the country of residence for citizens of EU Member Countries, namely citizens of Schengen Countries and Schengen Associated Countries as well as their family members, and third-country nationals who are long-term residents pursuant to the Council Directive 2003/109/EC of 25 November 2003 concerning the status of third-country nationals who are long-term residents and persons who have the right of residence on the basis of other EU Directives or national law or who have national long-term visas, and entry into the Republic of Croatia under special conditions.

If the foreign national intends to cross the state border he has to meet one of the following conditions:

1. Possesses documentation with which he can prove ownership of real estate located in the Republic of Croatia, or vessel (lessee is also permitted), or is attending a funeral in the Republic of Croatia (possesses appropriate documentation which proves this). After meeting the conditions, such foreign nationals are allowed to cross the state border, they are registered and the location/address where they will stay, or where the real estate/vessel is located, is entered as well as the contact telephone number and duration of stay-when they plan leaving the Republic of Croatia.
2. They possess documentation with which they prove that they were invited to the Republic of Croatia by an economic operator, the economic operator’s interest for them to enter into Republic of Croatia, or a business meeting invite. For these passengers, it is necessary to enter the place / address where they will stay and the contact phone number and duration of stay - when they plan to leave the Republic of Croatia.
3. All other foreign nationals who have a certain business reason, which cannot be foreseen at this time, and do not have the appropriate documentation, should be instructed to announce their intention to cross the state border (enter into the Republic of Croatia) atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and they will receive an answer as soon as possible.

Given the restrictions currently in force, to combat the spread of COVID-19, and to obtain relevant information faster, all frequently asked questions and answers about the conditions of entry into the Republic of Croatia are published on the official website of the Ministry of Interior under the category UZG COVID on main menu bar.

If you do not find the answer on the conditions of entry into the Republic of Croatia among the most frequently asked questions and answers, an online inquiry form is available through which you can contact Ministry of Interior to get a specific answer to your question about the possibility of entry. The mentioned page and the online form are currently available in Croatian, English and German, and it is planned to expand to other foreign languages.

The address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. still remains a place where interested users can turn to with a slightly different procedure.

Ministry of Tourism in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior is working on implementation of a web form which will enable the preparation of the necessary data to cross the border before starting the travel. This web form will enable more efficient and faster cross of the Croatian border while allowing to send notification with all the necessary information for safe stay in Croatia.

Safety information and health care

In all tourist facilities such as restaurants, accomodation, swimming pools, beaches and similar, safety measures prescribed by professional epidemiological services are applied to combat the spread of coronavirus what ensures the highest standards of health and hygiene of guests.

Guidelines for all types of tourist facilities and activities can be found on the website of the Ministry of Tourism at the following link

Best regards,

PRESS MINT

May 22, 2020 - A tale of two realities - what are Greece and Croatia telling the world about restarting tourism? Jebote!

Back in 2014, I wrote an article for a Canadian news portal comparing the progress of two Nikki Beach resorts, one in Greece and one in Croatia. The Greek resort, whose investors purchase the real estate in 2006, were due to open on August 1, 2014. Which they did. Investors for the Croatian resort bought the land in 2007, and at time of writing (July 29, 2014), they still not own the land 100%, some 7 years after purchase. At time of writing today, May 22, 2020, they still do not won the land, some 13 years later. You can read the original article here. 

My article became the top news story in Croatia's leading newspaper, Jutarnji List, the following day. Their two-page feature included a quote from the then Minister of Tourism, Darko Lorencin. 

I invite the Croatian media to take a look at the comparison between Greece and Croatia once more, but this time for another topic - the official response to restarting tourism, a key part of the economy for both countries (20% of GDP in Croatia's case). 

Firstly, Go Greece! The news is everywhere (here in The Guardian, for example): Greece has a coherent plan for its tourism restart. 

And here is Greece again, on the homepage of the BBC.

Not only a plan, but a really good plan - marvel at the transparency, communication and level of detail in this. 

Well done, Greece - may you have a successful salvage of the rest of the season. 

So coherent is the Greek message that it made it onto this VERY useful timeframe of international travel reopening. 

Of Croatia, there was not a mention. Both countries are in the EU, so must adhere to the same rules. 

Meanwhile, over in the Kingdom of Accidental Tourism, I do encourage you to check out the Ministry of Tourism website in English, for it really is a quite sensational read at the moment. Here was the homepage yesterday morning (small background reminder - we are in the middle of the COVID-19 era):

Yes, you read that right. In the middle of a global pandemic, with shares of Zoom going through the roof at a time when people are questioning whether the concept of conference tourism will even exist, the Kings of Accidental Tourism are less concerned with restarting tourism and doing what they can to help those thousands of tourism businesses which depend on tourism, and more concerned with self-congratulation. Click on the article, because it gets better:

"After various world associations held 114 conventions in Croatia in 2018, even more conventions were held in 2019, 123, and Croatia went up four places in the ICCA rankings, to the 34th place globally by the number of conventions held. That is the highest position Croatia has taken to date, which also confirms its status as the leading conference destination in the region," said HTZ director Kristjan Stancic.

He thinks this is great news for Croatia's conference tourism, which is on an upward trajectory, as well as for Zagreb, which has taken the 48th place in the ICCA rankings for conference cities, jumping up by 20 places compared to 2018.

I would be really interested to see the official projections for the 2020 'upward trajectory' for conference tourism in the corona era. 

And what is the current top story of the day at the Ministry of Tourism, as Greece grabs all the global headlines in the travel industry?

I kid you not. 

But this really is great progress. 

Croatian Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli, owner of perhaps the finest tourism slogan in a pandemic ever - Croatia Breathes Tourism - has been in the job four years. 

And he has certainly been busy preparing for the restart of tourism. 

After an article from Croatia's leading news portal, Index.hr made the headlines 2 weeks ago, within two hours, he had managed to abolish the fax machine from the Ministry of Tourism website altogether.

In the same article, it came to light that according to the Ministry of Tourism, not only was there no COVID-19 information on its website, but there was seemingly no corona information at all.

This is how the homepage looked on May 6, 2020. 

I got some hope when a dedicated COVID-19 section appeared, about the same time that the fax machine disappeared.

With no useful travel info. 

My hopes were raised once more when the Deputy Minister of Tourism asked me to send questions to create a dedicated info page for the ministry and also to be shared by TCN. 

10 days later - no information page, no answer to my questions from the Ministry of Tourism. Thankfully, the Ministry of the Interior was a lot more forthcoming, and you can find some useful info here. 

So there you have it. Croatia v Greece - who wants your tourist dollar more?

And if you are planning a large conference, come to the Kingdom of Accidental Tourism. Our conference tourism is on an upward trajectory, baby. Hop on board before you miss out on the ride. 

For more on the brilliance within the corridors of power in the Mighty State of Uhljebistan, check out our dedicated section. 

May 22, 2020 - Although travel plans are currently on hold, data collected by Booking.com reveals that this has not stopped travel enthusiasts from daydreaming. A look at how travelers in Croatia plan to vacation after the corona crisis. 

HRTurizam reports that after reviewing the millions of “Wish Lists” travelers have created on Booking.com over the past two months, with more than 100,000 different destinations recorded since early March, Booking.com has decided to share the top destinations and accommodation units travelers have been thinking about as they wait for when they can start traveling again.

Destinations such as Bali, Andalusia, London, Florida and Paris continue to inspire travel enthusiasts around the world, but due to the uncertain situation in the last two months, as many as 51% of travelers globally have chosen destinations within their country. At the same time, 33% of travelers expressed a desire to visit domestic destinations.

In 2020, as many as 48% of those wishing to visit destinations within Croatia is on the Wish List, which represents an increase compared to 2019, when 38% of domestic passengers said so.

Since the beginning of March, Zagreb, Split, Zadar, Dubrovnik, Opatija, Rijeka, Makarska, Rovinj and Osijek have been at the top of the wish list of domestic destinations from Croatia, which tells us that travelers are looking forward to visiting sunny cities on the coast and beaches, but also the hustle and bustle offered by the big cities in the interior after weeks spent in isolation. Travelers who have already visited these destinations recommend them for their history and beautiful old buildings, walks along rivers or the sea and friendly people.

When we talk about adventures abroad, travelers from Croatia mostly dream of big European cities of culture as well as destinations in neighboring countries. In that list, Istanbul (Turkey) was in the first place, then Budapest (Hungary), London (UK), Belgrade (Serbia) and Paris (France), and in the top destinations were Rome (Italy), Lisbon ) and Sarajevo (BiH).

Also on the Wish List of countries that travelers from Croatia would like to visit are Italy, Turkey, Spain, the United Kingdom and Serbia. Nevertheless, domestic destinations are still a favorite of travelers from Croatia on the Booking.com Wish List.

While dreaming of changing the environment and spending the night outside their home, travelers from Croatia most wanted to stay in apartments, hotels, guest houses, cottages, and resorts. As many as 41% of travelers from Croatia during the last two months have expressed a desire to stay in apartments, which is much more than the global average of 20%.

The three most desirable accommodation units in Croatia for travelers from Croatia are Apartments Lisinski in Zagreb, Madison Luxury Apartments in Zagreb and Plitvice Holiday Resort in Grabovac. The most desirable accommodation units outside Croatia for travelers from Croatia are Apartment East West (Belgrade, Serbia), Nusha Apartments (Belgrade, Serbia) and Alpin Panorama Hotel Hubertus (Trentino Alto Adige, Italy).

"These are challenging times where security is a top priority. At Booking.com, we know that in times like these, thinking about how we’re going to explore the world again has great power that brings us inspiration and a good mood. It’s amazing to see the range of different travel experiences our customers dream about during the period they’ve been waiting for the opportunity to pack up and hit the road again," Maja Vikario, regional manager, told Booking.com.

Interestingly, on the top 1000 global list of the most desirable destinations in the world, there are as many as nine regions from Croatia with Split-Dalmatia County at the top, after which Istria and the Dubrovnik-Neretva County are on the list.

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

The New York Times has published something about the famous Dalmatian city that nobody would have ever expected before coronavirus became a reality.

Before the coronavirus pandemic struck, the most frequent complaints you'd hear from residents of Croatia's tourist Mecca of Dubrovnik all involved too many tourists, a lack of proper infrastructure to cope with the crowds, damage to the UNESCO protected historic core, too many harmful cruise ships, and too much traffic.

Since coronavirus penetrated Croatia's borders, however, the situation has rather incredibly reversed almost entirely. What Dubrovnik strived for for many years has been acheived by no less than something invisible - a virus.

As Morski writes on the 19th of May, 2020, the popular and highly respected American publication the New York Times ranked Croatia's southernmost city of Dubrovnik among the eleven top global destinations that suddenly became peaceful places to live in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and until that crisis, they ''fought'' with excessive numbers of tourists, a situation which saw the coining of a brand new term - overtourism.

"The eleven most visited tourist destinations in the world have recently completely changed. In Venice, for example, there are currently more locals than there are tourists, which is an extremely rare situation for a city that has been struggling with overcrowding for years,'' writes the New York Times, whose online edition is followed by more than five million subscribers.

In addition to Dubrovnik and Venice, the list of such "changed" destinations also includes Rome, Bali, Iceland, Amsterdam, Barcelona, ​​Paris, Prague, Halong Bay in Vietnam and the Galapagos Islands, reports the director of the Croatian National Tourist Board's office in New York, Ina Rodin.

The article also conveys the experiences of local residents in these destinations, and the situation in his native Dubrovnik was described by Darko Perojevic, chef and owner of the Azur restaurant, emphasising that the old town of Dubrovnik, where he has lived for most of his life, has not been so empty since the 1990s, when the city was ravaged by attacks by the Yugoslav People's Army.

Still, he admitted that it is now a special pleasure to walk through the empty city centre and see children playing in the streets.

"For a moment, it seems as if we've regained the city," said Perojevic, adding that the first quarantine was introduced in Dubrovnik in the 14th century to protect the local population from the plague. You can read more about that here.

For more, follow our travel page.

March 21, 2021 - TCN Croatia Travel Update carries the most relevant updates on travel, borders, and flights to Croatia at one place, updated daily several times, while TCN Total Croatia Travel Info Viber community (click on the link to join - you will need to download the Viber app) provides you with live answers to any question, as well real-time experiences of travellers to Croatia.

Follow our live updates on the situation in the earthquake-hit areas of Croatia here; find out how you can donate here.

Those arriving to Croatia from Zanzibar (Tanzania) were added to the list of those that need to have a negative test AND self-isolate for 14 days. On January 13, the new border rules for entry were announced. On January 15, the rules are further explained, and the biggest change is that travellers arriving in Croatia from the United Kingdom, the South African Republic, the Austrian region of Tyrol and Brasil need to have a negative PCR test AND they need to self-isolate for 14 days (or have their self-isolation shortened if they pay for another test, at least 7 days after they've entered Croatia), no matter what their citizenship is.

Basic rules regarding entry in Croatia as of December 1st, 2020 are:

- travellers, regardless of their citizenship, arriving from the ECDC "Green List" region, (the list of Green List regions is increasing with every update, so please consult the website or the map below), or from a country listed on the so-called EU "Safe list", who can prove that they haven't spent any time outside of those Green/safe regions while travelling to Croatia, have no symptoms or have not had close contacts with infected persons are allowed to enter Croatia without a test;   

- citizens of the EU/EEA (EU 27 + Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, as well as Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican and including Croatian citizens) or a non-EU citizen with an EU residence permit (or a member of their family, with documents to prove the kinship) are allowed to enter Croatia no matter where they come from and are not required to provide a reason, but need to have a negative PCR test, not older than 48 hours, or get tested upon entry (at their own expense) and self-isolate until they get the results (up to 10 days); the same rule is applied to the third-country nationals travelling from an EU/EEA region;

- third-country nationals arriving from anywhere else (except for the UK and the SAR) will be allowed entry in Croatia if they have a negative PCR test, not older than 48 hours (they will also be given an option to get tested upon entry at their own expense and self-isolate until they get the results), HOWEVER, they will have to prove they are travelling for urgent personal/family reasons, business reasons or other economic interest (including seafarers). 

You can find more details, including some exceptions to the rules listed above in the LATEST OFFICIAL GUIDELINES IN ENGLISH FROM THE CROATIAN BORDER POLICE (December 1)

834 new cases, 20 deaths in the last 24 hours; Daily Corona Update (March 21)

There have been 834 new recorded COVID-19 cases in Croatia in the last 24 hours, so 6,922 cases of COVID-19 remain active. 982 people are still hospitalized, with 90 patients on a ventilator.

6,884 people were tested in the last 24 hours, for a total of 1,475,016 since the crisis began. 257,639 people have been confirmed as infected with COVID-19 in Croatia in total (since February 25th, 2020). 244,944 people have recovered and 5,773 have died (20 patients have died in Croatia in the last 24 hours).

Click on your language to get the latest Croatia Travel Update in your language and read the of Total Croatia News in your language: German - Deutch, Slovenian - slovenščina, Polish - polski, Czech - čeština, Slovak - slovenčina, Hungarian - magyar, Serbian - srpski, Italian - italiano, French - français, Spanish - español, Portuguese - português, Dutch - Nederlands, Danish - dansk, Norwegian - norsk, Swedish - svenska, Finnish - suomi, Russian - русский, Ukrainian - українська мова, Romanian - românește, Bulgarian - български, Albanian - shqip, Korean - 한국어, Chinese - 汉语, and Croatian - hrvatski.

Travelers are advised to fill out the form at http://entercroatia.mup.hr before arriving at the border for faster border crossing.

TravelDoc.aero is a seemingly great service to check on the entry requirements for any country and nationality; however it doesn't seem to be updated to reflect the changes of November 30. Check out the website and your travel eligibility to Croatia and anywhere else here.

Check the official reopen.europa.eu website for detailed information for EU countries.

As US Embassy States Croatia Closed, American Tourists Continue to Arrive (December 3)

9There is a lot of confusion at the moment on whether or not Americans and other 3rd-party nationals can enter Croatia after the November 30 changes. Officially, tourism is not a reason to enter, but that is different from tourists not being able to enter. It is possible, as you can see from the official response above, posted in our Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community. 

Croatia Extends Anti-Epidemic Measures After March 15 (March 10)

Cafe Terraces to Work from 6 am to 10 pm, No Music, Says COVID Response Team (February 26)

Index Finds Out New Rules for Cafes, Restaurants, and Sports in Croatia (February 25)

Prime Minister Plenkovic: Cafe Terraces Can Open on Monday (February 25)

New Official Croatian epidemiological measures (January 30)

New Official Croatian Border Crossing Rules, Recommendations (January 16)

Croats, Brits with Croatian Residence Can Return from UK to Croatia (January 1)

Latest updates from the Petrinja earthquake

Croatia Imposes Temporary Ban on Flights from UK over New Coronavirus Variant (December 21)

Travel to Croatia in December 2020: TCTI Viber Community Traveller Experiences (December 15)

Croatian Government Agreed on Fines for Violating Measures, Awaiting Parliament Confirmation (November 30)

New Measures Until December 21 Announced by Prime Minister Plenkovic (November 26)

What is the Number of Ventilators in Croatia? (November 16)

Croatia Travel Update: Answers to Recent FAQs (December 2)

Travel to Croatia: Real-Time Feedback from Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber Community (September 1)

Where Can You Get Tested for COVID-19 in Croatia? (September 1)

Where to Get Tested Before Arriving in Croatia? (August 9)

Flying to Croatia? Why You Should Print Out These IATA Guidelines (June 16)

OFFICIAL INFO PAGE FROM THE CROATIAN BORDER POLICE, with FAQ and form to ask questions is the best source of official advice (available in English, German, and Croatian, updated on December 1) .

OFFICIAL CROATIAN BORDER POLICE PAGE TO FILL OUT BORDER FORMS AHEAD OF TRAVEL, shortening your waiting time at the Croatian border

What is the entercroatia.mup.hr Form and Do You Need to Fill It? (June 22)

It is recommended that travellers fill out border entry forms at entercroatia.mup.hr, to speed their passage across the border and into Croatia. Visitors will only have to provide their name, place where they're staying, mobile phone number, and email address. An additional reason to do so that is that special fast-track Enter Croatia lanes have been introduced at some borders for quicker entry.

While you wait for the answers from Croatian Border Police, check the real-life experiences of tourists coming to Croatia and get your questions answered in our Total Croatia Travel INFO community (you will need to download the Viber app). This Viber community has been an excellent source of information exchange, where tourist questions are getting answered in real-time. Here are 10 things I learned from the Viber community in the first days. If you have a question or some verified useful travel info to contribute, join us. Please make sure you read the pinned message and our FAQ article before asking any questions.

Borders (This section is being updated regularly to reflect the changes of November 30)

LATEST OFFICIAL GUIDELINES IN ENGLISH FROM THE CROATIAN BORDER POLICE (December 1)

Croatia Announces New Border Rules, Expands PCR Test Requirements

The changes of November 30 brought some changes to just about every category of traveler to Croatia: as of December 1st, almost all Croatian and EU citizens need to have a negative PCR test in order to enter Croatia (there are few exceptions, including those arriving from the ECDC "Green list"), or get tested upon entry and self-isolate until they have the results. As for the third-country nationals, if they are arriving from within the EU, the same rules apply to them. If the third-country nationals want to enter Croatia after spending time elsewhere, they will be asked to provide proof that they are travelling for urgent personal/family reasons, business reasons or other economic interest (including seafarers). We have not been able to officially confirm if potential tourist arrivals will continue to be regarded as "other economic interest", as has been the case before this change. Please consult with your embassy and the Croatian authorities to make sure you'll be able to enter Croatia.

There is no age limit for testing in order to enter Croatia, which means that children need to get tested as well. 

One important piece of information we have heard unofficially is that those travellers who have already had COVID-19, and who have since recovered, will not be required to present a negative PCR test or be given a self-isolation measure. They need to be able to prove with medical documentation that they have had the disease. That documentation needs to reflect that the final day of their disease was not within 14 days of arrival at the Croatian border or more than 90 days before that. 

Follow our regularly updated article to find out if there are any measures imposed when you leave Croatia and enter other countries (updated on November 2)

This section gets regularly updated, as more information becomes available. For more answers in the meantime, please follow our Answers to Recent FAQs (not updated to reflect the changes of Nov 30) and Where Can You Get Tested in Croatia, as well as the Croatian Police official info page, regarding crossing the Croatian border during COVID-19, in English (not updated to reflect the changes of Nov 30). Use the e-mail address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for additional questions and official confirmations from the Croatian Border Police. US citizens should also check the US embassy in Croatia travel advisory.

For the latest rules and information on who can enter and transit Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro please check the linked official government pages. 

3rd country citizens (Americans, Canadians, etc.) have to spend at least 15 days in an EU country (such as Croatia) to be allowed to enter Montenegro (August 7)

Update on July 16: citizens of the European Union and Schengen countries, as well as visa- or residence permit-holders in the EU countries, are allowed to enter Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a negative PCR test for coronavirus, not older than 48 hours. We've received confirmation that the Croatian citizens are exempt from this, ie. that they can enter Bosnia and Herzegovina freely. Please follow Official Bosnian travel advice for more updates. Transit through Neum will be exempt from this rule, you will just have to leave the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina in an hour (it's 23 km, so it shouldn't be a problem).

For more information regarding travel to Slovenia and Montenegro, please visit our sister sites:

Total Slovenia News (Slovenia modifies their red list: 8 Croatian counties on the Red list, other on the Orange list, September 28, 2020)

Total Montenegro News (new measures in force in Montenegro, August 7, 2020)

For comprehensive overviews on crossing the Croatian borders, check out the Total Croatia 2021 guides: Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (updated on Feb 26, 2021)

You can see the current situation at the borders through the border webcams. Simply select 'Border Crossings' under 'Traffic cams' in the menu on the left.

What Do the Green, Yellow & Red Lists Mean for Entering Slovenia During the Corona Crisis? (July 5, Total Slovenia News)

Behind the Scenes at the Croatian Border Control System: AMAZING! (June 9)

Flights

Croatia Airlines is now operating a number of international flights to European cities. Domestic flights are running daily.

Check the latest flight situation at Croatia's airport websites: Zagreb, Split, Zadar, Pula, Dubrovnik, Rijeka, Osijek, Brač and Lošinj.

The Croatia Airlines contact center is available on the following numbers: 0800 77 77 (toll-free calls from Croatia), 072 500 505 or +385 1 66 76 555. More info and Live Schedule.

We have consolidated all the latest flight news into this section. New flight announcements will be added here.

Roads, Ferries, Buses, and Trains

Latest information on the roads from HAK.

Latest ferry information from HAK.

Jadrolinija ferry and catamaran timetable.

Krilo catamaran timetable. 

Croatia Airlines and Jadrolinija Team Up to Improve Croatia's Tourist Offer (July 24)

For the latest on the trains from HAK.

The best resource we have found for bus timetables is GetByBus.

The situation is constantly evolving, and for the latest on travel updates and all other coronavirus developments, we recommend you follow the dedicated TCN COVID-19 section.

Current Situation

Croatian Tourism Association (Hrvatska udruga turizma) has created a helpful tracker of active COVID-19 cases in various Croatian regions - https://www.croatiacovid19.info/ (the color-coding they use is similar to what ECDC has been using, and is indicative of the 14-day average). For more day-to-day visualizations of COVID-19 situation in Croatia, follow Velebit.ai.

We remind you that the best defense against this virus is to maintain personal hygiene, sanitize, and keep a social distance.

More at: https://www.koronavirus.hr/en.

TCN has a dedicated coronavirus section where you can follow all the latest news.

To see how Croatia coronavirus numbers compare to the rest of EU/EEA please check here.

Looking for more details? The latest tourism and travel articles on TCN are here.

If you have relevant and authenticated tourism updated info to add to this resource, please send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Subject Travel update.

Have you joined the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community yet? Learn more about it here.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 19th of May, 2020, during the first week of the easing of the measures to combat the spread of the new coronavirus, from May the 11th to the 17th, eVisitor registered about 8,700 tourist arrivals and 84.5 thousand overnight stays in Croatia, most of which (34 percent of them) were realised in private households.

Data from eVisitor shows a certain shift in tourist trends over the past week when compared to the time before the measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus epidemic were put in place. For example, for the entire month of April this year, a total of 9,500 tourist arrivals and 392,000 overnight stays were recorded in Croatia.

Last week, according to data from eVisitor, most tourists in Croatia were domestic tourists, making up 74 percent of the total, followed by tourists from neighbouring Slovenia, making up 15 percent, and the rest came from other countries.

In terms of Croatian counties, 18 percent of the total number of tourists came to destinations in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, then 15 percent went to Istria and 14 percent went to Zadar County, while 10 percent went to the capital - Zagreb.

The first set of data show that tourists, in contrast to the previous few weeks, stayed more frequently in commercial than in non-commercial accommodation, meaning that as many as 34 percent of them stayed in accommodation in households, followed by 26 percent who chose hotels, while 20 percent of the total number who came to Croatia last week stayed in non-commercial accommodation.

Responding to Hina's inquiry, the CNTB has announced that campaigns for Croatian tourism are ready for foreign markets, which go in two directions - towards markets whose citizens are likely to be able and willing to visit Croatia, which are mostly neighbouring and closer countries (Slovenia, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Poland, Italy, Slovakia, the Czech Republic), and to other important markets, from which tourists (due to the situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic) will not be able to travel to Croatia in a rush (USA, China, South Korea and so on).

"Campaigns for neighbouring and closer markets, with direct call communication, will be activated on each market as soon as the clear conditions are met. On top of that, the preparation of a special online communication platform that will serve as a kind of communication 'window' not only for the CNTB but for all other stakeholders in the tourism industry in Croatia, who will be able to easily use it for their own promotion, is underway'' stated the CNTB.

When asked if they will run a campaign for the domestic market as well, the CNTB says that they will, and that ''this is, if it can be called that, the third direction of the [aforementioned] campaign".

For more, follow our travel page.

May 19, 2020 - An update to TCN's mailshot to Croatia's 319 tourists boards, and am I allowed to publish the results transparently? 

My recent article What Happens When 319 Croatian Tourist Boards Get a Free Offer in a Pandemic? was an experiment in how effective a new strategy would be in making Croatia a better place. Big Data versus the Mighty State of Uhljebistan. 

Results were encouraging, and then Index.hr published THIS. And suddenly my little experiment became a national discussion. 

I wanted to give you a little update, for while we can all laugh (a tragic laugh) at the indifference and ineptitude, there are some very positive things that have come out of this. 

1. Some excellent submissions - you can see the ones we have done already (and the ones we will do when I get some time - next one today hopefully) here https://www.total-croatia-news.com/tag/virtual-croatia 

2. Some tourist boards are coming together. One tourist board on Brac sent me the materials and after a discussion, we agreed to do one big one for the whole island. All Brac tourist boards have now sent me the info. A similar story for inland Dalmatia. 

3. One tourist board director actually picked up the phone and called me to thank me for the initiative, but his new video would only be ready in a week. And a great video it is too - you will see it on Virtual Croatia shortly.

I had several angry emails, from tourist board directors who claimed that they had never received the email, even after checking SPAM. 

As I said in my article, 16 emails did not arrive due to SPAM filters, full mailboxes and disabled accounts. There has been a lot of interest in this, as people want to know how their local tourist board reacted. 

I believe in transparency, it is our best weapon against the Mighty State of Uhljebistan. And I would be happy to make all the data publicly available to help the discussion along. I am not sure what the GDPR etc issues are on that, but if anyone with some knowledge on this could send me an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Subject GDPR, that would be helpful. 

And the data is golden. In the lead photo, for example, meet the local tourist board who opened the offer on April 30 and unsubcribed. Then suddenly became interested after the Index article.

And for those of you who think local tourism boards do not work on a weekend, look how wrong you are.  

May 17, 2020 - As TCN's Virtual Croatia mailshot initiative becomes a national news story, a little update and a prototype for tourist board reform: Sucuraj on Hvar.

A little bit of TCN history yesterday, as not one but two Index articles featuring TCN articles made the list of top 10 most read on Croatia's largest portal, Index.hr. 

Apart from the obvious boost in traffic and raising of TCN's profile to Croatian readers, one thing almost always happens when Index takes one of my stories.

Positive change. And often rather quickly. 

Take last week, for example. An article calling for official bodies to stop embarrassing the country and themselves met with no response when I wrote about it. When Index did the story, however, things changed within hours. The Croatian National Tourist Board wisely decided that quoting obscure references to the Official Gazette on the corona advice page for tourists was arguably not the first thing potential visitors wanted to read, and they updated the page into what is now one of the most useful and updated pages in English. Great stuff and well done.  

The Ministry of Tourism's response was even more impressive. Their English homepage started the day (the year is 2020, remember) with contact details which were phone and fax only - not even an email. 

By the time had come for marenda, the fax machine had been removed from both the homepage and the main contact page, to be replaced by 4 useful emails.  

So when someone sent me a link to their story on the Virtual Croatia mailshot initiative, What Happens When 319 Croatian Tourist Boards Get a Free Offer in a Pandemic?, I was curious to see what impact there would be.

Even though the story went out on a Saturday night, and now it is early on Sunday morning, the early results have been really interesting. This is how we started with the mailshot and my offer (which you can see here in English and Croatian)

Because I wanted my free offer to get the widest reach and visibility, I engaged a PR company to spread the press release throughout the Croatian media, which resulted in considerable coverage, such as Vecernji List, above. 

I finally figured out the mailshot technology and tracking systems a few days later and sent the mailshot. 

These were the results after more than two weeks. 

And from late evening on Saturday to early morning on Sunday after the Index article, these are the results below.

A 25% increase in clicks from the offer already. Proof that Index have a slightly better reach than me. 

 The Index story was their lead story last night, and it caused plenty of comments, polarised as usual. There were several saying that the emails would have gone to spam, so they wouldn't have seen them. I checked with 5 tourist boards who did not open (they were already working on the offer due to our longstanding communicaitons) and they all saw the email. The official stats I got back was that 16 were not delivered of the 319. Of these 16, 4 had mailboxes full, 7 were blocked (assume the SPAM filter), 2 were undeliverable, 2 had accounts which were suspended, and one was on vacation with an auto-reply. 

But even if they all went to SPAM, let's focus on the 78 who managed to open the email. Of those, only 24 managed to click on the link to see what I was offering. Which meant that 54 were either too busy or not interested. They were at least more interested than the two who unsubscribed. 

Another theme in the comments was 'who the hell is this Bradbury anyway - they have probably never heard of him.' 

One of the nicest emails I got was from the Rogoznica Tourist Board (as well as the most organised information and links of all - thank you!). The email started like this:

Dear Paul,

I appreciate very much your work and all effort you give for the promotion of Croatian tourism.

Virtual Croatia is a great initiative, and we would really like to be a part of it.

It was lots of fun to discover Rogoznica, and I learned a lot, thanks to the tourist board efforts. You can read Tourism in the Corona Era: Virtual Tools to Discover Rogoznica. 

And all the destinations done so far and in the future will be on our Virtual Croatia page.

I am grateful to Index for the exposure, and while I assumed that I and TCN were well-known - if not by lots of people in Croatia - then at least by the people working in tourism, allow me to present my tourism promotion credentials to any tourist board who would like to be part of the Virtual Croatia initiative, even those who unsubscribed. Simply follow the submission guidelines in the offer.

You may remember my article 25 Reasons You Should Never Visit Croatia a few years ago, which got 1 million hits in 24 hours and was all over the Croatian media.  

I won the FIJET Marco Polo Grand Prix award for best international promotion of Croatia in 2014 at the Croatian Association of Journalists. 

I did a big interview with Index last summer on the challenges and suggested directions of Croatian tourism last summer, which was read over 100,000 times. Perhaps you were one of the readers?

My website, Total Croatia News is the current recommended source of travel info to Croatia on CNN.

Last week, I was honoured to be on the first Business Cafe Online international meeting with Dutch legend Jan de Jong, talking about the simple steps to transform Croatia and its tourism without spending too much. 

And here I am with the biggest legend of all, Romano Bolkovic. 

I got a LOT of messages from media and private people wanting to check if their tourist board opened, clicked or unsubscribed. I have not revealed any information to anyone, for now is not the time. The time is to focus on the issue and what I, and every other decent person in this country, wants - change and reform.

And the reform of this outdated system IS possible. If the ministry can abolish the fax machine in 2 hours, it shows that change can come if we have the right conditions. And this is why the town of Sucuraj on the east of Hvar should be celebrated and copied, for the mayor DID abolish the position of tourist board director. You can read Sucuraj Mayor Removes Director Position: Tourist Board Reform IS Possible to find out how it was done. 

"The need for a year-round office is questionable, just for someone to have a salary in a small Tourism Board doing a job that amounts to two hours of administrative work per month, all while there are insufficient funds for any major project which needs to be done and monitored."

Enough from me. I hope we can make some change before my army of trolls uncover the truth about me. Firstly, they uncovered my clandestine mission to monitor olives for 13 years in Jelsa for MI6, CIA, FSB, Mossad and those chaps from Greater Serbia. And now I feel totally exposed, as Dear Dragi has uncovered the truth about me - I am actually an uhljeb prototype. It is only a matter of time before the link between Bradders, corona and Wuhan comes out. Keep taking the medicine, Dragi.

ZAGREB, May 16, 2020 - Over 14,000 foreigners have entered Croatia and over 36,000 Croatian citizens have left the country since May 9, when a decision on crossing the border during the coronavirus epidemic was changed, Police Director Nikola Milina said on Saturday.

Speaking on N1 television, he said over 50% of the foreigners who entered Croatia were Slovenian citizens and that the Croatian citizens who left the country did so across the Slovenian border.

Under a decision of the COVID-19 crisis management team, as of May 9 foreigners are allowed to enter Croatia in case of economic interests or urgent personal reasons, and Croatian citizens are allowed in and out of the country.

Milina said the ministries of tourism, public administration and interior were intensively working on an app that would step up crossing the border for foreigners.

If foreign tourists give their information via the app, the information would be available to the border police and border control would take one step, he added.

Milina said illegal migrations over the past two months were down 50% on the year.

He denied accusations that Croatian border police were treating migrants unlawfully, saying they were doing their job in line with the law and professionally.