May 16, 2020 - For a country so heavily dependent on tourism, communication from the Kings of Accidental Tourism is beyond sublime, a far cry from the outstanding communication from Vili Beros and team. What went wrong, and can we have a Koronavirus tourism Viber account?

Do you remember King Vili and Queen Alemka?

The very public and accessible faces of the crisis management team which has spearheaded the health response to the coronavirus crisis in Croatia. New Health Minister Vili Beros only came into the job on January 28, 2020, but he immediately brought in a sense of calm, order... and communication. 

They did such a good job that they won the thanks and admiration of the nation. Here they are, number 1 and 2 in the last poll by Index.hr on the top 20 positive and top 20 negative people in Croatia. Number 2 Most Positive is not a position many ministers have held since polling began. 

It wasn't just the health measures, however, it was the communication. It was beyond outstanding. I was full of admiration, gratitude and stress-free sleep. I knew that Vili was taking care of me while I slept, and I knew that he would explain everything he was doing, what I needed to do, and why, to get us all through this. 

It actually felt for those giddy few weeks that I was living in a real country. 

We got a dedicated Koronavirus website, which was full of incredible data, info and updates. It even had a section in English, something that many local tourists boards here cannot manage. The site was updated at 14:00 every day, to coincide with the daily press conference where Vili, Alemka and the team updated us live on television and took journalists' questions. 

There was a Koronavirus Viber account you could subscribe to to get the latest updates - over 400,000 did in the first 24 hours. Since its inception, the Viber updates have been regular, updated and informative. There was even an Android app called Andrija just for corona. 

And all this within the Mighty Kingdom of Uhljebistan. A Minister seemingly working for the people and not for himself. A surprising and refreshing change. Could this be one more step on the road to Croatia 2.0 and ridding the country of a far more difficult malevolent virus - Uhljebistan itself?

Sadly, those halcyon days look to be over. 

Croatia's focus in the corona story shifted from health, health, health to health, health, economy (understandably). But now there is a third factor which will quite probably play the biggest role of all - politics. It is election season, baby, and reelection is more important of all in the Mighty State of Uhljebistan. 

Tourism is now the focus - and how to 'save the season'. King Vili has passed over the stage to Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli, whose ingenious corona-era slogan - Croatia Breathes Tourism - perhaps gives you an indication on where this story is heading. 

The arguments about having a tourist season, who should come, and what level of measures should be taken are all part of very complex discussion. That is not the focus of this article. The focus of this article is how Croatia has gone from one of the global leaders in terms of corona communication thanks to Vili, Alemka and co, to the communication skills that would not be out of place in Pyongyang. 

I am getting a ton of emails at the moment with questions like this:

But frustrated and desperate emails from the people who were trying to save the season - foreign tourists - kept flooding the TCN inbox, as we were the only source trying to give daily updates from the info we could find after much research. 

And then - at least I thought - a breakthrough of common sense. State Secretary of Tourism Tonci Glavina has always been one on the most communicative members of the government. Bilingual in language and mindset after studying in California, I posted the message above on his wall earlier this week. He was, as expected, responsive, and I agreed to send the questions to help the ministry do its job. 

I sent 14 questions the same day, mostly generated by TCN readers, to both the Ministry of Tourism, press department and the office of the State Secretary (who had asked me to send them), as well as the press department of the Ministry of the Interior. 

After three days, I had received no reply from anyone. I emailed the tourism ministry again, then called both the press department (whose job it is to talk to the press) and the office of the State Secretary. Silence. I then called Tonci's mobile and got a message that he would call me back. 

Which he did. And we chatted for 40 minutes, off the record, so I am not at liberty to divulge the contents of that chat. 

But I still have no answers the following day. And nobody else does either. Personally I am embarrassed on behalf of the public officials who continue to take salaries for such incompetence as so many are losing their livelihoods, but I have a simple suggestion which would solve all this information chaos in one go, while giving Croatia a great chance to promote special offers AND gather data on tourists via their data. 

It is a simple idea. One which King Vili has been using for weeks. 

Can we have a Viber account similar to the Koronavirus.hr, but focused jus ton tourism and travel updates. Daily border updates, flight info, update in measures, offer of the day, fun fact about Croatian tourism. A mixture of information to allow people to understand what is happening and to entice them to spend their cash?

How hard would that be? Am sure King Vili would share knowledge how he did it. He is a team player after all, working for the people. 

TCN would be more than happy to work with the ministry if required. 

16. svibnja 2020 - Turistički budžeti su zamrznuti tijekom pandemije. Kako 319 turističkih zajednica u Hrvatskoj odgovara na poziv da ih se besplatno reklamira? Pročitajte pregled rezultata našeg poziva Virtual Croatia.

Živimo u čudnim vremenima, a to je u Hrvatskoj istinitije nego drugdje.

Mi smo turistička zemlja, s otprilike četiri milijuna stanovnika. Pritom, da upotrijebim metaforu ministra Cappellija iz doba korone, "Hrvatska diše turizam".

U tolikoj mjeri da, ako postoji ikakva naznaka života, sagradimo lokalnu turističku zajednicu i instaliramo direktora. Pa to na kraju ispadne da imamo jednu turističku zajednicu na svakih 12,500 ljudi u Lijepoj Našoj - ako u račun ne uključite 20 regionalnih zajednica iz Hrama Turizma, nacionalne Hrvatske Turističke Zajednice.

Vremena su teška u Kraljevstvu Slučajnog Turizma. A dolaze još i izbori. Toliko teška da mi je prošli tjedan organizator prilično poznatog događaja na nacionalnoj razini rekao da ga je turistička zajednica s kojom surađuje zamolila da im vrati novac koji su uložili u taj događaj. Samo do srpnja, obećali su, "jer im treba za izbore, ali će mu biti vraćeno odmah nakon izbora".

Tako prolaze dani u Moćnoj Državi Uhljebistanu.

Turistička promocija je zamrznuta. Posve nečuveno, ali u trenutku kad deseci tisuća radnika u privatnom sektoru gube svoje poslove, plaće onima koji rade u lokalnim turističkim zajednicama smanjene su između 4 i 20 posto. Nitko, naravno, nije izgubio posao, ipak se radi o javnom sektoru u Hrvatskoj, ali smanjenje plaće? I nestanak promotivnog budžeta koji možemo podijeliti svojim rođacima? Ljudi koji žive od Moćne Države Uhljebistan nisu bili sretni.

Bila je to užasna situacija. Zamislite te jadne turističke zajednice, svih njih 319, sa smanjenim plaćama i bez budžeta da podrže događaje koje organiziraju njihovi rođaci ili (o, da, još ta sitnica) da promoviraju hrvatski turizam. Ovaj koronavirus ih je zaista uništio.

Prije nego što sam se preselio u Hrvatsku, radio sam kao humanitarac u Somaliji, Gruziji, Ruandi i na rubu Sibira. Ta me humanitarna crta nikad nije napustila. Nisam imao gotovine da nahranim baš sve rođake u ovim teškim vremenima, ali mogao sam malo pomoći s (o, da, ta sitnica) promoviranjem turizma. Izdao sam objavu za medije, koju je prenijelo mnoštvo hrvatskih medija, u kojoj sam svakoj turističkoj zajednici koja to želi ponudio besplatni članak na našoj platformi, Virtual Croatia. Samo mi pošaljite neki alat, ja ću učiniti sve ostalo. 

Hrvatska turistička zajednica pomogla mi je tako što su mi dali aktualnu bazu svih lokalnih turističkih zajednica, pa sam barem mogao biti siguran da će moja ponuda stići na prave adrese.

Poslao sam ponudu koju sam već opisao, znajući da živimo u teškim vremenima i da nemam novca da ih podmitim a kako bi oni prihvatili moju besplatnu ponudu.

I, kakvi su bili rezultati? Koliko od ovih vrlo zaposlenih turističkih zajednica - koje nemaju budžeta da nahrane rođake niti turista da ih ometaju - je uopće reagiralo na ovu ponudu od koje oni osobno nisu imali nikakve koristi?

Poslao sam ponudu 30. travnja. Dva tjedna kasnije, impresivnih 26 % od 319 turističkih zajednica kojima je ponuda poslana pronašlo je vremena i interesa da uopće otvore moj e-mail.

Impresivnih 26 % pronašlo je vremena između svojih drugih obaveza tijekom pandemije, bez turista i bez promotivnih aktivnosti da uopće otvore moj email. Posve razumljivo, s takvim groznim smanjenjima plaće, zašto bismo uopće otvorili ovaj e-mail, zapitalo se preostalih 74 %!!

Nevjerojatna je ta bahatost! S kojim pravom taj debeli Irac meni šalje poslovne e-mailove, kad mi je plaća smanjena 4-20 %!! Iako sam lani imao samo 2047 turista (impresivnih 6 tursta dnevno), ne samo da nam ne treba nikakva, pa ni njegova pomoć, nego ćemo se i odjaviti s njegove liste!

Ono što sam otkrio jest da, posebno u Središnjoj Dalmaciji, postoji nova generacija turističkih zajednica. Mladi direktori koji žele komunicirati s turistima, a ne sa svojim rođacima. Ravno 18 turističkih zajednica prihvatilo je moju ponudu, ili to možete gledati tako da kažete da njih 301 nije.

Nisu li Brela divna?  

 A i Omiš također.

Sunčani Hvar. 

Krasna Rogoznica. 

Sanjajte danas, posjetite Opatiju sutra. 

Nemojte propustiti Klis (u originalu je bilo Don't Miss Klis, što je šala koja se neminovno gubi u prijevodu, op. prev.).

Veličanstveni Sinj.

Stiže ih još desetak.

Šaljem isprike djelatnicima onih 225 turističkih zajednica koji nisu niti otvorili moj e-mail. Uz isprike, šaljem i čokoladne kolačiće onima koje sam toliko inkomodirao da su jednostavno morali otkazati svoju pretplatu. Nadam se da će vam se uskoro u potpunosti vratiti vaši budžeti, a plaće vratiti na stare razine - ne, zapravo, nadam se da će se povećati - i koga boli ki*a za turiste?

Ako ste turistička zajednica koja bi se željela uključiti u naš projekt Virtualne Hrvatske, ovdje možete pronaći detalje. 

May 15, 2020 - With tourism budgets frozen due to corona, how do Croatia's 319 tourist boards respond to free promotional help? The Virtual Croatia mailshot results are in.

We live in funny times, and nowhere is that more true than in Croatia. 

We are a tourism country with a population of about 4 million people. And (to use Minister Cappelli's interesting corona-era metaphor) "Croatia breathes tourism."

So much so, in fact, that if there is a sign of life, we build a local tourist board and install a director. That works out (and no, we have not included the 20 regional boards or the Temple of Tourism, the National Tourist Board), at 1 tourist board for every 12,500 people in The Beautiful Croatia. 

Times are hard in the Kingdom of Accidental Tourism. And elections are coming. So hard in fact, that last week an organiser of a well-known national event told me that the tourist board he is working with for a postponed event asked if he could return the money invested until July because "we need it for the elections, but will return it immediately after." 

So the days pass in the Mighty State of Uhljebistan. 

Tourism promotional budgets were frozen. Outrageously, at a time when tens of thousands of workers in the private sector were losing their jobs, salaries were reduced by between 4-20% for workers in the 319 local tourist boards. There were no job losses of course - this was the public sector in Croatia - but a salary reduction? And no promo budget to give to the cousins? There were rumblings in the Mighty State of Uhljebistan. 

This was a terrible state of affairs. Imagine these poor tourist boards, all 319 of them, with reduced salaries and no budgets to support their cousins' events or (oh yes, the other thing) promote tourism. This coronavirus was devastating. 

Before I moved to Croatia, I worked as a humanitarian aid worker in Somalia, Georgia, Rwanda and the edge of Siberia. That humanitarian streak has never left me. I didn't have the cash to feed all the cousins in these difficult times, but I could help out with (oh yes, the other thing) promoting tourism. I did a press release, which got a lot of traction in the Croatian media, offering a free article for any tourist board in Croatia which wanted to join our platform, Virtual Croatia. Just send me the tools, and I will do the rest.  

The Croatian National Tourist Board very kindly supplied me with the latest database of local tourist board, so that I knew that my free offer would reach the right addresses. 

I sent the offer above, knowing that these were difficult times and that I had no money to bribe them to accept my free offer. 

So what were the results? How many of these very busy local tourist boards - with no budget to feed their cousins and no tourists to disturb their day - engaged with this free offer with no benefits to them personally?

I sent the offer on April 30. Two weeks later, an impressive 26% of the 319 tourist board have found the time and interest to open the email. 

An impressive 26% found time in between their other duties in a pandemic with no tourists and no promotional activities to open the email. Quite understandably, with such outrageous salary reductions, why open the email at all, asked 74%?

 The pure cheek of it! What right did this fat Irishman have to send me an email regarding work when I am having a 4-20% salary reduction. Although I only had 2047 tourists last year (an impressive 6 tourists a day), not only do we not need any free help, we will unsubscribe. 

The thing I have found, especially in Central Dalmatia, is that there is a new generation of local tourist board. Young directors who get the need to engage with tourists and not cousins. I have about 18  tourist boards who have taken me up on the offer, or about 301 who haven't, depending on how you look at it.

Doesn't Brela look nice?  

 And Omis.

Sunny Hvar. 

Lovely Rogoznica. 

Dream Today, Visit Opatija tomorrow. 

Don't Miss Klis.  

Magnificent Sinj.

With about another 10 to come. 

My apologies to the 225 tourist boards who did not open the email. Apologies with a chocolate biscuit to those I inconvenienced and who rightly unsubscribed. May your budgets return soon, your salaries be restored - no, increased - and who gives a f*ck about the tourists?

If you are a local tourist board who would like to take part in our Virtual Croatia project, here are the details. 

May 14, 2020 - Some useful information about tourist fee payment relief in English for the first time, with thanks to Vivian Grisogono from Eco Hvar for the initiative and the translation.

Due to the effects of the Covid-19 virus, the Ministry of Tourism has announced relief measures for those engaged in the tourist industry.

Private renters will not have to pay the tourist fee lump sum (paušal); payment of any outstanding flexible part of the 2019 concession fee is cancelled, and payment for 2020 deferred; the relevant changes in the laws (NN 36/2020) can be seen on the following link (in Croatian): https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/full/2020_03_36_764.html

People offering tourist rentals in private accommodation and on family farms are excused half of the annual tourist fee for 2020 which would normally be due for the main bed and parking spot in a camp and holiday camp, or according to the capacity of 'Robinson' accommodation run in accordance with the special regulations governing tourist rental activities. Furthermore, tourist fee in 2020 for camp beds ('pomoćni kreveti') will not be charged.

These measures only apply to people offering accommodation in private properties and on privately owned farmland.

The aim is to soften the financial impact of the economic burden created by the Coronavirus epidemic. Because the tourist fee is administered per bed, rather than per night's stay, it is clearly unfair and untenable in the current situation.

The responsible authorities for these measures are the Ministry of Tourism and the Croatian Tourist Board. Information about the measures will be available through the eVisitor internet system. Further information can be obtained if needed from the Ministry of Tourism by email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Payment of any outstanding amount due for the 2019 concession fee in respect of the use of tourist land in camps is waived, and the payment due for 2020 is deferred. The applicable law (NN 31/2020) can be seen (in Croatian) on the link: https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/full/2020_03_31_674.html

In view of the exceptional situation caused by the Coronavirus, outstanding payments due for the 2019 concession fees for camps will be charged at 1 kn, and not at the standard rate, and payments due for the fixed concession fee for 2020 will be delayed from August 31st to November 30th 2020. The measure applies to commercial agencies offering tourist services on the basis of seeking concessions for camps on communal land in the Republic of Croatia according to the law (NN 92/10). Details of the charges will be made available by the Ministry of Tourism, and further information, if needed, can be obtained by email from the Ministry: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The same measures apply to those holding concessions on land owned by local authorities, and the applicable law (NN 41/2020) can be read (in Croatian) on the following link: https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2020_04_41_853.html.

The Croatian Law on Providing Tourist Services (NN 42/2020 -887) has been amended and can be read (in Croatian) on the following link: https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2020_04_42_887.html. The changes include the following:

- in order to prevent the operation of unregistered rental accommodation, internet sites must quote the tax identity number (OIB) of any advertiser offering tourist services in the Republic of Croatia;

- during this exceptional situation, tourist agencies will be allowed to employ people without the normal required certificates in order to keep operating, so that knowledge of foreign languages or Croatian do not have to be demonstrated, nor is it necessary for such employees to have a minimum of one year's experience in the tourist industry. These employees can remain in employment for a maximum of six months after the end of the special measures.

- contracts for package tours which were booked to take place after March 1st but cancelled are to be varied as following: the traveller has the right to cancel the package tour 180 days after the end of the exceptional situation caused by Coronavirus, and the tour operator must issue a voucher or moratorium on the cancellation of the contract for the same period; if the client decides on a refund, the tour operator must return the amount paid within 14 days after the period of 180 days following the end of the exceptional situation has elapsed.

- people providing tour guide services will no longer be entered into the Central register. This aims to allow more people to earn money from tourist services, such as students, pensioners or the unemployed.

The Law on Providing Accommodation Services has also been amended (NN 42/2020-888), and can be found (in Croatian) on the following link: https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2020_04_42_888.html
The changes are as follows:

- temporary permits for rental premises will be extended to the end of 2021. This applies to properties which have not yet been legalized although the application for legalization was submitted at the right time.

- the Minister is empowered to vary the conditions regarding the requirements for people in the hospitality and rental businesses.

- the deadline for re-categorizing hotels and camps is extended. Applications will start from 1 year after the end of the Covid-19 special measures situation, instead of after 4 years from the original permit.

- hotel and camp operators who have been granted a temporary operations permit for the type of operation, but not yet for the category of the premises, are granted an extension of one year following the end of the Covid-19 special measures in the Republic of Croatia.

- for renters whose categorization permits were issued before September 1st 2007, and for those who wish to retain their existing level of category (star rating), applications for new documents must be made before the following deadlines:
8.4.2022 – for permits issued before 31.12.2000.
8.4.2023 – for permits issued between 1.1.2001 and 31.12.2004.
8.4.2024 – for permits issued after 31.12.2004.

The Law Governing Tourist Boards and the Promotion of Croatian Tourism has been amended to alleviate financial constraints caused by the Covid-19 epidemic. You can read the amendments (NN 42/2020-885) on the following link (in Croatian): https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2020_04_42_885.html

The Law on the Tourist Fee has been amended, (NN 42/2020-886) and can be read (in Croatian) on the following link: https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2020_04_42_886. The amendments are as follows:

- during the Covid-19 special situation, the Croatian Government is empowered to vary the system for determining the level of the tourist fee and the deadlines for its payment.

- the Croatian Government is also empowered to repurpose resources from the Fund for Insufficiently Developed Inland Areas and the Fund for Associated Tourist Boards.

- while the special conditions caused by the Covid-19 epidemic last, inspectors will not issue fines or penalty notices, or institute legal action in the case of contraventions.

If you need further information, contact the Ministry of Tourism by email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For the latest on the coronavirus in Croatia, follow the dedicated TCN section. 

If you need further information, contact the Ministry of Tourism by email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

May 14, 2020 - The Croatian National Tourist Board explains those unusual tourist statistics and updates its travel page.  

Earlier today I published an article called There are 41 Days in April in the Kingdom of Accidental Tourism, which took a more detailed look at the very unusual tourism numbers reported for April. 9,453 arrivals generated 391,628 overnight stays, meaning that each tourist stayed for an average of 41 days over the 30-day period of April, 2020, which is clearly absurd.  

I sent the Croatian National Tourist Board some questions about the statistics, also asking about their plans to update one of their travel pages, as well as clarification on why Jelsa has both a seaplane port and an airport (the latter of which I never found in my 13 years living here). As always, the Croatian National Tourist Board was quick to respond, and I am publishing the response in full below, so that people can see the explanation without my commentary and draw their own conclusions. 

Dear Mr. Bradbury,

In response to your inquiry, please find a brief overview below, as well as responses to your specific questions.

In April, we recorded a very small number of arrivals and with a seemingly "disproportionately" large number of overnight stays (only 9,453 arrivals with 391,628 overnight stays). Considering that this is a report for the period of April, the arrivals of tourists and guests who spent any night in April in Croatia arrivals were recorded in an earlier period and spilled over into April, namely March or February, or in any case prior to April 1, 2020.

If you look at tourist traffic by type of accommodation, which is also available in the report cited, then the reasons become even clearer - 59% of overnight stays were realized in the non-commercial segment, i.e. by "weekenders". Perhaps due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, they decided to spend time outside their place of residence – which received lots of media coverage in articles at the start of the epidemiological crisis and again after the earthquake in Zagreb. Their arrivals were recorded in March, and with some perhaps even earlier. Furthermore, 35% of overnight stays were realized in household facilities where we assume that some of the guests who decided to stay in Croatia at the beginning of the crisis were accommodated.

There are only 30 days in April, yet tourists stayed on average for 41 days. Can you explain how this is possible?

Arrivals were registered before April 1st and therefore not counted in April’s arrival numbers, but are recorded as overnights.

There was only one South African who stayed for 149 nights in April. Can you explain how this is possible?

There were South Africans staying in Croatia in April whose arrivals were registered before April 1^st.

There were no tourists from Belarus, Indonesia, Estonia, Morocco and Thailand, and yet they all recorded overnight stays. Can you explain how this is possible?

Arrivals of those guests were registered before April 1st.

I lived on Hvar for 13 years and am aware of the Jelsa sea port and the Stari Grad air field. Can you tell me where the second airport in Jelsa is please? Is the Hvar airport the one in Stari Grad or is there another?

All information provided regarding airfields was provided by the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency and includes commercial airports as well as airfields which are used for non-commercial purposes. Unfortunately, a typo occurred when transferring the information to the website, as this is Jelas – an airfield near Slavonski Brod. Thank you for pointing out this typo.

Do you plan to add any information to this page to help visitors with current info, or is talking about Croatia Airlines and listing airports from the Official Gazette sufficient info for tourists wanting to fly to Croatia?

The CNTB has a section dedicated to current Covid-19 travel advice, whereas currently Croatia Airlines is the only airline actively flying, information pertaining to such is highlighted.

The current information on the website is provided below, while unlike news portals, our information is updated only when official communication is made available to us by the service provider. And as such, with no other airlines currently flying, the advice is to contact these airlines directly. Should this change, as stated below, we will provide updates accordingly.

Are there flights to Croatia?

Croatia currently maintains one daily return flight: Zagreb – Frankfurt – Zagreb operated by Croatia Airlines. Croatia Airlines is currently in discussions about reinstating other flights, such as Amsterdam, Brussels and London, but all are pending further approval. For more information on Croatia Airlines flights, please check their website.

Once official information on other commercial airlines and/or any flights resuming becomes available, an update on these flights will be provided. If you already have tickets for upcoming travel and/or have a question regarding travel with a specific airline, it is best to contact the airline directly as most are updating their flight schedules on a week by week basis. Should you be unable to use your current flight ticket we recommend postponing your travel to a later date.

All other information on the website Travel section has been updated to direct travellers back to the Covid-19 travel section: *The information provided below is valid under normal travel conditions, for current travel guidelines due to Covid-19, please find specific guidelines here.

And just as the Croatian National Tourist Board was quick to respond, so too it was quick to update the flight page according to the parameters it chooses to inform people. Jelsa had two airports this morning, now it has none. And one more obscure reference to an article in the Official Gazette has gone. 

Change is slow, painful and embarrassingly public in Croatia, but it is happening. Just this week, the Ministry of Tourism upgraded from fax numbers to email (the year is 2020), and someone at the Croatian National Tourist Board seems to understand that obscure references to articles in the Official Gazette are not the first thing tourists are looking for when they click on pages claiming to tell them how to get to Croatia. 

May 14, 2020 - Croatian Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli has revealed a new slogan about where tourists can stop to refuel or buy food on the way to their Croatian destination.

Index.hr reported that the European Commission has recommended the gradual and coordinated lifting of travel restrictions between the Member States or regions within them that have a similar epidemiological situation to save what can be saved from this year's tourist season.

Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli said in the show U Mreži Prvi on HRT that Croatia has very well and precisely prepared measures, in agreement with epidemiologists and associations of tourism workers, and that they have been incorporated into the guidelines of the European Commission.

"We were the first to mention bilateral. Opening borders depends on each individual member state, which will primarily negotiate with its neighbors, so we are talking to several countries, primarily Slovenia," Cappelli said and added that corridors have already been created that are recommended to tourists who come to Croatia, and these recommendations relate to where they can stop, refuel or buy food on the way to their destination.

"We have called this slogan 'From home to the destination'. From the moment they book a stay, they will receive this information," the minister said.

The Head of the Border Administration, Zoran Ničeno, emphasized that a difficult period is behind us in which, according to EU recommendations, we blocked traffic across the state border, which was great for a tourist country like Croatia.

"We have established coordination of police directors of countries in the wider region, namely Croatia, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, BiH and Serbia. We have video conferences every week in which we agree on exactly how the police will react in the new measures, and that refers to border crossings and returns back to the country," Ničeno said, adding that this is very important because each country has its own specifics.

He pointed out that not all measures had been lifted. Every person who enters the country is recorded and their personal data is taken, and they are acquainted with all the epidemiological instructions they receive at the border crossing.

"The borders are not open as before, but entering the country is under great epidemiological control," he stressed, adding that these measures will lead to significant congestion at the borders.

Cappelli also spoke for N1.

"Given the conditions, Croatia could have allowed flows at the border. With some limits. They can enter for a reason, provided we know where they are, what their address is. We have been waiting for EU instructions; our proposals have been implemented. We have hundreds a day, thousands of inquiries to enter Croatia," Cappelli told N1.

Upon returning to the country, Slovenes have to isolate themselves for seven days. The minister says negotiations are underway with Slovenia.

"I think that this will be resolved in the coming days by ministerial meetings, so that we will have a clear situation next week. Our epidemiologists have found each other, both have proposals. It will take 15-20 days to go through all this. It is realistic to expect that at the end of the month, we will have the right tourist flow, and without delay," said Cappelli, who spoke about this with the Slovenian minister.

"He begged me to find solutions. They have 110,000 homeowners and boats in Croatia. I don't see the difference when someone leaves Pozega and Zagreb or Novo mesto in Slovenia; the situation is unique," Cappelli said.

"We started because we have had very precise recommendations for all types of tourism for a month now. I warned that we would have quality, but not rigid measures. We made it known. We proved that we are very ready, maybe more than a lot of countries in the EU," Cappelli said.

He said we could generate up to 30 percent of last year’s revenue this year. Next year, he says, they could be at the level of 2018, and in 2022 the same tourist success could be achieved as in 2019.

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

May 14, 2020 - One way to boost tourism is to prolong the season. The brilliant minds running the Kingdom of Accidental Tourism have a smarter solution - create more days in a month. 41 days in April for example. And then get tourists to spend the night in Croatia without visiting. Pure genius!

Last night, the Croatian media reported on the official tourism numbers for April. Terrible numbers were inevitable, there is no chance of bringing tourists across closed borders during a pandemic. But the numbers were sensational, and hardly anyone has noticed until now. When I first saw the numbers, I assumed some journalist had mistakenly put in an extra digit and the rest had blindly copied. Here is how HINA announced the numbers:

ZAGREB, May 13 (Hina) - There were 9,500 tourists in Croatia in April 2020, generating 392,000 overnight stays, which is a drop of 99 and 88 percent on the year respectively, according to data from eVisitor and the Croatian National Tourist Board.

That's a lot of overnights for less than 10,000 tourists, I thought. But just as tourists cannot come in, those who are here cannot get out so easily, so it kind of made sense that most tourists were overnighting. I have never been good at maths, but my 11-year-old daughter is a maths genius. 

"How much is 9,500 times 30?"

"Just a sec, Dad. It is 285,000."

So with 9,500 tourists sleeping every night in April is 285,000 nights. And yet in the Kingdom of Accidental Tourism, we managed to rack up an impressive 392,000 nights. Another calculation, and it seems that the month of April has 41 days in our beautiful kingdom. 

This had to be a journalist mistake, right?

Wrong. 

I went to the Croatian National Tourist Board official website to check the statistics directly. HINA had rounded the numbers up slightly, but there is was - 9,453 arrivals, generating 391,628. Which means that there are at least 41 days in the month of April in the Kingdom of Accidental Tourism. 

And if you were lucky enough to host a tourist in the 'Nekomercijalni smjestaj' (non-commercial accommodation), April was a great month, for guests averaged over 110 nights each in the 30-day month of April. 

Guests in Split Dalmatia slept for an average of 74 nights in April, closely followed by Zadar at 73 nights. 

So who are our marathon overnighters? According to our award-winning eVisitor system, over 70% were locals (understandable) who managed about 40 nights between them (not so understandable).

Bosnians were dedicated overnighters in total nights, but managed only 47 overnights in April, which was nothing compared to the average Italian who spent more than two nights in Croatia every night in April at 67.

But the REAL heroes...

 Let's hear it for the 4 Latvians who managed an impressive 136 overnights each between them. There may have only been one South African tourist in all Croatia in April, but it was a good one. At 149 overnight stays, our bold South African guest was one night short of sleep 5 nights for every night in April.

But the best was yet to come. For the Kings recently launched a campaign called Croatia Long Distance Love. You can see the first video above. I, like many others, assumed that the point of the campaign was to remind future travellers of Croatia's beauty and to entice them to visit at a later date. 

It seems I was wrong, as the big data never lies.

For many years, there has been a popular saying in Croatia, whenever examples of bad service or tourism experiences are mentioned. - tell the tourists to stay home and just send the money.

But the data shows us that the Kings have achieved something quite remarkable this last month, at the height of a global pandemic. For the tourists are staying at home and sending the money. 

How else to explain zero tourists from Belarus, but 89 overnights. Or 35 from Luxemburg, 32 from Estonia (must be something to do that Estonian digital prowess, perhaps?), 31 from Indonesia, 30 from Morocco, 29 from Qatar, and 17 from Thailand. 

Impressive stuff!

I am not an expert, but perhaps there is a mistake in the data entry. It is not a major issue, as tourism is quiet and this will be easy to fix. But imagine if this happened in a country whose sole strategy and measure of success is numbers, numbers, numbers. How reliable is the data we have been served up all these years? Thankfully we live in Croatia, where there is a proper strategy, and nobody ever talks about numbers, numbers, numbers. 

But perhaps there is a perfectly reasonable explanation, so I will write to the tourist board to enquire. Now that they have finished this exhaustive update of the statistics, I might also check on their plans to update the information on how to fly to Croatia.

For the latest from the Mighty State of Uhljebistan, follow our dedicated Uhljeb section.

As Index writes on the 13th of May, 2020, today, the European Commission will make recommendations on the relative re-opening of national borders within the territory of the European Union. Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli in the A sada Vlada (And now the Government) segment on HRT said that all tourism ministers agreed that there should be a protocol at the EU level, but that one should be aware that not everyone is equal when it comes to respective epidemiological situations.

The border with Slovenia should be opened within a few days.

"We expect a good result to come of the bilateral talks we've been holding with Slovenia over recent days because our epidemiological pictures are similar. With this agreement, Slovenes will no longer have to be quarantined for 14 days when they return to the country," Minister Gari Cappelli stated, adding that Croatia is talking to some other countries about opening borders back up, too.

A significant number of Slovenes are expected.

Minister Gari Cappelli also said that when the protocol with Slovenia is resolved, he expects a large number of Slovenian tourists to arrive in Croatia, especially because 110,000 of them have houses in Croatia.

"I'm sure, if the epidemiological situation is in order, that we'll have the arrival of tourists from Germany on June the 15th, at least those coming by road," the minister said.

He emphasised the fact that Croatia had provoked the EU to hurry up with their recommendations on the most important things, and that was, among other things, movement within the EU's borders.

"At the EU level, we've agreed that borders for third countries will not be opened until June the 15th," he said.
 
"By the end of the month, we'll have a flow with two or three countries, and by June the 15th, we're planning on having that with Germany and some other countries," he said.

Minister Gari Cappelli said there will be discounts for domestic guests this season.

"In this respect, we've also reduced ticket prices for entry into national parks and many domestic tourists visited them. I hereby invite those who decide on the ticket price for the Dubrovnik walls to reduce those prices, because I think a ticket price of 200 kuna in this situation is just absurd,'' he said, adding that this reduction in prices will spill over to accommodation capacities and further.

He emphasised that the Croatian Government has also started with the CRO card, which may not be in full function this year, but that it remains a long-term project.

"Over recent days, we've been talking about additional things we could put on the CRO card, so if we can agree on all of that with employers, hoteliers and agencies so that whoever has this card gets an extra discount, then it will bring the first results," he said, adding that he hopes to there will be understanding for that.

On the topic of Croatia Airlines...

Minister Gari Cappelli pointed out that it had been agreed that Croatia would build air bridges using Croatia Airlines because the south of Croatia has now been completely cut off without air travel.

"We'll use our own airline, and we can now see just how important it is to us because we can dictate the opening of certain routes ourselves," he said, adding that Croatia Airlines would be "worth its weight in gold".

The minister said that he is aware that the new measures have brought new investments and rules for those in hospitality, as well as hoteliers, but that this is something necessary and, as he says, this is a new normal and a new era has come for all of us.

"As for vouchers, Croatia was among the first in the EU to react to the idea. We gave vouchers for travel agencies that are valid for 180 days and can be used for another destination or if you want to go to the same destination but next year, the value of the vouchers is extended, or, if after 180 days you want a refund, then that refund must be completed within 14 days,'' the minister stressed, adding that this is true for agencies, but work is being done to make this the case for hoteliers and for airlines as well.

Minister Gari Cappelli also said that about 10 percent of the usual workforce had been laid off in tourism. He stressed that this season, Croatia intends to work with the domestic workforce to the maximum.

''We'll make a greater effort to retain domestic workers through various measures because they're one of our greatest values,” Minister Cappelli concluded.

For more, follow our travel page.

May 13, 2020 - Leading German tour operators, including TUI, are interested in achieving part of the season in Croatia, which is among the destinations that could be booked for the summer, with airline arrangements, according to the Croatian National Tourist Board.

Noting that the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) and its German representative offices are constantly and proactively communicating with the German market and partners about the possibilities of cooperation and the arrival of German tourists in Croatia this summer, HTZ Director Kristjan Staničić said that Croatia was mentioned in communication with the leading media in that market as a possible destination for summer vacation, primarily because of the excellent results in preventing the spread of coronavirus and as a destination that can be reached relatively quickly by car.

Apart from these trips, there is interest in "air bridges", i.e., the arrival of tourists by tour operators and airlines, however, for any travel from Germany, warnings for travel abroad will first need to be lifted in that country. This is expected in mid-June, and according to some information for some destinations, planes could be ready around June 10. Still, it will all depend on the epidemiological picture in Germany and the countries where tourists would travel.

According to Staničić, the President of the Management Board of TUI, Fritz Joussen, believes that it is necessary to distinguish destinations with conditions for receiving guests from those that are still out of reach, marking Croatia as a destination that meets the requirements.

"Assumptions and interest of TUI and other German tour operators for the arrival of German tourists in Croatia certainly exist, as well as to realize part of the season and minimize their own losses. Interest is also present among individual German tourists, with whom we also constantly communicate through networks and offices," says Staničić.

However, how, when and with which transport these trips will be realized is still being negotiated. As specific destinations will undoubtedly be out of the reach of organized tourist traffic through agencies and tour operators, Staničić believes that there will be enough air capacity to provide charter flights or regular airlines to individual destinations. Without presenting plans to invest in that market in the new circumstances, Staničić reminds that for years HTZ has been cooperating with leading German tour operators and airlines (TUI, FTI, ID Riva, RSD, Eurowings, Condor and others), and believes that some projects can be achieved.

"These companies use our communication messages all the time, as well as the new #CroatiaLongDistanceLove concept, and as soon as adequate conditions are created in the German market, we will conduct a targeted online campaign for certain groups of tourists and residents of the southern German provinces, which start at the end of June and the end of July, depending on the individual German province," reveals Staničić.

He adds that in Germany, as well as in other markets where they plan to carry out promotional activities, they will certainly use the current image of Croatia as a safe and 'corona free' country.

Asked about estimates and expectations from the most important market for Croatian tourism, the HTZ director believes that we could achieve up to 30 percent of last year's record turnover, when Germans could travel abroad again after June 14.

TUI and other major German tour operators are currently showing similar interests for Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain and Austria, whose governments, according to information from German tourist circles, are negotiating with the German government on the possibility of establishing air tourist bridges after the Germans are allowed to travel.

These circles also claim that this should be agreed or negotiated at the government level, and Croatian Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli said earlier this week that Croatia had begun negotiations with Germany on tourism.

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

As Korana Sutlic/Novac writes on the 9th of May, 2020, Vedran Mimica, a professor of architecture and urbanism at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago, has now, and previously at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, dealt with tourism. He is currently in Chicago and Novac got in touch with him with the help of Zoom, through which he also holds regular classes in graduate, postgraduate and doctoral studies. For Jutarnji list, he talks about global and Croatian tourism.

In what direction, globally, could tourism go after the epidemic?

Tourism is the world's leading industry and not only contributes to 12 percent of the world's total GDP but is also one of the basic phenomena of postmodern society. The country we studied the most at the Berlage Institute is China, the world’s second largest economic power in which tourism is growing in an almost unbelievable process of about 18.5 percent of annual ''outbound'' tourism, meaning tourist traffic representing Chinese stays outside of China. This is a significant share in the global development of tourism.

Interestingly, only six percent of Chinese actually hold a valid passport and can travel, so that is equal to 84 million people. The Chinese spent 257 billion US dollars on travel outside of China last year. It is to be expected that many more Chinese citizens will also soon hold passports. At the same time, 46 percent of American citizens have a passport and spend "only" 135 billion US dollars a year when abroad. It's also interesting to note that in the first half of 2019, Chinese tourism increased significantly compared to travel to Europe, and in the case of Croatia, by more than one hundred percent.

For many, it's also important how much the guests actually do spend. The Chinese used to travel in groups and follow arrangements, and now they travel more individually and spend much more money when they do. In addition to giving Croatian tourism a boost, they also increased their visits to Latvia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Serbia, Malta, Ireland and Denmark. I was in China last December and the growth of their standards is obvious, so I believe that after the coronavirus pandemic passes, when the global situation returns to a kind of normalcy in the foreseeable future, tourism will continue to be one of the main sources of the economy in most parts of the world.

That's why I believe that global tourism will not be in a critical situation after the coronavirus pandemic is over. The critical question is when will we have a vaccine and when will the coronavirus epidemic come to an end.

What is it that makes tourism so attractive to people?

That was the very reason for our research, creating a social image of the tourist experience, how to connect what we have as tourist destinations and how to build cities in the future that will seriously accept this phenomenon of tourism. Michel Houellebecq says: ''What I really want is basically to be a tourist''. Architect Rem Koolhaas will say: ''Today we're not building cities, we're building resorts. Resorts have become basic urban DNA.''

If we imagine tourism as the result of a basic binary division between the ordinary, the everyday, and the extraordinary, then perhaps we need to accept our postmodern situation as a constant desire for extraordinary experiences.

When could tourism stabilise again?

That's currently the question above all other questions to which there are various answers. From the people who are claiming that we won’t shake hands again until 2023, to those who insist we all have to go to the beach now. The tourism industry will be significantly affected by the economic damage from the pandemic on a global and individual level, especially in the first wave of recovery.

Whenever there is a crisis, we're inevitably instructed in a new way of thinking and opportunities to learn something from the crisis. I’m not close to thinking we’re going to learn all that much. It has been debated for some time that we entered the Anthropocene a long time ago, from the middle of the last century, and that global warming and climate change, if we don't change something fundamentally, will significantly affect life on the planet and will probably be dangerous to it.

There are two views on this situation. One is that people will accept it and that we'll then move into a period of posthumanist society, meaning a society in which more humanistic values ​​aren't the most important thing and in which we will socialise with people and non-humans with various algorithms. Some think that there are some interesting possibilities for a posthuman society, while others, of course, think that this is the end of civilisation as we know it and an extension of the crisis. It's a very interesting discussion, we're working on it a lot at the academy and in a way, we're trying to understand how the development of cities and the disciplines of architecture and urbanism can relate to it. It's my opinion that we'll very likely have to accept these environmental impacts and adapt to them to some extent or another. The question is what level of invention, imagination and intelligence is required for this kind of adjustment.

What has been wrong so far and what would be good to change after all this?

A year ago, my good friend, architect and academic Nikola Basic, organised a gathering called ''Tourism, space, identity''. He was one of the main lecturers along with Sinisa Topalovic, a tourism researcher from Horwath HTL. I quote Basic: ‘Croatian tourism is on the threshold of development, before which it must slow down its growth and encourage prosperity. This will reduce its increasingly visible negative imprint on society and space... The Croatian tourist pixel must retain its recognisable brilliance and colour''.

Nikola is essentially talking about that new kind of authenticity. Something where Croatia tourism becomes different, in which burritos and burgers will not dominantly infiltrate Diocletian's Palace, where the slogan of Croatian tourism will not be the Mediterranean as it once was but the Mediterranean as it could be. Basic talks about inclusive tourism that is integrated into the community. If something is good for tourism, then it needs to be good for both the local community and for society as a whole.

At the same gathering, Sinisa Topalovic presented things in an economic fashion and proved that the business model of Croatian tourism is unsustainable. Firstly, because Croatian tourism contributes 19 percent of GDP, and any country that has such a high percentage of tourism impact on GDP is a country that has a problem, and obviously, as we're now in this situation with the coronavirus pandemic, we're have some serious problems.

Furthermore, 85 percent of overnight stays take place from June to September, but perhaps the biggest problem is that the income from Croatian tourism is 67 percent lower than it is in countries which are Croatia's competition. There's all of that, plus the fact that Croatian taxes that tax the industry, and especially rent, are absolutely inconsistent with the development goals of both society and tourism. One comparison is very indicative - if someone has 20 beds for rent, they will pay 6,000 kuna in taxes a year, while if you work in Zagreb and have an average net salary, you will pay about 4,500 kuna in taxes per month. Such a situation simply does not allow for the healthy development of society. Why work if it's easier to just rent?

It’s important to create that new authenticity, not a new normality. And it cannot be as it is now - the predominant attitude of Croatian tourism in relation to history, Roman soldiers on the Peristyle, the Peasant Revolt in Stubica. A new authenticity is created by a new society, a new life in cities, a local life that is not a show, and not something fake.

You're currently in America, will there be no Mimice for you this summer where you have a holiday home?

What do you mean there will be no Mimice? You can't survive a year without Mimice! I hope to be able to spend three months in Croatia and work in Rijeka on the ECOC project. I'm obviously an incorrigible optimist about all of this. The only thing I would not like is that when I come to Croatia, I have to go to isolation for two weeks. But if necessary, I'm also ready for isolation - but in Mimice!

For more on Croatian tourism, follow our lifestyle and travel pages.