After Zagreb, Split, Pula, Opatija, Šibenik, Rovinj, Omiš, Hvar, Munich and Graz, Poreč joined the running cities included in the SightRun mobile application.

The Tourist Board of Poreč presented the new tourist product SightRun - a mobile application of audio running tours aimed at active guests in the city. Visitors in Poreč who enjoy running can now follow five audio running tours, which are all 9 to 9.6 kilometers long, reports HRTurizam on July 15, 2019.

The Poreč City Tour - North and Porec City Tour - South begin in front of the City Hall, while other tours start in front of the Valamar and Plava Laguna hotels. Thus, the Valamar Borik Tour starts in front of the Valamar Zagreb Hotel and the Valamar Diamant Tour in front of the Valamar Diamant Hotel. The Plava Laguna Run begins in front of Hotel Molindrio Plava Laguna. All tours are available in Croatian and English and are free for users.

“We are proud of the results achieved so far, but are also aware of the fact that we cannot leave the development of tourism to chance, so we are seriously planning to establish five-year development initiatives to realize our vision of becoming the leading Croatian destination for family and active holidays, which will offer a wide range of sports and recreational activities alongside the sun and the sea. By introducing the SightRun application, we invest in infrastructure that will raise the ambiance of the cluster and enhance guest experiences and brand our destination as runner-friendly. The slogan of our visual identity "You Complete Us" speaks in favor of the great enthusiasm of all those involved in the tourist offer to provide our guests with unforgettable moments in Poreč,” said director of the Poreč Tourist Board, Nenad Velenik.

Toni Hrvatin, head of destination and product development in Valamar, added that Valamar actively invests in the development of sports infrastructure, programs and a wide range of outdoor events in the destinations in which it operates. 

“We consider that it is necessary to invest in the development of a running segment, which is followed by a rapidly growing trend globally. The SightRun application is a great example of an innovative tourism product and an additional offer for guests and locals. The application paths cover and present all the beauties of Poreč, so we are delighted that we, together with our destination partners in Poreč, supported the development of this project."

Goran Vrus, assistant director of sports operations at Plava Laguna, said that Plava Laguna was aware of the growing popularity of running as a sport and a choice for recreation. 

"For several years we have been the host of the successful Plava Laguna half marathon, and this year we brought the Plava Laguna Triathlon 5150, IRONKIDS and Iron Girl races for the first time to Poreč. It is on that threshold that Plava Laguna complements the offer with the announced running tours for all guests who do not want to give up running on their vacation. Travelers rely on their mobile devices to collect information and many other activities before, during and after a trip, so it's important to recognize their needs and provide them with innovative content and unforgettable experiences - and through their favorite media, available at any time.”

SightRun is a free mobile application that connects running and tours and uses a GPS navigation system for mobile navigation and audio tracking that gives the user interesting information about the city. For this very reason, it does not matter how fast or slow the user is moving. To use the app, the user only needs headphones and doesn't need to look at their mobile device during the run, allowing complete freedom of movement while sightseeing of the city.

"We are extremely pleased that Poreč is joining the Runner Friendly destinations supported through the SightRun application. This cooperation not only contributes to the development of the destination but together, we are building the image that we can be innovative in tourism with our domestic technological solutions as well. I believe that the Croatian startup scene can offer even more interesting solutions, from which all actors in tourism can benefit,” said Sandra Bortek, the marketing director of SightRun.

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

July 13, 2019 - Mediatoolkit analyzed the popularity of Croatian tourism on social networks. The results show that Dubrovnik and Split are a hit on social media. 

The Croatian National Tourist Board recently published the tourism numbers for June. Although it was rumored that this tourist season would be one of the weaker in several years, data for June still shows that the number of tourists increased in the first six months. Compared to last year, Croatia was visited by 6% more tourists, while the number of overnight stays grew by 3%.

Given the different perspectives on what this year's summer season will be, the Zagreb-based technology company Mediatoolkit analyzed how Croatia was perceived on social networks from 10 June to 10 July.

Namely, Croatia was mentioned 72,869 times during this period, which represents an increase of 222.13%. On a daily level, Croatia was mentioned an average of 2,400 times, while this number will increase as the season moves forward. For comparison, one of Croatia’s major tourism competitors, Italy, was mentioned about 7,500 times a day in the same period, while the numbers for Greece and Turkey are similar to Croatia.

Compared to the previous period, the number of impressions increased by as much as 18,842% and now exceeds 34 million. The good news is that Croatia, as a tourist destination, is mentioned on the web and social networks around the world.

Most of the announcements come from the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy, though they are just some of the countries that have increased the number of tourist arrivals this year according to HTZ’s data. Croatia is written in Italian the most on Twitter, while German and English are the highest on Instagram.

The majority of the mentions about Croatia were written in a positive context, namely 89.2%. Tourists mostly praise the natural beauty and the sea, and the hashtag #croatiafulloflife was used 13,273 times.

Instagram is by far the most widely used channel that publishes about Croatia. According to the analysis, 84.8% of the mentions come from Instagram, while Twitter is the second most common channel with 7.5%.

Interestingly, Croatia was declared the most sought after country on TripAdvisor in 2019. This news attracted the attention of international media such as Forbes, but in Croatia, this news was not shared much in the media. 

The top three destinations in Croatia with the largest number of visitors in the first six months, according to HTZ’s data, are Rovinj, Dubrovnik, and Zagreb. When it comes to social networks and the web, only two cities are mentioned the most - Dubrovnik (12,759 mentions) and Split (7,313 mentions). On the other hand, the most visited town of Rovinj has 3,898 references, while Zagreb has 2,592.

Dubrovnik’s mentions are mostly associated with the popular Game Throne series, which is not surprising given that it has significantly increased the popularity of Dubrovnik. King's Landing was mentioned 4,000 times, of which 741 are related to Dubrovnik and 321 to Croatia.

The sudden increase in the number of social network announcements that occurred during the summer season is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, such growth is only confirmed by the marked tourist seasonality and the lack of year-round tourism. On the other hand, the more optimistic side, recommendations are the best way of promoting the country, and tourists full of praise about the beauties of Croatia can motivate others to come. But is everyone interested in just the sun and the sea? We’re not so sure. 

Year-round tourism is to some extent present in parts of Croatia. Zagreb is one of the few examples in which attendance is relatively consistent throughout the year, which confirms the latest data. One of the reasons is that throughout the year, Zagreb offers a variety of activities tourists find interesting - like Advent, it's main winter attraction which draws in more and more tourists every year and has been more popular on social networks than Vienna. Various events take place in Zagreb in the summer, the most famous of which is the InMusic festival which attracts a large number of foreign visitors.

Croatia regularly offers excellent opportunities that should be better exploited both for its promotion and to create better content. For example, winning second place at the World Cup, taking home the Davis Cup title, and the final season of Games of Thrones are just some of the things that have influenced the arrival of tourists and can transform Croatia into a year-round tourist sensation.

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

As Novac writes on the 12th of July, 2019, at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), a session of the Tourist business council was held, discussing the current season's situation with tourism and what the expectations for the end of 2019 are.

After several years of growth at unrealistically high rates caused by external factors, the Croatian tourist season of 2019 has so far seen a slight stagnation and a decline that will be felt the most in private accommodation, although the Croatian National Tourist Board's data for the first six months oddly shows the opposite.

''We have to prepare ourselves well for these new circumstances and be prepared to have to fight for each and every guest,'' said Franco Palma at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce.

Igor Borojević, head of the Croatian National Tourist Board's market strategy department, attempted to defend the situation and claimed that these rather unimpressive figures for summer 2019 represent only a third of the arrivals, or a quarter of the realised overnight stays, and when it comes to the full season's evaluation, July and August will be crucial, the two months during which Croatia typically realises half of its annual indicators.

Croatian bed capacity increased by four percent, primarily in private accommodation, but when it comes to occupancy, the rates appear to be relatively low. In the last three years, Croatia has got 165,000 new beds, of which 154,000 are in private accommodation facilities, while there has only been very modest growth in the country's hotel accommodation.

''Despite this, hotels have remained the carriers of Croatian tourist traffic during the first half of the year, accounting for 50 percent of arrivals and 39 percent of overnight stays,'' Borojević claimed, adding that 2/3 of the major emission markets grew.

High growth rates have also been achieved with some long-haul markets from outside of Europe, such as from the United States of America, with a 13.7 percent increase, a 41 percent increase has been experienced from China, and a significant 53 percent increase has been seen from Taiwan. The market share in the first half of the year has a 20 percent share in total arrivals and a 10 percent share in overnight stays, with over 80 new airline lines contributing to it.

The Croatian National Tourist Board's figures show that during the first six months of this year, Croatia recorded growth of 6 percent, saw 6.8 million arrivals and 26.2 million overnight stays, marking an increase of 3 percent. This is, apparently, a great achievement with regard to what is frequently being referred to as a very challenging tourist year, accompanied by the recovery of Croatia's traditional competitive markets such as Turkey.

''This points to the strengthening of the Croatian tourist offer during the pre-season,'' noted Dragan Kovačević.

Istria, Kvarner and Split-Dalmatia County are the top destinations, while Dubrovnik, Rovinj and the Croatian capital of Zagreb remain the most visited cities in the country.

Croatian hotels, especially those of a higher category, are expected continue to grow slightly, although prices are 10 to 30 percent more expensive than in Europe's long-time tourism experts, such as Spain and Greece, which could easily push Croatia down in the future.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle and travel pages for much more.

The Croatian camping sector has a lot of potential, but much like with many other things in Croatia, is it really being taken advantage of properly? The short answer is of course, no.

As Marija Crnjak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 11th of July, 2019, a new law should provide for the high-quality planning and preparation of a long-term development strategy in Croatian camps, which should result in the growth of not only quality, but also in the opening up of new, high-quality employment opportunities.

The adoption of the new Law on Tourism Land is of crucial importance for Croatian tourism as it abandons the old model and foresees fifty-year leasing, which offers the ability to release all of the investment potential of the Croatian tourism sector, which is estimated to stand somewhere between three and five billion euros.

If this new law becomes operational and developed, then the Croatian camping sector will finally be able to secure the solid place that it deserves with its remarkable potential - which is to become a leader in the Mediterranean and to position Croatia as a country for camping, as was stated by Adriano Palman, (CCU).

Otherwise, Croatian camping makes up about 25 percent of the total tourist accommodation capacity in Croatia, and in terms of overall quality, it's one of the strongest segments of Croatian tourism according to German ADAC ratings, which results in competitive prices compared to other countries in the Mediterranean.

Poslovni Dnevnik talked to Palman after an unfavourable pre-season in which the heavy amount of rain drove would-be camping tourists away, and at the beginning of a challenging season, which will require a lot of luck and skill to see results anything like those of last year reached again.

What are the results of camps for the first half of this year like, what are the reservations for the rest of the season like? What sort of year do Croatian camps expect?

From the opening until the end of June, campsites cumulatively generated 4.55 million overnight stays, or 1.7 percent less than in the same period last year. It's unfortunate, but it's expected.

Due to the scheduling of school holidays, the first two weeks of July will be worse than those same two weeks were last year, too, from the 1st of July to the 7th of July, for example, cumulative overnight stays were down by 8 percent. The rest of the season will be marked by uncertainty and nobody can really predict the final results of that right now. On the other hand, it should be said that this is the same picture that's coming from all of our Mediterranean competitors, as it reflects certain market events, the return to the market of certain eastern Mediterranean countries, as well as favourable weather opportunities in Northern Europe, the Netherlands, and Germany.

A good weather forecast in the north can contribute to last year's trend when campers in those countries decided to spend their holidays there at home and therefore their camps achieved historical record numbers.

Can you expect to have to cut prices due to the bookings being down?

The average cost of family camping in Croatia (two adults and one child, one night on a plot) is around 38.66 euros, and the European average is 37.56 euros. Compared to other countries, we're ranked sixth in terms of prices, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, and Switzerland are all more expensive than Croatia, and the most expensive is Italy.

We don't think this price is all that high given the level of quality we offer. The same trend is present in the camping sector across the entire Mediterranean, which is also visible in other forms of accommodation in Croatia. Quality facilities, in which there has been investment and an expansion of an offer, as well as increased the quality, are accepted by the market and are well filled, while unfortunately more and more problems occur in the business of facilities where the raising of the prices didn't result in the raising of the quality. Those issues also exist for those who didn't invest enough.

That's why more and more, they are constantly implementing complete reconstructions and renovations that are aimed towards raising the quality of the camps by two or three stars, up to five stars. There were three such complete renovations in the last couple of years, one in Dalmatia, Kvarner, and Istria, and more are planned in the future.

What is the current picture of Croatian campsites like when compared to its competitors?

Croatia has a total of 785 camps, of which 66 are in the category of 4 or 5 stars, and their capacity covers up to 40.5 percent of the total capacity of Croatian camps.

According to the German ADAC, which is the guide to the camps of Europe and still considered the most relevant and complete camp rating system, in 2019, Croatia is ranked second in the European Union behind the Netherlands. In terms of Croatia's direct competition in the Mediterranean, France is the third, Italy is the fifth, and Spain is the seventh.

The average rating of camps in Croatia is 6.31, the Netherlands ranked first with 6.74, and the average rating of camps in Europe is 5.46.

In all the elements of this rating, Croatian camps are better than the European average, and we're the best in terms of commercial and hospitality offers in the camps; we're third in elements of quality, in the number and size of sanitary facilities and pitches within the camp, and the worst position we're in, with fourth place, are the free time, entertainment and swimming offer, ie, the quality and the equipment of beaches, swimming pools and water centres within the camps.

How was the current law a barrier to investment? Because, we can see that there have been investments...

Although the capacity in 4 and 5 star camps has increased by as much as 2.8 times since 2010, when that law was passed, the realizstion of investments was significantly hampered.

A particular problem was highlighted in Croatian camps that had significant areas of so-called ''tourist land''. In those areas, because of the inadequate legal conclusions and the various limitations that were prescribed, investments were planned within a limited range in the areas of the camps where they could be realised, and not at locations where such investments (water centres, etc) from the point of view of the guests and the product concept, would have been ideal.

The new law should provide for the quality planning and preparation of a long-term development strategy in Croatian campsites, which will result in the enrichment of supply and quality growth, as well as the opening of new, high-quality job opportunities.

How does a modern camp look on the global market today? Do Croatian camps use modern technology, and what is their importance in this segment of tourism?

With the coming of the new generation of millennials, our camps are becoming more and more popular, and along with the advancement of technology, their diversity is growing as well. Croatian camps base their quality on the number and quality of the sanitary facilities, their equipment and the size of their plots, the commercial and hospitality offer in the camps, the leisure offer and entertainment, as well as the quality and amenities of the beach and other swimming related offers. Everything further depends on the positioning of the camp itself and the type of guests it wants to attract.

Accordingly, there are two main developmental routes for camps, the first are large camps which have all of the facilities and are positioned as real holiday resorts where a variety of accommodation options are available, from mobile homes to glamping. Other smaller or small family camps, which are, as opposed to the variety of content offered, more oriented to the very hospitable and close relationship with the host and their highlight is the intimate atmosphere inside the camp.

Apart from these two major developmental routines, there are many other features of special positioning and finding the right traveller and market, from the simple form of an adventure camp, camps on islands, near towns, camps for lovers of special interests (horse riding, bird watching, cycling, kayaking...), up to the most glamorous modern glamping camps.

Which is currently the largest investment in Croatian camps, are mobile homes still the biggest hit?

When talking about investments, in recent years, the trend of investment, the majority of which is in mobile home bidding, has changed considerably, and has become more balanced.

In the last two to three years, Croatian camps have been invested in with the aim to equalise and raise the overall offer and content of the facilities to a higher level, thus obtaining a balanced product that corresponds to the camp quality standards in all elements and doesn't have large jumps between the overall quality of the offer and the product. This includes investments in new water centres and swimming pools and beaches (the swimming offer), investments in the context of the wealth and quality of the shopping offer within the camp, entertainment, investments in equipping and increasing the plot areas as basic accommodation units within the camp, and sanitation facilities.

In addition, a new type of accommodation offer has appeared on campsites, which is the luxurious glamping tent, and currently glamping has the highest growth rate in relation to other capacities, and it is predicted that this trend will continue for the next few years.

How do we stand with the range of Croatian campsites that are open all year round?

Contrary to the general belief, compared with just one decade ago, the trend and the possibility of year-round camps in Croatia has been done well, and today we can boast of fourteen camps all over the country, two on the continent, six in Dalmatia, three in Kvarner and three in Istria.

Nowadays, Croatia has a high quality network of camps that provide winter campers with quality round trips between different destinations and parts of the country, and according to the information from these camps, more and more visitors from all over the world recognise this product and position the Croatian camps not only as a seasonal option, but as a year-long option.

Make sure to follow our dedicated travel page for more information on Croatian tourism, Croatian campsites and much more.

TCN recently reported that Croatia would experience another record summer. With airports like Split, Zagreb, Dubrovnik, and Pula achieving the busiest June yet, and Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli announcing that the country has already welcomed 6.5 million arrivals and 26 million overnight stays, the forecasts are looking promising for another hit summer. And when all is said and done, Croatia’s nine commercial airports should handle a total of 11 million travelers this year. 

Ex Yu Aviation reports that these record results are partly thanks to the 81 new scheduled and charter routes introduced from 24 different markets in the peak summer months, which are mostly operating from Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. 

Namely, three of Europe’s biggest low-cost airlines - EasyJet, Norwegian Air Shuttle, and Ryanair, are driving Croatia’s five busiest airports this summer. Ex Yu Aviation reports that EasyJet will operate over 3,100 flights to Croatia in July and August, has more than doubled its capacity to Zadar compared to last summer, and currently maintains over 50 services to Croatia.

Thanks to 11 new routes, Ryanair operates a total of 32 routes to Croatia in the summer, with 40 weekly flights to Zadar alone. Ryanair’s operations are up by 50%, while Transavia’s services in Rijeka increased by 350%!

Ex Yu Aviation further reports that many markets have also increased their capacity to Croatia in 2019, like Ireland, whose seat count is up by 60% compared to last year. Aer Lingus also launched a new route from Cork to Dubrovnik, Ryanair started service from Dublin to Dubrovnik and Split, and Croatia Airlines even announced they’ll be boosting seasonal operations between Zagreb and Dublin to year-round flights this winter.

Ireland, however, makes up just part of the pie, as services to Spain have seen an increase of nearly 50% thanks to Iberia’s routes to Dubrovnik, Split, and Zagreb this year - and Air Serbia has upped seat capacity to Croatia by 18%! 

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

Croatia is a country which likes to measure its ''tourism success'' with the numbers of overnight stays realised, not giving a second glance to any real economic factors that the tourist season has had on the country's economy, and playing a very surface level type song to the masses, the composer of which is the beloved eVisitor system.

As Plava Kamenica writes on the 6th of July, 2019, as we reported recently, the current tourist information presented by the Croatian Tourism Association (Hrvatska Udruga Turizma), isn't all that positive. The Croatian Tourism Association surveyed fifteen leading hotel and tourist companies which operate within the Republic of Croatia, and according to them, everything is less this year than it was last year, and the range we're talking about here is large, from one percent to as much as twenty percent less. On average, about three to seven percent less hotels have been booked in Croatia compared to last year.

Most of the respondents in the aforementioned association's survey said the tempo of bookings and reservations in hotels is significantly slower than it was last year. The worst hit are apartment areas, and even camps aren't doing too well, despite the good weather we're experiencing after a very rainy May, it appears that there have been less reservations recorded this year than there were last year, which wasn't all that great either when it comes to July and August.

Novi list has placed this information, which may come as a bit of a surprise to some and the birth of an omen for others, as the main topic on its first page. Other Croatian media outlets, including TCN, have been publishing equally bad news about Croatia's tourism, and Index has questioned some of the representatives of Croatia's various island-based tourist boards to find out more. The survey showed that most of Croatia's islands have recorded a decline in tourist traffic, and among the worse of all lies the central Dalmatian island of Brač, which is being considered the island with the worst imaginable tourist policy and practice.

By analysing all these pieces of bad news, we have to be honest with ourselves and say that it is nothing to do with any sort of ''natural'' July dip, but about the beginning of the end of the current tourism concept here in Croatia. It's had its day, it seems.

Croatia's tourism concept has three critical weak points. Firstly, most of the country's hotel companies are made for mass, third-rate quality tourism, which simply can't attract more demanding (and higher paying) guests, while at the same time, Croatia's hotels can't compete with massive Turkish and North African tourism, because Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia will always, always be cheaper.

Secondly, largely uncontrolled apartment renting has damaged at least Dalmatian tourism potential in the long run. Thirdly, the state has wiped out the restaurant industry with its draconian taxation policies, and without this industry, there can be no tourism, especially while Croatia's hotel industry seems to remain uncompetitive.

The negative results of this odd policy of Russian roulette with tourism, in which Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli participated for three years now, are finally rearing their ugly heads, and while it's difficult to predict just where this will lead - it's unlikely to be anywhere good.

Follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more.

Continental Croatia is becoming increasingly popular with foreign tourists who are realising that Croatia has far, far more to offer to the world than just the coast. With that, Terme Tuhelj, a popular continental Croatian destination in Krapina-Zagorje County for both domestic and foreign guests, is upping its game.

As Marija Crnjak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 5th of July, 2019, at the end of July in Terme Tuhelj in Tuheljske Toplice the very first five-star camp located in continental Croatia is set to open its doors, this marks the result of a large investment of its Slovenian owner, and is worth about three million euros. The investment is being divided into two stages.

As has been stated by the facility in Tuhelj, in the first phase of the investment, 56 campsites were set up across two zones, covering around 20,000 square metres, with a restaurant and bar, camping services, an allowance for pets, sanitary facilities adapted for disabled people, family bathrooms, dressing rooms, a children's playground, golf, and tennis courts.

Of this, twenty plots of land (parcels) will be open throughout the whole year, while other plots will be available to guests during the warmer, summer months of the year. There will also be two ''night plots'' available to guests. All of the guests of the new facility in Tuhelj will also be able to enjoy unlimited swimming at Water Planet.

In the second phase of the investment, which will be carried out in 2020, a luxury resort will be constructed with as many as thirty luxury facilities for families and couples, as well as additional facilities for fun and wellness in nature. That part of the camp will work throughout the year, as will the twenty camp plots that will be opened during the first investment phase.

"Tourism trends show that this kind of camping is particularly attractive to millenials who make up the world's largest number of passengers today. As many as 53 percent of them mention all forms of camping as their first choice of stay when travelling somewhere. With this new move, we're not only adapting to the trends and wishes of our guests, but expanding our offer to include new products and raise the quality scale of the camping world,'' said the director of Terme Tuhelj, Vasja Čretnik.

He added that transit guests from Germany, Poland, Scandinavian countries, the Czech Republic, as well as guests from Slovenia, Austria, Italy and the Benelux countries tend to enjoy camping during the summer.

Make sure to follow our dedicated travel page for much more.

When not discussing daytrippers and cruise ship passengers, foreign tourists generally spend huge amounts in Croatia, particularly during the summer months. It seems however that Croatia's desire for all-year tourism and a stronger pre and post-season are coming to fruition as the numbers look promising.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes on the 4th of July, 2019, revenues from foreign tourists in Croatia increased by 5.4 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, according to data from the Croatian National Bank (CNB/HNB).

During January, February and March 2019, tourism revenues from foreign guests amounted to a massive 475 million euros, which is 25 million euros more than was recorded during the same period of 2018. This is more than twice the growth compared to the first quarter of last year, when tourism made 54.3 million euros more than it did back in 2017, which was mainly thanks to last year's earlier Easter.

The increase in revenue in this first quarter of this year matches the increase of foreign tourists' arrivals in Croatia, by almost five percent, while in March and and Easter weekend in the first quarter of last year brought 27 percent more tourists to Croatia.

Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli is pleased with the results of 2019's first quarter.

''The government places great emphasis on the growth and development of the quality of tourism, and significant advances are most noticeable through continuous revenue growth. In the mandate of this government, revenues for the first quarter increased by 23 percent. It's also proof that our policy of strengthening the pre-season yields positive results, not only in terms of tourist traffic, which grew by 36 percent in the same period, but also in tourist spending,'' stated Minister Cappelli.

Throughout 2018, foreign tourists realised slightly more than 10 billion euro in revenue in Croatia, and in the first quarter of the same year, 450.2 million euros in revenue was realised. Shortly before the beginning of the current government's mandate, back in 2016, the first quarter brought Croatia tourism revenue in the amount of 390 million euros, which was 4.5 percent of the total annual tourist income realised by foreign tourists, amounting to 8.6 billion euros.

In that same year, foreign tourists made up 448,000 arrivals during the first quarter, compared to 626,000 in the first three months of this year. Thus, during the mandate of the current Government of Croatia, the first quarter was strengthened by 178 thousand arrivals of foreign tourists and 85 million euros in foreigner tourist income in three years.

What exactly the physical results of the second quarter, which will give a more accurate image of this year's pre-season, are still unknown.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more on tourism in Croatia.

Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli expressed satisfaction with the tourism results in Croatia, where during the first half of the year, there have been 6.5 million arrivals and 26 million overnight stays, which is in line with expectations, reports Novi List on July 1, 2019.

"We have the results after the first six months, and we have executed what we had predicted. With a small imbalance in May due to the weather, everything else has gone to plan. At this time we have realized about 26 million overnights and about 6.5 million tourist arrivals.

Thus, everything is in line with our predictions, both in Istria and in other parts of the Adriatic,” Cappelli told reporters at the expert meeting “Investment Potential of Tourist Land” in Funtana. 

According to last year's statistics from the Croatian National Tourist Board, in the first six months of 2018, Croatia saw 6.4 million arrivals and 25.4 million overnight stays.

The minister also said that it is imperative that in the first half of this year that neither German nor British tourists are in the minus, as was predicted.

Cappelli emphasised once again that everything was going to plan and is accounted for by the growth of physical tourism indicators this year of about two to three percent.

Minister Cappelli is in Funtana participating in a meeting on the investment potential of tourism land, in which a draft bill of unreported construction land was presented, which is in public debate.

Before the meeting, the minister attended the opening ceremony of city beach Materada, for which the Ministry of Tourism granted Poreč almost half a million kuna through the tender from the Tourism Development Fund, while the Poreč Tourist Board invested an additional 1.5 million kuna.

The settlement included a coastal area stretching between the Špadići and Materada settlements in the length of 400 meters or 2.834 square meters, which will become the largest beach to be renovated in Poreč this year. The project paid special attention to persons with disabilities.

In other words, the City of Poreč has invested nearly 20 million kuna in the town's beaches over the past four years.

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

As Nenad Bakic/eclectica.hr writes on the 23rd of June, 2019, for a long time now, it's been well known in Croatia that big capital and the Adriatic coast go hand in hand.

In general, Croatia has long been ''heroically fighting against neoliberal capitalism'', and rather successfully at that. The only issue with that is the fact that the premise was wrong because it was just as "well known" that such a type of capitalism had already stepped ''into bed'' with us and for some, it was quite a comfortable situation, although the real truth in itself was completely different.

Not to take away from the many entrepreneurs and invention this country has given to the world, Croatia continues to take many an unimpressive title when it comes to anything outside of natural beauty, which is something we can't influence (thank God). When speaking economically, Croatia is the least free country in the European Union behind Greece, and of course, Croatia is rather tragically lagging behind in almost every single significant aspect, and people are leaving in their droves, and that demographic leaking tap isn't going to stop dripping.

Croatia's struggle against "big" capital in the tourism industry was a wrong move, though perhaps of a somewhat visionary nature.

The result of the situation with big capital on the Croatian coast is the following: The coast is concreted over by apartments, and the share of Croatian hotel accommodation is half the size of the of that of the next EU country.

This chart shows the share of accommodation for foreign tourists, according to overnight stays spent:

Specifically, for hotels it looks like this:

As you can see, the share of accommodation in Croatian hotels is exactly 1/3 of the European Union average.

For apartments, things look like this:

Bakić adds the fact that it is regularly forgotten that Croatia has an incredibly unique advantage, and it's reachable by some 100 million people by car (the captive market). In addition, real tourism is a capital and a work-intensive activity, and because of the Croatian shortage of labour which is a result of the demographic crisis and issues with the payment of living wages, hotels are up on their feet. For apartments, this is much less important.

You can follow more from Nenad Bakić on his Eclectica website.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for more information on Croatian tourism and much more.