May the 9th, 2023 - A new Croatian tourist season is upon us, and with the height of the summer season rapidly approaching, old problems which have plagued the sector for a long time are more than likely set to cause the exact same issues.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, announcements and expectations for the dawn of yet another new Croatian tourist season are naturally (and traditionally) mostly revolving around record results. Based on the bookings and expressed agency interest, it's being assumed that this Croatian tourist season could surpass the figures seen back during the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

However, the focus on mass visitation and profit maximisation automatically excludes some other aspects of tourism planning. First of all, these relate to terms of ecology, transport and communal infrastructure, not to mention pressing social issues. All of that was still being talked about four years ago, but today it seems to have been more or less forgotten, writes Deutsche Welle (DW).

At the same time, we aren't talking about a shift taking place exclusively here in Croatia, nor are we only focusing on the tourism sector. A similar trend has also been recorded in agriculture, energy, transport, etc. The former specter of climate change and the damage being caused by pollution has fallen into the background, while the industry is now focused on another source of anxiety, the one concerning the loss of the market competitiveness of national economies.

However, in the case of Croatia and the upcoming Croatian tourist season, there's an undeniable link with ecology - if this country's manner of handling tourism continues to threaten the ecological basis and the sustainability of tourism, which today undoubtedly represents its main economic branch, it will be threatened.

"The post-pandemic recovery of tourism will certainly have its dark side in the form of renewed pressure on the environment and nature," Hrvoje Radovanovic, the head of the nature protection programme of Green Action/Zelena Akcija, stated. He believes that, although certain efforts are being made to "green" Croatian tourism up a little, among other things at the instigation of the tourists themselves who are becoming more and more environmentally conscious, one strategic problem persists: The main tendencies in planning the development of this sector are still primarily focused on attracting greater numbers of tourists, the extension of the season, and the tourism development of the parts of the country that tourists have mostly bypassed so far, etc.

Radovanovic pointed out that the infrastructure in many places across Croatia, especially those along the coast, is already unable to keep up with such a large number of tourists, as evidenced by last year's water supply problems in parts of Istria and elsewhere. "Thanks to climate change," he added, "it's to be expected that such situations will only increase in the future. A growing problem from the aspect of environmental protection is also the disposal of waste and wastewater produced by an increasing number of tourists, and there's also the destruction of the ecosystem thanks to concreting, apartment building and the construction of other tourist infrastructure".

Protected areas haven't been spared from this either, unfortunately.

"Even if it turns out that the planned measures and investments for ''greening tourism up'' represent something more than so-called greenwashing, and if they really do succeed in reducing the pressure on the environment, the total environmental pressure of this sector will continue to grow as long as the unlimited growth of the number of visitors and overnight stays remain the main goals of tourism development,'' believes Radovanovic.

Unfortunately, on top of all that, the controversial issues don't solely regard environmental and communal ones, but also those related to work in tourism itself.

According to estimates from the sector, this country is currently lacking about 60,000 workers to take up employment as waiters, chefs, bar staff and so on. Croatian employers, with the exception of the more stable ones such as larger hoteliers, still aren't offering their staff adequate salaries, meaning that they continally fail to retain employees who have worked for them back during previous Croatian tourist seasons.

It's already fairly well known that because of this, Croats have been emigrating to the northwest of the EU in large numbers for years now, while workers from Central and East Asia are being invited to come and work Croatia, and the deeply concerning part of the whole saga is that these individuals from third countries are more than ready to work (and work hard) for significantly lower wages. On top of that, the problem of their professional qualifications and the maintenance of service standards arises, all because of the crowning priority of the owners of tourist facilities - profit above all else.

"Croatia's ongoing labour shortage issue is particularly pronounced this year. While it's definitely not a new thing, it is a problem that has been growing and becoming more complex for a long time," Eduard Andric, president of the Croatian Tourism Union, emphasised to DW. He also participated in the working group of the sectoral ministry for the creation of the National Strategy for the Development of Sustainable Tourism until 2030, when it was assumed that Croatia would try targetting guests with higher purchasing power instead of simply wanting huge numbers of people arriving.

Andric maintains that Croatian employers simply have to understand that they need to give up part of their profits in favour of employees' salaries, or they will simply be left without anyone to work for them and without any earnings whatsoever.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated news section.

March the 22nd, 2023 - As is the norm in the spring because of the hunt for seasonal workers, the picture offered on a county by county basis by Croatian unemployment records is staggered, with some counties experiencing large declines and others stagnancy and increases.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, quite traditionally at this time of the year, the domestic labour market is usually under the influence of increased seasonal employment, meaning that the number of unemployed individuals registered in the records of the Croatian Employment Service (CES) has decreased by about 3,500 over the last 20 days of March, down to the current 14,400.

Over more recent days, the aforementioned institute published a detailed picture of developments from within the Croatian unemployment records over the first two months of 2023. About 188,000 registered unemployed people at the end of February compared to the previous month means a drop of almost 4,400, and on the annual level, the number of unemployed individuals stood at about 12,500.

Although the number of unemployed women remains higher than the number of unemployed men, in year-on-year comparisons, a stronger decline has been recorded among women (11.7 vs. 6.8%). Percentage-wise, in that year unemployment decreased the most, by about 15 percent, among the older age groups (from 50 to 54 and from 55 to 59 years old), while for example, the rate of reduction among people between the ages of 25 and 29 years stood at 6.4%.

If employment trends are observed by level of education, in annual comparisons held in Croatian unemployment records, there are more unemployed people, and that's only slightly, only among those without school diplomas and among those who didn't complete elementary school, and the largest decrease has been recorded among those with a university education (more precisely a decrease of 12.6%) .

Likewise, out of a total of 21 counties, only three of them (Varazdin County, Medjimurje County and Virovitica-Podravina County) had more people registered as unemployed back at the end of last month than they did one year before, and the institute recorded the biggest relative decline in Vukovar-Srijem (by almost 20%) and in Lika-Senj County (-17%).

Back during February, 11,000 people registered with the CES unemployment register, or ten percent less than in the same month last year, and at the same time, 21% more, or about 15,400 people, left it. The majority of them left that status due to gaining employment. In that group, the largest number of people were employed in public administration, trade, processing industry and the tourism, hospitality and catering sector.

Based on other business activities, more than 460 people left the records of the enemployed last month. In the case of more than half of them, the reason was starting their own business by registering a trade or freelance profession, a fifth of them founded a company, and a quarter of them had their status terminated because they earn monthly income from another independent activity that exceeded the amounts of monetary benefits they're entitled to from the state for the year 2022. In the case of the other slightly more than 4,000 persons, deletions from the unemployment register are the result of retirement, non-compliance with legal provisions, self-deregistration from the register, and so on.

For more, check our our news section.

February the 23rd, 2023 - The Croatian labour market is no stranger to lacking when it comes to getting the staff, and it is now proposing certain solutions to the fact that it is currently missing workers for around 28 different professions.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, owing to the chronic lack of workers with the necessary skills on the Croatian labour market, the European Commission (EC) declared 2023 the year of skills. An entire spectrum of occupations is lacking in the area of Dalmatia, with a struggle to find employees in almost every field from construction to tourism. One of the solutions is retraining, writes HRT.

Irena Radic from Komiza is one of the sixty participants of the pottery and ceramics workshop. After thirty years of working in a store, she decided to take a different direction.

"It's about retraining the production of souvenirs for our Komiza, today everything is focused on digital skills, but I think these skills should be developed as well," she believes.

"People come to us - some because it's just something they want to do for pleasure, but some people come because they want to take on new jobs. There are no rules when it comes to which genders approach us, and men and women come here," said Sandra Sumic, the head of a pottery and ceramics workshop in Split.

Only 37 percent of adults regularly attend training, and the representative office of the European Commission in Croatia, in cooperation with the Europa Direct Centre in Split, pointed out the problem through the holding of various different workshops and lectures.

"The whole of Europe is facing a labour shortage, both with highly qualified and lower professional qualifications. Three quarters of employers in the EU are coping with difficulties in finding labour both in Croatia and elsewhere in Europe," said the deputy head of the European Commission's representation in Croatia, Andrea Covic Vidovic.

"The Croatian labour market is lacking in tourism and healthcare workers, and that's why in the last two years, we have opened courses for nurses and we also have a competence centre," said Blazenko Boban, the Prefect of Split-Dalmatia County.

Back in 2021, there was a shortage of workers on the Croatian labour market for as many as 28 professions!

"This issue spans the whole spectrum of occupations, from construction, personnel such as carpenters, masons... and on the other hand tourism workers, cooks, bartenders... That's why we're constantly organising retraining and training sessions," said Marin Kanajet from the Croatian Employment Service's (CES) regional office in the City of Split.

"We have an institution that deals with lifelong training. We'll also strengthen this and we have to educate our people, not only the young, but also the elderly, because artificial intelligence (AI) is taking over jobs and that's why they need to be retrained for something else," said the mayor of Split, Ivica Puljak.

Undoubtedly, training and retraining are a big step in business across the European Union as a bloc, and these are issues which stretch far beyond the Croatian labor market.

For more, make sure to check out our news section.

January the 30th, 2023 - The Sali Municipality on Dugi otok has decided to pour very generous sums of cash into trying to ensure a demographic revival for the area, with each family who has a child being granted an enviable amount of cash from the local authorities.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, a positive example of proper care for families and tackling the ongoing demographic crisis can be found in the Sali Municipality on Dugi otok, which holds the record in Croatia for the benefits it provides for each newborn child. Each family that has a child receives a massive 60,000 kuna - almost eight thousand euros in the new currency, in six equal annual installments.

Negative demographic growth is a problem for most of Croatia, and it especially affects the islands. Dugi otok has a little more than 1,500 inhabitants, of which about 650 live in the Sali Municipality. The fee paid out by the powers that be for each newborn child was introduced back in 2017, and now amounts to slightly less than 8 thousand euros, according to a report from HRT.

The time spent by the youngest little islanders in the new kindergarten in Sali is also co-financed by the municipality, and money is also allocated for Christmas gifts and school workbooks. In short, allocations for children make up a large part of the local budget, which means a lot to their parents.

''Children get a better treatment, they can get access to better services, better food for babies, better strollers can be bought. It's a big deal because everything is more expensive on the islands, so that money means a lot and goes a long way,'' said Sebastijan Raljevic, the father of a one-year-old girl in Sali.

Another fact that is often forgotten is precisely what Sebastijan mentioned - that everything is more expensive for islanders, from basic food and hygiene items to fuel and building materials. In addition, everything that is taken for granted in the city, such as arranging extracurricular activities for the kids, becomes a real undertaking. However, there are quite a few children in the Sali Municipality, and their numbers are steadily on the up.

''When we look purely statistically, since 2017, more than ten children have been born in the Sali Municipality every year. If we look at the number of students attending the local primary school, in the eight classes there are, only three classes have ten or more children. I think the greatest importance of this support is to make life easier for both children and their parents and for them to stay at home here on the island, which is the goal of this measure, said Zoran Morovic, the mayor of the Sali Municipality.

As such, parents of two or more children receive already very large amounts from the local authorities, with the help of which they can start a business, or equip and modernise an existing one, which will make life on the island easier for adults and ensure a carefree childhood for the youngest residents.

For more, make sure to check out our news section.

January 18, 2023 - Slavonia is trying its hardest to remain full of life, but how is everything in and around it doing in reality? Not well. Vukovar-Srijem County is indeed still full of heartbreak. As much as things are starting to look up in some ways in the county's central point with the city of Vukovar looking better and better, some of its citizens deciding to stay, fight, and drive the economy themselves, tourists visiting more and staying longer; the area is still in significant social, moral, and demographic decline. 

As SiB / Danas.hr write, after the final results of the population census were finally released last year, there was a decrease in the number of inhabitants in the Vukovar-Srijem County compared to 2011. The county lost 35,083 inhabitants (a drop of 19.54 percent), with 13.6 percent fewer residents in Vukovar.

The Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) has published data on the places where the most significant depopulation occurred from 2015 to 2020 and the most significant increase in the number of inhabitants

?‍?‍?Over the period 2015–2020, the rural region with the highest rates of depopulation in the EU was:
?? Vukovarsko-srijemska županija (-2.5% per year)

The rural region with the highest population growth:
?? Ikaria, Samos (+2.8% per year)

?https://t.co/Q4YgBSsA3Q pic.twitter.com/aNR0P9nZlg

— EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) January 17, 2023

The Vukovar Srijem County has had the highest rate of population emigration in the European Union, amounting to -2.5% per year. On the other hand, the Greek island of Ikaria recorded the highest increase of 2.8% per year.

Recall, after the final results of the population census were finally released last year, there was a decrease in the number of inhabitants in the Vukovar-Srijem County compared to 2011. The county lost 35,083 inhabitants (a drop of 19.54 percent), and there are 13.6 percent fewer residents of Vukovar.

Požega Slavonia County ranks second in the EU in terms of emigration rate, with it being -2. From 2015 to 2020, Osijek-Baranja County recorded an emigration rate of -1.7%. Brod-Posavina recorded -2.1%, and Virovitica-Podravina -2.1%. The Sisak-Moslavina County is also ranking quite high (or low) with -2.1%, while all other Croatian counties recorded a much lower rate of emigration, around -1% or less. The City of Zagreb, on the other hand, has seen a positive change of 0.2%.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated Lifestyle section.

November the 28th, 2022 - Vrbovsko, located among the beautiful rolling hills of Gorski kotar, is set to provide land to those who decide to move and set up their lives there, but only under certain conditions.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Vrbovsko will give those who move there some land for use, but the condition is that they build a house within a period of three years. If they fulfill that request, then the land in question will be transferred entirely to them.

Memories of the days when Vrbovsko teemed with life are now as deep in the fog as the tops of the trees and buildings are at this time of year in that part of the country. Every ten years, Vrbovsko loses around one thousand inhabitants. This isn't a large area at all, and this new measure is intended to become the drop that fills the well of hope that things could eventually be like they were there once before.

"Vrbovsko is dying ff, more and more young people are leaving, so these measures contributed to us creating more jobs, and something that for me as a young boy would've been... a much more normal life,'' Neven Sulic from Vrbovsko tells Danas.hr.

"We believe that people can start building houses even in their fifties and sixties. These houses will be able to be either for residential purposes or for tourist purposes,'' says Marina Tonkovic of Vrbovsko's local administration.

The previous measure showed that changes are indeed possible, and 200,000 kuna was allocated from the local budget. Two families each received a hundred, which was part of the amount for the purchase of houses. Vlasta also moved from Solin with her husband and ten children.

"First we were in a smaller place, we waited for the loan to be granted, it took a year and finally everything opened up. We bought a house there and settled in Vrbovsko, living there permanently. Our experience was good, the locals welcomed us very warmly and I think that whoever moves here will be satisfied with it all,'' says Vlasta Majic from Vrbovsko.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated news section.

November the 7th, 2022 - One Croatian city near Zagreb has attracted more new residents than it has ''sent away'', the opposite of the trend we typically see in more or less all Croatian towns, cities and villages. Velika Gorica is on the up, it would seem.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, although in most cities across this country one continually encounters a reduced number of inhabitants as the years go by, there are also those with a positive migration balance.

The 2021 census showed that the total number of inhabitants in the Republic of Croatia had decreased by more than nine percent when compared to the census conducted ten years earlier. This decline in the number of inhabitants was visible across all counties, and one of the factors that certainly contributed to this negative trend is emigration abroad, which only intensified when the country joined the European Union (EU) back in July 2013. With work permits scrapped for Croatian citizens for the vast majority of EU countries and opportunities for a more stable life on offer in countries like Ireland and Germany, this country's already dire demographic trends only went even further downhill.

Velika Gorica, however, is the first on the list of Croatian cities to which more residents moved than moved out, as reported by Velika Gorica's local vgkronike portal. It is followed by Krizevci, Samobor, Cakovec, Dugo Selo, Solin, Sveti Ivan Zelina, Zadar, Sveta Nedelja and Duga Resa, which also showed a positive migration balance It's interesting to note only two Dalmatian areas on that list, with the rest being located in the continental part of the country.

To speak more precisely, a rather impressive 2,203 people immigrated to Velika Gorica last year, and 1,753 left. These figures show an increase in the number of inhabitants by as many as 450 people in just one single year. 717 people arrived in Velika Gorica from abroad, and 620 of them moved abroad.

For more, make sure to keep up with our dedicated news section.

October the 6th, 2022 - Just how many Croatian hotel employees did this first post-pandemic tourism season actually lack? The numbers are now in, and they're concerning to say the least.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, over this past summer tourist season, around 7.5 thousand seasonal workers were missing in the accommodation sector, and workers were missing in 86 percent of tourist companies from the latest survey of the Association of Employers in the Croatian Hotel Industry (UPUHH).

If this extremely worrying trend continues, more than 8,000 Croatian hotel employees and the like will be missing next season, UPUHH director Bernard Zenzerovic revealed at a recent meeting with journalists. The sector is therefore appealing to strengthen education and training programmes for Croatian workers, to speed up work permit processes for foreign workers with MUP and more.

A survey in which 39 companies which employ 45 percent of all workers in the country's accommodation sector took part, revealed that due to the lack of workers, as many as 42 percent of companies were forced to reduce the scope of their operations or services. This is significantly better than the situation was last year, when business was reduced by 65 percent, but it is still a very high number, explained Zenzerovic. This is especially true because the public health crisis which rocked the world for the past two years wasn't an issue during the summer of 2022.

Because of all this, this year 37 percent of companies will have a reduced income this year, in contrast to last year when two thirds of companies reported this.

The survey also revealed that as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic, when many Croatian hotel employees and others engaged in similar jobs left the sector or even the country, the share of seasonal workers in the total workforce increased. In these companies, the share of seasonal workforce stands at around 70 percent. The turnover of workers also increased, that is, the number of workers who came to a certain company for the first time increased, and the share of permanent seasonal workers decreased by as much as 17 percent in just one single year.

"This shows that the permanent seasonal measure has now had its day and needs to be adjusted, because it's obviously no longer as attractive as it was before," said Zenzerovic.

Within the UPUHH, they propose to increase the amount of salary compensation that seasonal workers receive from the state during the months in which they don't work. As a good example of the sector's cooperation with state institutions, he cited the employment of pupils and students, which increased by around 21 percent this year, which is the result of an increase in the tax limit.

When it comes to foreign workers, the UPUHH pointed out that it is necessary to start working on measures that will speed up the processes involving stay and work permits and MUP's engagement as soon as possible. They propose to reduce the security check procedure for returning workers, which they rather ridiculously have to repeat every year, and given the fact that these returnees make up about 50 percent of the total number, it is an unsustainable way of doing things going forward.

They are advocating the digitalisation of the process of issuing work permits for foreigners at the level of the whole country, and they are asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to speed up the issuance of visas for the minority of workers who need them, and to increase the capacity of the services that process applications for stay and work permits for third country nationals within MUP.

"We need to actually realise that it isn't just Croatia which is fighting for these workers, the whole of Europe, Austria, Germany... they're all looking for them, and we have to do everything we can to remain competitive, because we now need to be aware that we can't meet our needs for workers here on the Croatian market," concluded Zenzerovic.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

September the 23rd, 2022 - The final Croatian 2021 Census results have finally been published by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), which shows that there are less inhabitants, less men, and less people who identify as Catholic.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Central Bureau of Statistics has now published the final results of the Croatian 2021 Census on the total population by gender and age, as well as by ethnicity, religion, citizenship and mother tongue.

According to the Croatian 2021 Census, the Republic of Croatia currently has 3,871,833 inhabitants, of which 1,865,129 are men (48.17%) and 2,006,704 are women (51.83%). Compared to the 2011 Census, the number of inhabitants decreased by 413,056 persons or 9.64%.

The total number of inhabitants decreased across all of the country's counties, and the largest relative decrease in the number of inhabitants was rather unsurprisingly present in Central and Eastern Croatia, more precisely in Vukovar-Srijem County (20.28%), Sisak-Moslavina County (19.04%), Pozega-Slavonia County (17.88%). Brod-Posavina County (17.85%) and Virovitica-Podravina County (17.05%).

The share of the population aged 0 to 14 stands at just 14.27%, and the share of the population aged 65 and over is a considerably higher 22.45%.

Croatia's national population structure as of 2021

The results of the Croatian 2021 Census show that the share of Croats in the national structure of the population stands at 91.63%, the share of ethnic Serbs stands at 3.20%, Bosniaks 0.62%, Roma 0.46%, Italians 0.36% and Albanians 0.36%, while the share of other members of national minorities is individually less than 0.30%. The share of people who have declared regionally amounts to 0.33%, and the number of people who did not want to declare this at all amounts to 0.58%.

Religious affiliation

According to religious affiliation, 78.97% of people refer to themselved as Catholics, 3.32% refer to themselves as Orthodox, there are 1.32% Muslims, and non-believers and atheists amount to 4.71%, while 1.72% of people didn't want to state their religion or religious beliefs whatsoever.

According to data by religion from back in 2011, it can be seen that the number of Catholics fell by a not insignificant 7.3 percent. The number of atheists, agnostics and skeptics has also increased somewhat.

Data by religion from 2011

Catholics – 3,697,143 – 86.28%
Orthodox - 190 143 - 4.44 %
Non-believers and atheists – 163,375 – 3.81%
Those who didn't declare their religious beliefs - 93,018 - 2.17%

Mother tongue

When it comes to what Croatia's inhabitants in 2021 have as their mother tongue, 95.25% of people declared that their mother tongue was Croatian, and 1.16% of people declared that their mother tongue was Serbian. The share of people with another mother tongue is individually less than 1.00%.

There are 28,784 foreigners living in Croatia

Of the total number of inhabitants of the Republic of Croatia, 99.24% have Croatian citizenship, while foreign citizens make up 0.74% or 28,784 of the population, according to HRT.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated politics section.

September the 1st, 2022 - There are less and less Slavonian employees working along the Croatian coast, particularly in Dalmatia where they were once commonplace in bars, restaurants and in hotels.

As Morski writes, the number of Slavonian employees who work seasonally along the Croatian coast has dropped significantly. For years, Slavonian employees were a kind of "sign" of every summer tourist season along the Adriatic, but that seems to have come to an end.

The statistics of the Osijek Regional Office of the Croatian Employment Service (HZZ), which was the (second) largest pool of seasonal workers for the Adriatic, show that there has been a significant drop in the number of seasonal workers from Eastern Croatia.

During the first seven months of this year, around 1,100 people from Osijek-Baranja County were employed in various seasonal jobs along the coast. Compared to the same period back in 2019, there's been a decrease, as 1,823 people were employed in those jobs back then. The figures were even lower over the past two summer seasons, but these were the unprecedented pandemic-dominated years, which cannot be compared to anything else.

Ankica Vuckovic, head of the Labour Market Department of the Osijek branch of the Croatian Employment Office, concluded that there is less interest in Slavonian employees heading to work at various Adriatic hotels because there is an increasing need for employers in Osijek-Baranja County itself, meaning that much more stable job offers are now available to the unemployed in their own home county through year-round employment.

The strengthening of Croatia's continental tourism is one of the main reasons why there are fewer Slavonian employees now working on the Adriatic coast, but it isn't the only one. Well known Croatian economic analyst Damir Novotny believes that there are three aspects of this reduction. First of all, the costs during the height of the summer season are very high; if an employer doesn't provide workers with accommodation, seasonal employees simply cannot survive.

People from Slavonia aren't ready to live in containers or similar accommodation units, which their employers along the coast intend for them to stay in. Second of all, the wages on the coast are lower than what they can earn in, say, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, which has opened up to Croatian workers and absorbed a lot of labour from here. Higher-quality staff, who speak the languages of those countries, could very easily get a good job in the aforementioned Central European countries, especially in the ''boom'' after the pandemic. There's a great demand for catering, hospitality and tourist services in these countries, so the labour force from Slavonia is mobilised more towards these countries than towards Dalmatia,'' explained Novotny.

He added that the domestic component should not be neglected either, i.e. the increase in the number of small OPGs and family tourist accommodation capacities, which is visible in the entire Danube region, from Baranja to Ilok, as reported by Vecernji list journalist Suzana Lepan-Stefancic/N1.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.