February 15, 2022 - It is reasonable to believe in a possible record summer season in 2022 due to the number of reservations. However, low vaccination rates, rising energy prices, and other factors may still interfere, warns Tomislav Fain, head of the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies.

All EU countries are still on the map of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in dark red, but most of them with higher vaccination rates are expected to drop more over time than expected in Croatia. Our tourism workers hope that despite low vaccination, rising energy prices and other things, all previous efforts to invest in the season will not "melt", but due to many open questions they do not dare to predict whether we'll have a good start to this season, writes Slobodna Dalmacija.

Booking is better than for 2019, but there is no guarantee that part of these reservations will not be canceled.

''From the current perspective, the view of this year's tourist season seems quite optimistic, especially when it comes to peak season, July and August. Demand is high, reservations are constantly arriving, but we must be very careful because they are all made with the possibility of cancellation and no advance payment'', says Tomislav Fain, owner of the Zadar travel agency "Terra Travel" and president of the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies.

He reminds that the situation with COVID has greatly changed the previous way of doing business and everyone must be flexible, so reservations are accepted without payment.

''We had to adapt to this pandemic. We don’t know what could happen tomorrow, whether there will be an increase in contagion and some new measures again and we had to allow people to cancel their reservations. So we still have to be careful with optimistic announcements, but I say that if everything remains as it is now, there could be a record summer season'', Fain says.

The pre-season is filling up a bit less but he emphasizes that it is a good signal that most airlines left their flights at the beginning of April, which is an indicator that their seats are filling up.

''Our guests are accustomed to having enough capacity and there will probably be a lot of "last minute" reservations'', said the president of the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies.

Vaccination is holding us back

Along with COVID, the rattling of weapons on the border between Russia and Ukraine is not in favor of more frequent trips.

''At the moment, we do not know how the situation will unfold there by the summer or how and how much it can affect the arrivals. We, like everyone else, follow what is happening there'', Fain points out.

The interest of the population in vaccination in Croatia is miserable; those who wanted to get vaccinated did so a long time ago, and in the persuasion of those who do not want to do so, the announcement of the ECDC, which will include the parameters of vaccination of the population in the map of European countries, does not help.

''In terms of vaccination, we are the worst of all countries that are our strongest tourist competition. These are "landmines" that can reduce the possibility of a record summer season because even if we do not have a lot of infected people, data on poor vaccination can significantly affect the arrival of guests. If we stay in the red because of that, we will close the door to some markets for ourselves. It is enough for Germany to mark us as undesirable, and here we are in trouble'', concluded Fain.

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ZAGREB, 9 Feb (Hina) - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Wednesday announced on Twitter that the government would mitigate the impact on the citizens' standard of living with a strong package of measures given the increase in energy prices, adding that talks on support were also under way with businesses.

"We are talking with the leaders of the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP), the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) and the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK) about Croatia's economic recovery, the price increase and support for business people in the challenges we are facing. The Croatian government will mitigate the impact on the citizens' standard of living with a strong package of measures due to the increase in energy prices," the prime minister wrote on Twitter.

Due to an imminent increase in the prices of gas and electricity as of 1 April, Prime Minister Plenković had earlier announced that in order to alleviate the effect of the increase of energy prices on citizens, the government would act in three segments -- social transfers, gas and electricity pricing and VAT rates.

Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Tomislav Ćorić earlier announced that the government would present its measures to mitigate the increase in energy prices in February.

In the meantime, the government on Monday issued a decree capping the prices of petroleum products, limiting the price of Eurosuper 95 to HRK 11.37 per litre, Eurodiesel to HRK 11.29 and Eurodiesel BS blue to HRK 6.5 per litre, VAT included. The prices will be valid for a maximum of 30 days.

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.

ZAGREB, 26 Jan 2022 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković announced on Wednesday that the government would act in three segments in an effort to alleviate the energy price hike - social transfers, allowances for gas and electricity, and elements related to the taxation system, VAT.

"The government is carefully analysing trends in energy prices and the measures other European Union member states are taking. Currently, we are considering all the options that will protect the standard of citizens," Plenković said at a conference "Energy Security in an Era of Fast Decarbonisation," organised by the Jutranji List daily.

Recalling that last autumn, the government capped the price of oil products, when it was necessary, Plenković reiterated that the situation is being monitored with regard to the growing prices of electricity and gas.

He said that the government's activities would be conducted in three segments with the basic aim of relieving the impact on households and citizens.

The first segment is a measure of social transfers with the Prime Minister announcing increased allowances for socially vulnerable citizens. Today that is a maximum allowance of HRK 200 and 64,000 socially vulnerable households will receive vouchers.

"Our plan is to adopt a new regulatory framework to increase the scope of those allowances and expand their implementation to gas besides electricity. We will expand the circle of beneficiaries entitled to those allowances. We will act through all three elements to protect the most vulnerable in society," said Plenković.

The second part of the package refers to reviewing all elements in the final calculation of the price of gas and electricity. Here we will lean on the important role HEP has as the national energy company which in these circumstances, has the strength to take on some of the burdens, he underscored.

The third element is to review all the elements we have through the taxation system and VAT with the Prime Minister recalled that currently, VAT on electricity is 13% and 25% for gas. "We are preparing a substantial fiscal analysis of impact, we are considering a reduction to buffer the impact on citizens and the economy," said Plenković.

In his address, he recalled the reasons for the significant energy price hike adding that Croatian citizens did not experience any significant growth in the past period. In the EU the price of energy increased by an average of 30%.

In the context of the global energy crisis, speculation is increasing about the problem of energy supplies while Plenković said that Croatia still has significant domestic production of hydrocarbons and satisfies 20% of its consumption whereas with gas it satisfied 30% of domestic consumption last year.

He underscored the LNG Terminal on Krk island saying that Croatia has secured gas supplies from all parts of the world.

"We recognised the strategic significance of this project for Croatia's energy independence and to diversify supplies," he said, adding that the terminal gives Croatia a different dimension on Europe's energy map.

Last year 21 ships with LNG arrived at the terminal and unloaded about 3 million cubic metres which provided 1.7 billion cubic metres of gas that was handed over to Croatia's transport system. This year 24 ships are planned.

Croatia has to be ambitious in energy transition

Plenković believes that Croatia has to be ambitious with regard to energy transition and he announced public consultation regarding Croatia's hydrogen strategy to 2050. He recalled planned investments in solar power plants, new technology, geothermal water, nuclear energy and the Krško nuclear power plant.

He recalled that 37% of the funds from the Recovery and Resilience mechanism is earmarked for green transition and funds will be available from other sources too.

He added that a new EU legislative package foresees the establishment of a social fund for climate policies that would ensure additional funds to relieve the impact of reducing greenhouse emissions. Croatia would have €1.4 billion available which will help citizens finance investments in energy efficiency, new heating and cooling systems and cleaner mobility.

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.