February the 12th, 2021 - A lot can be said for the grass being greener on the other side, and there can be no argument against the fact that Croatia has terribly neglected the eastern part of the country economically and in other ways, but for some, it takes actually leaving to see that the grass is green wherever you water it. Mato Topic from Slavonia experienced precisely that and decided to return home from Germany.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Bruno Lipej writes, Young Slavonian Mato Topic returned back home to Croatia a year and a half ago after spending three years living and working in Germany. He says that his acquaintances spoke to him in amazement: "Well, what are you going to do?" or, perhaps somewhat more honestly, "You're the only one coming back, what an idiot you are…"

He knew that he wouldn't have the standard of living and the style of an orderly life he had become used to in the German border town of Lorrach, located near Basel, when back home in Croatia, but his heart was aching for home.

"I can't explain it to you, in Germany I basically lacked nothing at all, but every time I crossed the Croatian border it was as if I was starting to breathe a pair of full lungs," he told Vecernji list. To make the story more interesting still, family wasn't the reason he left, as he he left behind his parents, brother and sister in Germany.

Until going to Germany, everything was more or less typical in Mato Topic's life in Slavonia. Both of his parents worked, but the family of five from Cepin didn't live in abundance with their Croatian salaries. Along with the daily sacrifices and efforts in the Cepin yard which belonged to Mato Topic's family, a new house was built. However, it seemed to his parents that the prospects werent' great for them or the children, and that things would simply stagnate. In 2013, when Croatia joined the European Union, they decided to leave Croatia and went to Germany.

"I knew that I'd really have to roll up my sleeves and that in Croatia I'd have to work much harder for a lot less money," said Mato Topic, who decided to return not to Slavonia, but to the far more prosperous capital of Zagreb. He wasn't unprepared for a starting salary of 3,500 kuna working in a call centre, though.

“In the meantime, I progressed, I became a deputy leader, I also led some training… Money is important, especially when you're young and have a lot of wishes and plans. But it's definitely not the most important thing. I was in Germany despite feeling like a total foreigner there. I realised that I didn’t want to wait for my annual holiday to come home every year, nor to build my life and start a family in the long run in a foreign country. My parents supported me,'' he said.

"With all the shortcomings and irregularities in Croatia, and even injustices, I have confidence in Croatia. I just feel that way,'' the hopeful Mato Topic told Vecernji list.

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February the 3rd, 2021 - German tourists have always been great lovers of Croatia, arriving year after year in their droves, and then 2020 came. Is Croatia back on the German radar for summer 2021?

As Marija Crnjak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, last year, 41 percent of Germans didn't travel anywhere on their summer holidays due to fear and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and their final decision on travel in 2021 will be strongly influenced by the process of population vaccination.

''The results of research by one of the world's largest online agencies eDreams Odigeo shows that 46 percent of Germans consider vaccination a necessary condition for travel outside Germany,'' revealed Nera Milicic, head of the Croatian Tourist Board in Munich in her market review based on available analyses.

According to a Booking.com analysis, 56 percent of travellers will be more careful when travelling in 2021, but will continue to travel, while 38 percent of German tourists will have stricter criteria when choosing accommodation, taking special care of their health, hygiene, cleanliness and safety. More than half of the respondents will prefer to choose accommodation and a destination with clearly indicated security measures as vaccination is rolled out and the pandemic hopefully draws to a close.

The general travel trends in 2021 according to Booking.com's analysis have an emphasis placed on independent, luxury and shorter trips, culinary delights and regional food, as well as holidays with family and friends. 60 percent of survey participants for the summer of 2021 wish for a "relaxing holiday and the enjoyment of local gastronomic specialties."

The world's largest search engine for holiday homes, HomeToGo, also conducted a survey covering 16 million users. The survey found that 70 percent of those respondents will travel this year, 71 percent will travel by car, and 61 percent prefer a holiday home hidden away somewhere in nature. According to FeWo-Direct, demand for holiday homes away from cities rose 650 percent in the second half of 2020.

In addition, the German Tourism Association, DRV, presented a new trend of "home offices in a sunny location", the so-called Bleisure Work - Business and Pleasure Work. Respondents already exploring such opportunities are mostly men aged 19 to 39 in middle and senior management positions.

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January 11, 2021 – After the French travel show "Echappées Belles" recently dedicated one episode entirely to Croatian beauties, the France-German TV channel ARTE continued with promoting Croatia by showing the rich Croatian river heritage in a TV show named "La Croatie au fil des eaux "(Croatia along waters).

As reported by Danijela Mihalić Đurica, the Croatian National Tourist Board Director in France, the TV show "La Croatie au fil des eaux" (Croatia along waters) was broadcast on the famous and watched French-German TV channel ARTE, which specializes in cultural programs and documentaries about nature and travel.

In a show produced by the Croatian production company Šafarek, for 45 minutes, the richness of the biological diversity of Croatian regions and the beauty of Croatian national parks and nature parks are revealed to the French and German audience.

From the Drava across the Danube, Gacka, Zrmanja to the Neretva delta, viewers can enjoy Croatian natural river heritage diversity. They can learn more about almost 300 different species of birds in the Nature Park Kopački rit or the European storks' village Čigoč. Besides, the show also mentions the "kingdom of bears" in Gorski Kotar, the impressively large trout of Gacka river, the "temple of birds" in the Neretva delta, and "the cascades that line like pearls on a necklace," as the show describes the cascades of the Skradinski Buk waterfall in the National Park Krka.

The author of the show, well-known Croatian biologist and photographer Goran Šafarek, pointed out that he made the film in an effort to promote Croatian nature, as well as Croatia itself. "I tried to show many hidden gems of our country, which can certainly enrich the tourist offer outside the main tourist destinations," Šafarek said.

More than 800,000 viewers watch the popular ARTE channel, and in addition to Germany and France, the show will be broadcast in Italy and Spain.

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September the 6th, 2020 - After having recently added Zadar County to its list of risky ''red list'' zones, Germany has its eye on three other potential Croatian red list counties.

Going from one of the countries in Europe with the best epidemiological picture to quite the opposite with the arrival of the summer tourist season, Croatia's situation with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has become much more serious in a relatively short period of time. As such, numerous European countries have placed either Croatia as a whole on their respective red lists, or, in Germany's case, declared certain counties no go areas.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 5th of September, 2020, if the number of newly infected people in these counties continues to grow, they could easily be declared risky, according to reports from the German media.

So far, Germany is the only country to have created Croatian red list counties as opposed to simply placing the entire country on its red list and causing enormous issues for travel. The Dalmatian regions of Sibenik-Knin, Split-Dalmatia and Zadar counties have now all been declared risk areas, but these might not be the only Croatian red list counties we're going to see.

Germany's Federal Office for Foreign Affairs notes on its official website in its epidemiological report for Croatia that the number of infections has recently risen sharply in Pozega-Slavonia, Dubrovnik-Neretva County and the capital, Zagreb, Fenix magazine reports.

This remark doesn't yet constitute a warning against travel for German nationals and other residents of Germany, but these areas are currently being specifically monitored. If the number of newly infected people in these counties continues to grow, they could easily find themselves on the same list as the aforementioned three Dalmatian areas, write the German media.

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ZAGREB, Aug 20, 2020 - The Croatian National Tourism Board director, Kristjan Stanicic on Thursday said that decisions to put Croatia on lists of unsafe countries for travel would certainly affect tourism turnover.

The German foreign ministry on Thursday issued a warning against travelling to Sibenik-Knin and Split-Dalmatia counties because of the increasing number of new coronavirus infections. "Unnecessary travel such as for tourism to these areas is not recommended," the ministry said.

Commenting on the decision to Hina, Stanicic said that the fact that Germany had not declared all of Croatia as unsafe was "a mitigating circumstance."

"We know how important the German market is for Croatia's tourism from which we have generated 3.6 million bed nights in August thus far, which in the current circumstances is an excellent 93% of last year's results. As such, I once again appeal for everyone to adhere to the prescribed epidemiological measures because at the moment that is the fundamental precondition to continue achieving tourism turnover in the country," Stanicic said.

Putting Croatia on the red list in the UK will change travel plans to Croatia

Commenting on the latest announcement from the United Kingdom that Croatia could be put on the red list of countries due to allegedly imported cases of the infection, Stanicic said that it could potentially mean British tourists leaving earlier or changing their plans to travel to Croatia.

"The United Kingdom is one of the more important markets for Croatia's tourism and the Covid-19 pandemic has negatively affected arrivals. In circumstances when until mid-June it was almost impossible to travel anywhere in Europe and with the exceptionally strong contraction of air transport, the British market did not result in any strong activation. Hence, since the start of the year until now we have had about 97,000 arrivals and 483,000 bed nights from that market, which is about 16% of last year's turnover and the arrivals from the UK rank 12th among foreign tourists," Stanicic explained.

The director of the HTZ branch in Great Britain, Daria Reic, has informed that interest by British visitors for Croatia is still strong and partners are informing of good occupancy rates in planes.

"We are receiving a lot of calls from potential passengers enquiring about the current situation in Croatia and our partners are informing us of very good bookings for the remainder of August and September," Reic revealed.

She said that Brits are by no means happy with their government's decision, adding that the general opinion in public is that no one wants to go into 14-day quarantine.

Currently, 17,000 Brits are spending holidays in Croatia

If the government does indeed make such a decision there could be a drastic drop in tourists while Stanicic said that currently there are about 17,000 Brits in Croatia with about 56% in rooms and apartments, 29% in hotels, 7% in nautical accommodation, 5% in camps and 3% in non-commercial facilities.

Most of them are vacationing in Dubrovnik, Split, Konavle, Hvar, and Pula.

We are doing our utmost to precisely inform foreigners in the UK and elsewhere

Both Reic and Stanicic underscore that the HTZ is cooperating with diplomatic representations in the UK and elsewhere in the world to provide accurate information based on which they can then decide on including countries on the list of risky or safe countries.

"Unfortunately, we cannot impact a final decision and apart from the epidemiological situation, their decisions take into account the economic interests of each individual country. That is particularly obvious in the fact that some countries have declared us to be a risky destination (Slovenia, Austria, Italy) while others consider us to be a safe tourist destination and their tourists are enjoying their vacation in Croatia (Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and so on)," said Stanicic.

"We will continue to promote Croatia as a safe and stable tourist destination, particularly through online channels and we have launched an initiative for some local tourism boards and companies to organise testing in their areas for all interested tourists so they can continue their vacation undisturbed," he concluded.

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As more and more countries begin adding Croatia to their list of ''no go'' or ''red list'' countries as a result of the rise in infection rates, Germany keeps Croatia on its list of safe countries. The German RTL has released a map with a detailed overview of the risk and safety of countries when it comes to the new coronavirus, published by the German Federal Office of Foreign Affairs.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 18th of August, 2020, under the title "Holidays in Spain, Turkey, Croatia - where it's safest", the German RTL.de published a text and a "coronavirus map" showing the countries to which it is safe to travel for German nationals and residents, but also those that are currently on Germany's "red list" .

Croatia is still marked in green, meaning that it is one of the safe countries for holidays for Germans.

The description of Croatia RTL.de states that Croatia allows entry to all citizens of EU member states. But after entering the country it is necessary to leave contact information.

''In order to avoid long waits when crossing the border, the Croatian Ministry of the Interior recommends that you fill in the appropriate form online in advance. There is no obligation to quarantine, nor is there any obligation to test for coronavirus,'' writes the German RTL, RTL.de, and reports Felix magazine.

They note that almost all of Spain is marked as a risk area for coronavirus, but the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs withdrew warnings for some Turkish provinces back in early August.

As some begin to suspect that the warnings being issued by some European countries against travel to Croatia has more of a political nature than it does of health, it is encouraging to see that Germany isn't condemning Croatia in the way Austria recently has. For the the current status in individual countries published by the German RTL, click here.

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As Index writes on the 15th of August, 2020, the European Commission (EC) proposes that only member states which actually respect European Union law receive money from the EU. The German media publication Die Welt writes that several countries could be left without hundreds of millions of euros in that case, including Croatia.

"Violations of the law and corruption are much more common in the EU than is generally known. And this phenomenon is spreading, regardless of whether the heads of the government belong to conservative, social democratic or liberal parties," writes the conservative newspaper Die Welt, as reported by DW.

"Alarm bells are ringing in Brussels: The European Commission has proposed that future payments from EU funds be linked to compliance with its regulations. This issue will return to the agenda in the autumn. Many countries could run out of hundreds of millions of euros and therefore the chance for something like that to pass aren't big,'' writes the aforementioned German media publication. It cites Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Croatia as problematic countries.

The Republic of Croatia - a problem with corruption

The popular tourist destination, led by Andrej Plenkovic, has a smart head of its government who is well networked in the conservative European People's Party (EPP). But behind that facade there is a dark side, writes Die Welt.

"Corruption is a huge problem in Croatia and it exists at all political levels," said Robin-Ivan Capar, an expert on Croatia at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) research centre.

Capar doesn't exclude Croatian courts here either. In the so-called Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, Croatia has now dropped down to an unimpressive 63rd place. A new EU report on media diversity makes an utterly disastrous assessment of Croatia: "Journalists are the subject of dirty campaigns, hate messages, death threats, intimidation, police harassment and defamation charges."

The German media publication also states that, according to reports from human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, Croatia partially refuses to receive asylum seekers at its borders without any checks, thus violating European Union law. In addition, it is alleged that the border police are abusing migrants. The Croatian Government has rejected and continues to vehemently reject these ongoing allegations.

Slovenia: Jansa is problematic

Significant policy changes are currently taking place in neighbouring Slovenia, which the European Union's public barely notices, writes the German media. Janez Jansa of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), who was elected prime minister back in March this year and is a friend of Hungarian Prime Minister Orban, is considered to be a fiery nationalist.

"There the are first signs that the independence of the Slovenian judiciary is being called into question. Corruption is also a problem in the judiciary. The courts are partly politicised and don't work in line with the standards we can expect in the EU," said Marko Lovec, a political scientist at the University of Ljubljana.

The EU also complains about the lack of media diversity in Slovenia. According to Lovec, "Hungarian businessmen are currently buying up media in Slovenia."

Jansa's attitude towards freedom of expression is also considered to be disturbed. When he was the leader of the opposition, he slandered two journalists, referring to them prostitutes who had served their time - and the Supreme Court approved that, according to Die Welt.

The European Commission is currently following the case of investigative journalist Blaz Zgaga with concern, who reported (in great detail) on the chaos and corruption during the procurement of respirators and medical masks, and Jansa publicly accused him of lying, the German newspaper states about Slovenia.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 11th of August, 2020, all major portals carried the news that nightclubs in Croatia are sources of the spread of the new coronavirus, as well as infection, although a lot of the data appears contradictory and in fact there is no absolute way in which to determine where the virus is coming from.

Deutsche Welle journalist Srecko Matic said that according to the Robert Koch Institute from Berlin, Germany, which monitors the coronavirus pandemic across Germany, 66 cases of infection with the new coronavirus have been imported from Croatia in the last month, N1 television reports.

"In recent days, the danger and fear of importing the new coronavirus has been growing, not only because many Germans have gone away on holiday, but also because certain workers are returning from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey. According to the Robert Koch Institute, most cases were imported from Kosovo, 608, followed by Turkey, 227, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia with 66.

However, Matic believes that there will be no change given the recommendations for travel and stay in Croatia from the German authorities.

"Croatia is doing well, better than in some German provinces where the number of cases has greatly increased. I doubt that stricter measures will be introduced, such as those for parts of Spain or the Bulgarian coast that are marked as risky areas to travel to,'' he stated

He added that all major portals have spread the news that nightclubs in Croatia are sources of infection, although a lot of the information, as stated, is contradictory at best and it remains impossible to determine the sources of outbreaks of this nature.

"It's not a good advertisement, but it won't affect anything. The Germans don't even have an alternative. Air traffic has collapsed, Spain and Turkey are too far away, and going to Croatia with fast highways is the simplest choice for them,'' he concluded.

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August the 9th, 2020 - Many foreigners are quick to compliment the mostly excellent Croatian roads and motorways, but just how good are the tunnels? The Germans tested several, and while a couple got the green light, one heavily used Croatian tunnel didn't do quite so well...

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 8th of August, 2020, a study by the ADAC, a well known German car club, published an assessment of the safety of some European tunnels, and one Croatian tunnel unfortunately got a red mark next to it. The Ucka Tunnel was the one to receive the unflattering German review via an assessment according to which it doesn't meet the proper safety standards.

The ADAC has investigated the safety of sixteen Austrian, Italian and Croatian tunnels, mostly those through which most German tourists go when driving to their holiday destinations in the aforementioned countries. Of the Croatian tunnels, Konjsko, located on the A1 road, as well as Sveta Tri Kralja on the A2 section, were also explored and they each received a green mark, which means that they meet all of the necessary safety requirements, and it was stated that everything was fine with them, according to a report from Vecernji list.

All of the Italian tunnels received a red mark, while all of the Austrian tunnels received green marks. As for the Croatian tunnel ''in the red'', the Ucka Tunnel, the disadvantage is that it has only one pipe. A big complaint is that there are no emergency exits in this particular Croatian tunnel, nor are there any speakers or external entrances for rescuers. It has been noted that it is confusing for drivers that the number of lanes in front of and within the tunnel itself is not the same, and it has been deemed that all this reduces the general level of safety while driving through the tunnel.

Of the sixteen European tunnels inspected, more than half have failed to meet the minimum standards set by the European Union. While Austria has adequately restored its tunnels, the Italian tunnels give the impression of insecurity according to the car club.

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