March 25, 2021 - Both the Croatian Ministry of Tourism and Sports and Croatian tourist boards recognised the development of health tourism as a high priority for Croatia.

To discuss the development of health tourism in Croatia, a branch that is becoming one of the more important Croatian tourist products, Croatian Tourism and Sports minister Nikolina Brnjac met with Kvarner Tourist Board director Irena Peršić Živadinov, Kvarner Health Tourism cluster president Vladimir Možetič, and Zagreb Tourist Board director Martina Bienenfeld. As life expectancy and healthy lifestyle trends increase, the value of health tourism grows. The novel coronavirus only made that growth even more rapid.

"Over 80,000 tourists in 2020 visited Kvarner (well-known for Lošinj Island and its hospital for respiratory issues) for health services. Today, many people are recovering from the consequences of the novel coronavirus there," said the Kvarner Tourist Board director Živadinov.  

"We have all the advantages for further development of health tourism: a good reputation of health services, qualified staff, natural richness of thermal sources, good climate, and long tradition of tourism," said minister Brnjac. Her goal is to pull Croatia out of the perception of a country only good for the summer season.

Croatia offers health services in wellness and medicine tourism. Health tourism is most associated with the regions of Kvarner, Istria, northern Croatia, and Zagreb, but the goal is to include other regions that have the potential for health tourism and to achieve the goals of a strategy that needs to be accomplished by 2030.

Martina Bienenfeld said that the Zagreb Tourist Board is working on the City's recognition as the centre of medical excellence. She pointed out good traffic connections, a mixture of the Mediterranean and mid-Europe climate, as well as good prices of health services as great advantages of Croatia's capital to the international clientele.

The Health Care Bill and Services in Tourism Bill now allow hospitality and health tourism services in hospitals and medical centres. These legal changes are also significant in attracting further investments in the field.

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May 28, 2020 - In May, a total of 39 hotels and 11 campsites were opened in Kvarner, and according to the announcements of the Kvarner Tourist Board, a larger number of accommodation facilities will be opened in June, if the borders continue to be opened and the travel ban lifted.

HRTurizam writes that thanks to the fact that Croatia is at the top of European countries that have kept their epidemiological situation under very good control, and in that way preserved the health image of the country, the planned opening of the borders was started and thus partially enabled the beginning of the summer tourist season.

If we look at the situation within Croatia, the Kvarner region is among the best in the reactions of services that have contributed to the preservation of the epidemiological picture. Our experience, awareness, and centuries-old tradition in health tourism have certainly made a great contribution to the organized implementation of protection measures. Also, by closing their premises and respecting the measures, accommodation and catering facilities have contributed to maintaining a good epidemiological situation and thus are ready for the start of the summer tourist season quicker than others.

"Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Kvarner Tourist Board has maintained constant communication with domestic and foreign tourist journalists, bloggers and agents. Our main message is #VisitKvarnerTomorrow, which we use together with our local tourist communities from the Kvarner area. We are also in contact with the Representations of the Croatian Tourist Board in order to react in a timely manner and to be able to re-realize the study trips of journalists as soon as possible. Every year so far, the Kvarner Tourist Board has organized almost 500 study trips, which have resulted in numerous valuable publications in the strongest tourist media. The great interest of foreign tourism journalists comes to us through the platform TravMedia.com, the world's largest press network for the tourism sector, where through our regular publications we maintain contacts with journalists, "influencers", media professionals, PR agencies and other representatives of the tourism industry," pointed out the director of the Kvarner Tourist Board, Irena Peršić Živadinov, and added that it is important to agree at the EU level as soon as possible on a unified procedure for the arrival of guests and their return to their home countries.

At the moment, one of the strongest advantages of Croatia is the proximity and the fact that we are a very quick auto-destination. The Kvarner region, primarily for guests from Slovenia, Austria and Hungary, is first on the list as a destination for a short weekend getaway, considering that a large number of residents of those countries were forced to use their holidays while the pandemic was at its peak.

"This possibility of unhindered and fast border crossing, as well as the conditions for returning to the home country, will greatly affect the final results of the summer tourist season. According to the expectations of the tourist economy," Peršić Živadinov points out.

This season, Kvarner expects 30% of last year's tourist traffic in the summer months

According to information from the field and partners from our main foreign markets, reservations for the main season have not been canceled, and interest and intentions for guests to come to Kvarner during the summer still stand, explains Peršić Živadinov, and adds that this year, they could realize about 30% of last year's tourist traffic in the summer months.

Although Kvarner started the 2020 tourist year with excellent numbers - during January and February there were 16% more overnight stays and 16% more arrivals, and many years of statistical analysis confirmed steady and stable growth, due to the pandemic and closed borders, everything is temporary on hold. With the relaxation of measures in the first 10 days of May, 14,000 overnight stays were realized, while in the next 10 days, 43,000 new overnight stays were realized.

Slovenes are the first guests

For example, since the opening of the borders with Slovenia, the Kvarner region has recorded a gradual increase in the number of guests. Thus, on the first weekend after the measures were relaxed, guests from Slovenia realized 1,550 overnight stays (which is 22% of the realization if we compare with the same weekend in 2019). Already next weekend (22.05.-24.05.2020) guests from Slovenia realized 9,150 overnight stays (which is 58% of the realization if we compare with the same weekend in 2019)

"It is important for us to relax measures and decisions on the relaxation of border crossing conditions from Austria and Germany, given that guests from Austria have a share of 15%, and guests from Germany a share of as much as 30% in all total overnight stays in Kvarner. In this sense, the results of a survey conducted in Germany, which showed that Croatia still remains at the top of the most sought-after destinations, are positive, and it is expected that this year German guests will achieve the smallest drop in arrivals, 20%, compared to the other three Mediterranean countries (Italy, Greece and Turkey)," concluded Peršić Živadinov.

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