French airline companies and tour operators will expand their travel programmes for Croatia.

Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli visited Primorje-Gorski Kotar county yesterday, including the mountainous region Gorski Kotar and Plakat, to take a look at the tourism potential in this part of Croatia. In 2016, Gorski Kotar was visited by 32,691 guests who spent 93,948 overnights.

According to preliminary official data from the eVisitor system which contains tourist growth in commercial and non-commercial capacity, and according to the system eCrew which contains the tourist traffic of nautical charter, Croatia in the year 2016 achieved 16.3 million arrivals and 91.3 million overnight stays. The results represent roughly 11 million more overnight stays compared to 2015.

"We expect that the upcoming year will also be a record year, and the Ministry of Tourism expects growth at the level of 5 percent," said State Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism Frano Matušić during the fourth session of the Tourist Business Council at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, held on 21 December. He added that they are ambitious and will be working on legislative amendments to improve the infrastructure in tourism, reports HRTurizam on 24 December 2016.

This year for the first time, the beaches and rivers on the continent, including the the Karlovac Foginovo beach on the Korana river, will get support.

Today in Zagreb as part of the 5th Forum of the Croatian Congress Industry, Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli presented an action plan for the development of congress tourism.

The Ministry of Tourism for the 2016/2017 school year, and under the programme for encouraging staff education in catering and tourism, will co-finance 245 students to be educated in hospitality and tourism professions and occupations related to the development of special forms of tourism. The Ministry, since first implementing this program in 2008, has thus far co-financed 703 scholarship holders.

Tourism Minister Cappelli says he will not resign due to the tax increase.

Tourism Minister Cappelli reportedly does not support Finance Minister’s proposal to increase VAT rate for restaurant and catering services.

New Tourism Minister talks about situation in his sector.