February the 16th, 2023 - The Croatian Infinum company has opened a brand new office in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam as part of their wider expansion plans.

As Josipa Ban/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian Infinum company has opened an office in Amsterdam, and in total, it is the seventh office in six countries of this domestic company that deals with software design and development. This is part of their strategy to get closer to their wnd customers, which is reflected in the opening of offices in strategic locations, as explained by Infinum.

They decided to open an office in the Netherlands, namely in Amsterdam, because this Benelux country is considered one of the strongest European technology centres of all.

In the top three markets

"The Netherlands is in the top three digitised countries in the European Union (EU) according to the European Commission's estimate for the year 2022. The companies operating there have a high level of digital literacy and recognise the value of digital products for business development regardless of the type of activity," explains Goran Kovacevic, the vice president for the dusiness Development of Infinum.

He also added that they aren't starting from scratch in the Netherlands because they already have clients there with whom they have been cooperating for a long time now, such as Philips and Signify. He also noted that they aren' limited to certain sectors in any market.

Martijn Spek, an experienced manager with more than twenty years of experience in the technology industry, will be responsible for business success over in Amsterdam. He comes to this position with the Croatian Infinum company from the IT company DevOn, where he worked as a commercial director for three years.

"Infinum was founded 18 years ago, this is the company's seventh location, but we're starting something new on the local market. In my experience, in this market it's really important to put your words into action, i.e. always deliver what you promise. Infinum has shown an enviable quality of work so far, and we can offer our Dutch clients additional value", emphasised Spek, who has a very responsible role because he is in charge of positioning the Croatian Infinum company well on the Dutch market.

The markets of Western Europe are their main focus, and Kovacevic pointed out that they include the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. "Last year, the United Kingdom also joined these markets, where we achieved very good results and we're continuing in that direction. Of course, there are also countries outside of Europe like the USA, which maintains stability and continuous growth", says the vice president for business development of Infinum. Before this office in Amsterdam, the last office that the Zagreb IT company opened was the one in the British capital of London back at the end of 2021. Kovacevic explained that it was opened due to an increase in the volume of work on the British market.

"We wanted to be available to our existing clients in the United Kingdom. This live contact means a lot to clients, when they can talk about work over coffee or lunch, and not via Zoom. The opening certainly resulted in new clients and contributed to the growth of that market. The motivation for opening an office in Amsterdam came partly because of the successful results we achieved in London. We want to create a similar setup in Amsterdam,'' Kovacevic stated.

Their team exceeded 400 people

The opening of that office certainly had an impact on last year's business results, as the Croatian Infinum company's revenues were 24 percent higher than they were back in 2021 and they achieved consolidated revenues of an impressive 23 million euros. Their number of employees and external associates at the same time exceeded 400 people.

The new office, along with those in Zagreb, Ljubljana, Skopje, Podgorica, New York and London, should contribute to the IT company's ambitions to achieve organic growth of 20 percent this year. Kovacevic stated that the special focus will be on expansion, and the opening of an office in Amsterdam is an important part of that strategy.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes on the 29th of July, 2020, an intensified campaign on the UK market will be carried out intensively until August the 10th, and a special article about Croatia in the Daily Mail was excellent promotion for Croatia, but there needs to be a resolution to the issues with another European country for HTZ to succeed further...

As soon as the United Kingdom put Spain on the red list of countries from which the British must enter into a fourteen-day quarantine upon their return to their country, the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ/CNTB) decided to step up promotional activities on that market.

As confirmed by HTZ, an intensified online campaign on social networks, the Google search engine and through native articles has been active since July the 27th, which also provides all relevant information for a safe arrival and stay in the country.

The intensified campaign will be carried out intensively over the next two weeks, more precisely until August the 10th. Promotion on the Dutch market is continuing at the same pace as before, although the Netherlands put Croatia "on the orange list" last week, HTZ added.

If we were to ask the tourism sector alone, the Dutch issue is perhaps more important for Croatia at this time, because the British were almost given up on this year due to a number of reasons, despite the fact that the UK is perhaps the most important European country when it comes to tourism in Croatia. The announcements from the Dutch market were decent, and it is a generous camping emitting market that is more accessible than the British market is this year due to a lack of flights.

"We started implementing intensive promotional campaigns on the British market in early July, from the moment the British put us on the list of safe countries. In addition to advertising and invitation campaigns and informative messages about travelling to Croatia, it's great that a special on Croatia was published in the Daily Mail (on July the 24th), which presented Croatia's tourist offer, and showcased Croatia as safe,'' they stated from HTZ.

It has since been discovered that the Daily Mail's glossy ''Croatia special'' wasn't a paid contribution, but it was created upon a decision made by the editorial board that Croatia is attractive and safe enough for British guests. Croatia expects stronger traffic from the British market in August, given that airlines have started with operations from London, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Birmingham, Bristol and other areas of the country.

This is especially important for destinations in the central and southern parts of Dalmatia, where British tourists most often come to stay. So far in July, there have been around 20,000 arrivals and almost 90,000 overnight stays from the UK market, and there are currently around 7,000 British tourists staying in the country.

While the Spaniards are struggling since the British authorities issued a mandatory fourteen-day quarantine for British tourists returning from that country, for Croatia, the biggest problem remains the Dutch decision to introduce the same measure for Dutch passengers arriving back in the Netherlands from Croatia.

The decision which was made a week ago is still in force, despite numerous actions to try to withdraw it, be it through politics or civic initiatives and petitions.

Despite the issues, about 17,000 Dutch tourists are currently staying in Croatia, which shows that the number of guests who left Croatia due to the Dutch Government's recommendation isn't at all significant, as there were about 23,000 at the beginning of last week. There were 56,350 arrivals from that market in July, and since the moment Croatia was put on the orange list by the Netherlands, over 6,000 guests from that country have come to Croatia.

HTZ hopes that Croatia, given the fact that the Dutch list is revised every fourteen days, will soon return to the list of safe and stable destinations. However, if the decision of the Dutch Government is not withdrawn, Croatia will lose significant traffic during the season, was was pointed out by the director of the Croatian Tourism Association, Veljko Ostojic.

"The decision to place Croatia on the orange list by the Dutch Government came just when people were planning their summer holidays, and many people could be deterred from coming to Croatia because of that decision. We are witnessing the decisions of some countries about travel becoming more political and less epidemiological. Therefore, there's no relaxation, and at all levels, from us in this sector to politics, we must manage the situation every day and inform our guests as much as possible that Croatia is safe to travel to and that all stakeholders in tourism are following the recommendations of epidemiologists,'' said Ostojic.

In addition to its weekly newsletter reporting on the situation in Croatia, HUT launched the Corona Region Tracker portal www.croatiacovid19.info last week, which monitors the epidemiological situation in four regions, the North Coast (Istria and Kvarner), the South Coast, Central Croatia and Eastern Croatia.

HTZ has pointed out that, in addition to classic marketing and advertising campaigns, they're working on special PR projects and activities, primarily with foreign journalists who can personally come and see how safe Croatia is for themselves.

"HZ is proactively communicating and monitoring announcements made on key markets, and is reacting in the event of inaccurate information about Croatia, which has recently been available, especially in the German and Austrian markets. We're delivering corrections and placing accurate information through our representative offices. In addition, we're communicating very intensively with the competent institutions, especially diplomacy, in order to react in a timely manner to certain situations in certain countries,'' they concluded.

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July the 25th, 2020 - Some mixed messages have arrived on the coronavirus-dominated tourism front recently. The Netherlands quickly placed Croatia on its orange list, advising against all but essential travel and asking Dutch nationals to return from Croatia, followed by Germany firmly keeping the country on its ''safe list''. 

Despite the Dutch Government asking its citizens to return home to begin their fourteen days of self-isolation and organising for travel agencies to secure return journeys home for those Dutch nationals using them, Dutch holidaymakers aren't that willing to listen. In fact, they've even gone as far as to launch a petition to have Croatia placed back on the Netherlands' yellow list.

As Morski writes on the 25th of July, 2020, the news that the Dutch Government has placed Croatia on the orange list of countries owing to their handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday night surprised many. Although some decided to leave Croatia, a good part of Dutch tourists decided to gather information and stay. Some went so far as to organise a petition to have the Dutch Government return Croatia to its yellow list.

Nobody knows why Croatia suddenly managed to find its place on the famous orange list and by what criteria it occurred, because the current epidemiological picture definitely is not the reason. The situation is much worse than Croatia in France or Austria, which are not included on that country's list of high-risk countries.

Apart from the fact that this news shocked all tourist workers, it also surprised the Dutch tourists themselves. Some left, but others rolled up their sleeves and decided to collect 40,000 signatures to send a message to their government that they aren't happy with the bizarre decision, with the aim of returning Croatia to the yellow list.

The petition has so far been signed by almost 6.5 thousand people and is being shared through social networks and channels. The petition can be found at this link: Kroatië terug naar geel.

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Travel agencies are now collecting data on Dutch tourists holidaying in Croatia as the country places Croatia on its 'orange list' following a surge in new cases of infection with the new coronavirus.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 22nd of July, 2020, Dutch nationals spending their holidays in Croatia are now being advised to return to their country immediately, and everyone else has been warned against travel, being told that they should travel to Croatia only if it is absolutely necessary. Upon their return to the Netherlands, fourteen-day isolation is strongly recommended, according to a report from Večernji list.

The Dutch foreign ministry has, as stated, issued an orange warning for the Republic of Croatia over the deteriorating epidemiological situation and the increase in coronavirus infections. Travel agencies are now collecting data on Dutch tourists currently staying in Croatia, and the ANVR sector association estimates that there are thousands of them.

Those tourists who have paid for package deals will be returned to the Netherlands by the responsible travel agencies with whom said deals were booked.

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