ZAGREB, 10 March 2022 - As of Thursday, Croatian authorities will be issuing digital EU COVID-19 certificates as proof of recovery based on a rapid antigen test, said the AKD company, a government-owned manufacturing company for the production of high-security printed products (ID cards, passports, etc.).

Testing must be performed by an authorized laboratory and the test must be from the EU list of reliable rapid antigen tests. A certificate can be requested and obtained on the 11th day from the first positive test, and its validity is 180 days from the day of testing.

For earlier test results it is possible to retroactively claim a certificate of recovery if the positive result of a rapid antigen test is no older than 1 October 2021.

AKD recalled that the European Commission on 22 February made a decision enabling member states to issue digital COVID certificates of recovery based on rapid antigen tests. Until now certificates proving recovery from COVID-19 were issued only on the basis of a PCR test.

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ZAGREB, 29 March, 2021 - Unions and employers said at Monday's meeting of the Economic and Social Council (GSV) that they were pleased with the draft 2021-23 national recovery and resilience plan, assessing it as encouraging.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković told the press the GSV was presented with a summary of the draft plan, on which all departments had been working on for eight months now.

"It's a document containing reforms and investments amounting to €6.3 billion which is part of the Next Generation EU programme. Croatia is one of the member states that received more than the others."

He said the money involved was important so that Croatia can recover after the economic crisis caused by the pandemic and become stronger and faster in achieving the economic growth it had before the COVID crisis.

Plenković said the GSV was presented with the outlines of the national recovery and resilience plan, and that the government would endorse the information on it on Thursday and then present the plan to the press.

The intention is to finish the plan by the end of April, after which it needs to be approved by the European Commission.

"That will be followed by the payment of an advance of 13%," Plenković said, adding that "we should receive HRK 6.1 billion in August or September, to be followed by the realisation of projects through reforms."

He said some of the criteria for obtaining the funds were that 37% of all applications must contribute to the green transition and 20% to the economy's digital transition.

The criteria also include not causing significant damage in terms of climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, water protection, and the circular economy.

"In the next ten years Croatia will have €6.3 billion in grants at its disposal, then almost €13 billion in the new multiannual financial framework, another €3.6 billion in Next Generation EU loans, most probably about €1 billion for earthquake recovery, plus almost €1 billion from ReactEU and the Just Transition Fund," Plenković said.

Employers and unions say the document is encouraging

Unionist Vilim Ribić said Plenković's arrival at the GSV meeting constituted a good approach to social dialogue.

"A truly spectacular amount of money is expected," he said, adding that unions were pleased "that education has received a very relevant percentage of the funds, about 15%."

Ribić said the unionists had underlined the link between those funds and Croatia's prospects in terms of emigration and economic transformation, adding that the unions had insisted on the social aspect and on reducing inequalities in society.

Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) president Mihael Furjan said the national recovery and resilience plan summary looked encouraging and that its presentation marked the beginning of formal consultations with social partners.

"HUP is looking forward to a public consultation. We'll try, with our experience, knowledge, expertise, to help the government so that the final version of the document looks as well as possible in the interest of the Croatian economy," he said, adding that it was very important that employers and unions agreed throughout most of the discussion.

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ZAGREB, October 29, 2020 - Domestic tourism in the European Union has seen a faster recovery from the consequences of the first wave of the epidemic than foreign tourism, and Croatia is among countries with the mildest drop in domestic overnight stays, according to Eurostat data.

In 2020, the tourism sector was hit hard by the travel restrictions at the end of Q1 and at the beginning of Q2, which resulted in a sharp drop in the number of tourists in March and April compared to the same period last year.

In June, most countries started to relax the restrictions, but tourists still had to undergo quarantine after returning from some foreign destinations, and the result was a faster recovery of domestic tourism than of foreign tourism, Eurostat said.

After a 93% slump in April, domestic tourism in the EU came closer to last year's level in July, with a 22% decrease in domestic overnights stay in tourist accommodation. Overnight stays of foreign guests dropped by 64%, according to Eurostat.

Biggest jump in Slovenia

The Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria and Slovenia registered more domestic overnight stays in July 2020 than in July 2019. In Slovenia, their number more than doubled.

In Croatia, the number of domestic overnight stays in July 2020 was 8.1% lower than in July 2019. The number of overnight stays of foreign guests fell by 44.6% compared to July last year.

This placed Croatia among EU countries with the mildest drop in overnight stays by domestic and foreign guests, together with Cyprus, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Austria and Latvia.

The biggest drop in the number of foreign visitors, of over 80%, was registered by Spain, Portugal, Finland and Romania, the report by the Europan statistical office has shown.

ZAGREB, Oct 7, 2020 - Croatian hoteliers expect this year's revenues to drop 25-75% due to the COVID pandemic and half believe recovery will take two or more years, with holiday tourism expected to recover faster and convention tourism much slower, a director in the Horwath HTL consulting company says.

Such findings come from the company's analysis of the so-called COVID year in which the pandemic has affected every industry around the world, notably tourism.

Sinisa Topalovic says the forecasts for 2021 and the growth of the global GDP are somewhat encouraging, but that recovery by country will depend and be faster if they are industrially strong, while being harder and slower in those focused on services such as Croatia.

Global and country forecasts say consumption is expected to recover in 12 to 24 months, which is a very long time, notably in tourism, which has been globally affected by the pandemic, from air travel to the hotel industry, which are recording drops in revenues from 60% to 80%, and they will not recover soon, says Topalovic.

Croatia at EU's bottom in hotel occupancy but near the top in prices

In such circumstances, Croatia managed to generate above-average results when compared with the competition in the first eight months of the year, about 40% of last year's turnover, but next year could be at least 10 to 20 percentage points better, also thanks to this year's experience, according to a Horwath HTL analysis.

Croatia's average hotel occupancy rate in the first eight months of this year was 24%, ranking it at the bottom of the EU, but in terms of prices it ranks relatively high because during the short summer holiday season Croatian hoteliers managed to keep relatively good prices, which is good given that after being lowered due to the 2008-09 crisis, they took a long time to recover, says Topalovic.

Three markets saved the season

The analysis shows that only three markets, of the more than 70 from which tourists came to Croatia in the past, saved this year's season, generating up to 60% of the total turnover - Germany, Croatia, and Slovenia.

Croatian tourists "gave life to numerous destinations" and their arrivals and overnights registered the smallest decreases from the record year 2019, the analysis says.

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