ZAGREB, July 16, 2020 - Finance Minister Zdravko Maric said on Thursday that it is not true that VAT in tourism and hospitality is 25%, since it is generally 13%.

Asked whether a VAT reduction was on the cards as called for by some of the entrepreneurs Minister Maric first said that VAT is a neutral item for payers but that he presumes they are referring to the hospitality sector.

He went on to say that that was one of the topics discussed over the past few days with representatives of that sector.

"The only segment in tourism that has a VAT of 25% is delivering beverages to hospitality facilities. Everything else is practically at 13%: from accommodation to delivering and serving food hence if we look at it overall, VAT in tourism is 13%," said Maric.

He announced that the new government would continue with tax cuts at the "same pace" as until now. He recalled that the incumbent government began cutting taxes practically at the start of its term in power.

ZAGREB, July 2, 2020 - Six million passengers entered Croatia in June, which is 40% less than for the same month last year, Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic informed on Thursday.

In May, 2.13 million entries into Croatia were recorded and in June that number as 6.6 million, which is an increase of 210%, Bozinovic specified during the cabinet meeting adding that the trend was on the rise and that it can be attributed to the relaxation of lockdown measures.

Enter Croatia app - 90% of tourist announcements

Bozinovic underscored that in May entry into Croatia was made possible for citizens of 10 EU member states while citizens of third countries are still obliged to prove the purpose of their visit.

"In an effort to reduce waiting time at border crossings due to the collection of epidemiological information and to be in a position to connect every foreign citizen who enters Croatia, the Enter Croatia app-enabled completing the necessary information online prior to arrival and since May 28, almost 1.1 million foreign passengers used this app. About 90% of these applications are of a tourist nature," said Bozinovic. 

Passengers who complete the necessary form prior to arrival will use the special lane

The ministries of interior and tourism and the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) branch in the Czech Republic have agreed to submit passenger lists ahead of their arrival by bus in order to allow for better traffic flow. Similar agreements will be arranged with HTZ's branches in other EU member states, he said.

He added that special lanes were being opened at border crossings for people who complete the necessary forms ahead of their arrival.

Bozinovic informed that a ship arrived from China on June 26 carrying 194 tonnes of medical and protective equipment valued at $10.2 million.

''Equipment is currently being distributed to polling committees in cooperation with the State Electoral Commission but also to all care facilities following a request by the Ministry for Demography, Youth and Social Policy," said Bozinovic. 

ZAGREB, June 17, 2020 - Croatia is a safe country and one of the few countries that will have a tourism season this year, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic said on Wednesday, adding that the more than 350,000 tourists had announced their arrival via the Enter Croatia system.

"Croatia is perceived as a desirable country to come to for a vacation and at the moment it is probably the only country with announcements of foreign tourists arriving and with congestion at border crossings," Bozinovic said at the opening of a headquarters for the implementation of safety measures during the 2020 tourism season.

Bozinovic recalled that last year 20 million tourists visited Croatia and generated 90 million bed nights.

"We probably won't reach those numbers this year but based on today's reports we can say that the entire security system has proved to be exceptionally efficient in resolving crises, regardless of whether they be an epidemic, crimes or wildfires," he underscored.

"Our Homeland Security system is sending a message not only to Croatian citizens but to foreigners as well - Croatia is a safe country and this year again foreign tourists can feel safe here," he said.

Reporters wanted to know the minister's position regarding wearing masks as tourists are confused because the majority of people in Croatia are not wearing them.

"It is always better to have a mask than not, but it is not compulsory. If we were to introduce that as a compulsory measure, that would mean that the situation is a lot worse than it is," he explained.

He added that the epidemic is under control in Croatia. "Our numbers are low but we have to keep in mind the situation in neighboring countries, in Europe as well as globally, as it indicates that the virus is still present," he said.

Croatia is prepared to react if hotspots emerge

Bozinovic underlined that Croatia is prepared to react should certain coronavirus hotspots emerge.

"We have shown that we know how to handle those challenges, that we first of all have the people but also the technology and experience that can guarantee safety," he said.

This is the third year that the safety headquarters is being opened during the tourist season to protect citizens, property, and tourists during the season.

Last year a record number of foreign police officers, 95, came to Croatia from 19 countries to help during the tourism season. At the moment there are 36 police officers from nine countries who have registered to participate and join their Croatian colleagues in making the season safe in Croatia.

June 8, 2020 - A few weeks ago, Index.hr and Dalmatian portal (Dalmatinski portal) published an article which presented some devastating results by analysing the work of tourist boards in Croatia. Pokret Otoka has done something similar. The Solta tourist board stood out in particular...

The person responsible for discovering this "phenomenon" is the British journalist Paul Bradbury, who, with his experiment, once again drew attention to where taxpayers' money actually goes. If you didn't know, Bradbury contacted the Croatian National Tourist Board, which shared the public e-mail addresses of all tourist boards to help them in their business. Namely, they were offered free marketing assistance during these challenging times caused by the COVID-19 crisis, since some budgets were drastically reduced, while some even had their salaries reduced (from 4 to 20%). It is important to point out that the mayor of Sucuraj on Hvar was the only one to react by abolishing the Tourist Board in his municipality until the situation stabilises.

But let’s get back to the published article. Paul sent the offer mentioned above to 319 addresses. Only 26% of them opened the mail, and only 18 of them accepted the offer, not as a percentage but in a total of 18 tourist boards. Surprised by the results, he published his findings in the media and interested the public.

Many questions arise: Why have the employees of tourist boards turned down a great opportunity to have part of their work done for free by an expert, especially since some of them have already had their salaries reduced and their budget for marketing activities has gone down with it? We really wonder, like most of the public, what these individuals are paid for and how tourist boards contribute to their communities, with what results they participate in the overall tourist traffic of the destination, how they promote it and what they will do now when strategic changes are needed such as innovation, digitisation and all sorts of new skills for the general survival of the tourism market?

Here, we want to emphasizse that we do not think that all tourist boards are useless, we don't have accurate and relevant insights into their work, but some individuals were obviously prompted to consider the work of the tourist board on the island of Solta and present their business analysis to the public.

Duje Mihovilović, originally from Solta, made an effort and shared several facts from the publicly announced business plan of the Tourist Board of Šolta for 2019. He is a young, educated person who has been involved in tourism for the last ten years and has the skills of digital marketing, social networking, and the segmentation of new customers. At a time when he sees the market changing and turning to sustainability, quality, natural resources, and local values, customers will be reached with new technologies and digital tools.

“The tourist board promotes the island through social networks, through the Visit Solta platform, which includes Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest. The goals of this direct communication with the target groups are an increased number of guests and consumption and an enhanced emotional connection with the destination (brand building). The realisation of the stated goals will be carried out through the activities of managing social network pages in English through the frequent generation of content (photos and videos) and communication with members."

Current status on social networks:

The expected result of the campaign on social networks is an increase in Facebook page followers to 15,000, and 2,500 followers on Instagram and an increase in video views on YT by 15,000. The planned costs for 2019 amount to HRK 60,000.00.

Currently, the Facebook page of TZ Solta has 14,560 followers, out of the planned 15,000 in 2019. Realistically, even then, it was not a challenging number or an ambitious goal, but, unfortunately, it was not achieved half a year after the planned period.

However, looking at communication with target groups makes it clear why the number of visitors is not increasing. Namely, from the beginning of this calendar year until today (June 4), six publications were published, of which the Tourist Board wrote 1 (one!) about Solta. This is a post related to the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. Other posts are news feeds from other portals. Unlike last year, nothing has changed - in 2019, 14 announcements were published, and the tourist board's employees wrote none of them.

On Instagram, the situation is a little worse than it was last year. They have published four posts since the beginning of the year, but the authors are different people. The number of followers is 2096, and 304 are missing from last year's goal. Considering that half of this year has already passed, on average, their publishing pace is worse than it was last year. In 2019, a total of 21 announcements were published, approximately every seventeen days. This time we will not talk about the quality of posts, the use of #hashtags, or key messages.

Official website:

While doing the analysis, Duje was intrigued by the price of maintaining the website, which costs HRK 10,000 per year. We believe that everyone who runs any company, association, or trade and has a website knows that it is paid once, while maintaining the domain costs several hundred kuna. Of course, some sites need frequent content changes and technical and graphic improvements. Still, this site does not fall into that category, and the only changes it makes are the calendar of events on the island, of which there are many and which appear somewhat confusing. Additionally, even the structure of the page is not an author's original work, but an existing template was used, which cost the creator of the page the equivalent of about twenty dollars.

The Tourist Board of Solta has been employing two people since 2019, who, in addition to their duties, including travel expenses and the presentation of islands at fairs (about which we failed to find an announcement), planned to spend a total of HRK 300,000.

Besides, every year from May to October, four tourist information centres are opened: Maslinica, Rogac, Necujam, and Stomorska. Money amounting to HRK 125,000 is planned for their work, which includes the costs of salaries and offices.

The total planned budget for 2019 amounted to HRK 1,125,000.00, of which HRK 490,000 was planned from the budget of the Municipality of Solta. You can find more details in the document and evaluate the quality and purpose of this island tourist board.

At the end of the presentation, as he sees the whole situation, Duje commented: “Solta doesn't have enough opportunities to develop and it depends largely on tourism, like most other islands do. You, Solta locals, do not exist on that map! The money in this story is being thrown into the wind. In the current situation that has destroyed tourism, your tourist board has done absolutely nothing!”

On the Facebook group "Solta - for each other", the topic resonated loudly. This is a topic that concerns all islands and all islanders. Do we want to discuss it publicly and start to make a change from our city/municipality/village/local board? The crisis that is yet to follow will affect the entire system of the economy and life in general, our future depends on how we're going to act and live in the coming months. And again, the responsibility lies with all of us.

Read here this article in Croatian.

Follow our travel page for more.

May 12, 2020 - Part 6 of Ivica Profaca's Diary of a Split Tour Guide in the Age of Corona - you can start at the beginning here.

There is not so much normal in "the New Normal". Following the stage three of softening anti-COVID measures (Total Croatia News extensively updates all info on the pandemic in Croatia), I wrote a blog for the Tourist Board of Split with the hope that opening things might really move the whole society up, especially the economy. In some ways it does. Among other things, it's possible to travel around Croatia, in some cases even crossing the national border without a two-week quarantine. You can now have a drink, or a meal in bars and restaurants, with some restrictions, and get together with up to 40 people. There are flights, buses and trains in Croatia, hopefully there will be some international ones soon, too. British Airways and Ryanair already announced their flights from June, easyJet never took their flights off their website. Hotel openings were announced, although not on a very big scale. Maybe it's not great, but it looks good, at least as a start. The situation with the virus is also promising, even with the latest outbreak on the island of Brač.

All this brought hope for different segments of the tourism industry that there might be something out of this year's season. Shops, cafés, bars, restaurants, etc. might really have some traffic. It's miles away from what they all got used to, and if you ask people in these segments they will tell you that the future is not really bright, maybe just black turned into grey.

On the other hand, what does all this mean for guides? Much less than to those in the previous paragraph. Along with some other fellow guides, I was asked by T-portal reporter about prospects of this season, and the verdict is pretty much unanimous. We can't hope for anything serious before September. A wild guess is that most tourists will be those from other parts of Croatia. They will bring some work to accommodations, or to those selling drinks and food. Guides? In years of doing this I can hardly remember if I ever had a request from Croatian tourists for a tour. Maybe it's about saving money for other stuff, or maybe people coming on vacation usually do sightseeing on their own. This is not an objection, just a fact. After all, even when I travel abroad I do the same; do my homework, and then research on my own. It can't be compared with guidance by an experienced local guide, and I enjoyed those few times when I hired someone, but those are the usual habits.

In the last few days there were also some events which make relying on September and October too optimistic. Firstly, all the main tourism markets are still COVID-active, some of them extremely active. On a day when I write this, the number of confirmed cases in Germany tripled, the UK passed over Italy and France in both cases and deaths, plus they have more deaths than Spain. As expected, the epidemic in the USA is still raging. Border openings? Only two days after Croatia announced that passengers coming from other EU countries will not need a quarantine, a plane from Frankfurt brought at least a dozen new cases, possibly more still waiting to be confirmed. With the regime softening in most European countries in the last week or so, we still need to wait for some time before it will be proven that everything went well.

Almost at the same time when some airlines announced re-launching of their flights (with others giving up their plans), bad news came from cruise companies, which bring many clients to guides. There are no ships cruising around at least till the end of June, some companies berthed their vessels till the end of July. Holland American Line made a step forward, or backwards, and made a move that might become a faith for the whole industry; they simply cancelled their operation for the whole of 2020.

On the home front, it means that the number of cancelled jobs for this year is now officially bigger than those still alive, even with included bookings already postponed to 2021. On this date in 2019 I had a few dozen jobs already done, this year it's five since the New Year. Of those five, three were brought in by friends who wanted to do a favour to someone. Now even big September hopes look more and more like a bubble with few new cancelations in that month. Months before September are already almost empty. State support called Program of saving jobs affected by COVID ends next month, and the situation won't be better than when we all applied for it two months ago. Actually, it's even worse. Not to mention that the danger of COVID is still present, and safety must come first. I'm not sure I would be delighted with the prospect of passing through possible crowds created by further regime softening, not to mention ideas of huge events like Ultra Europe, with people coming mostly from those countries I mentioned before in this writing.

So, to conclude - the possibility of putting big X across 2020 is bigger and bigger.

We will be following Ivica Profaca's journey through the rocky weeks ahead.

If you find yourself in Split, or are planning a post-corona visit, check out his range of tours on his website - families, look out for the kids tour of Diocletian Palace. It will not only entertain your kids while allowing you to absorb this unique UNESCO World Heritage Site, but it will bring out the inner child in you too. Learn more about it here. 

You can read other parts of Ivica's Split Tour Guide in the Age of Corona series here.

(To be continued)

April 15, 2020 — The coronavirus pandemic effectively nixed any hope of "normal" summer tourism filled with European vacationers and jet setters from all corners of the world. The Croatian government, like many others in Europe, will try to salvage "the season" by drawing a key demographic: locals.

More and more countries are urging their citizens to spend their holidays within their own borders this year, announcing financial measures that would encourage summer vacations somewhere near home.

The Croatian tourism sector will likely rely on local guests this year. The third set of financial measures discussed by the government could follow Greece and Germany's lead by incentivizing local tourism over foreigners by helping employers cover vacation costs, according to Jutarnji List.

The measures would also introduce a financial model encouraging Croats to spend their holidays in the country this year, most likely through the long-announced "Cro Card" program, which will be adapted to the new circumstances.

"We do not know exactly what the model will be, there are all kinds of suggestions," a source told Jutarnji. "Among them a model according to which the state would add a kuna from the budget to every kuna [of paid vacation] by the employer. But things have yet to be defined, so it is too early to talk about the details."

Employers typically mark paid vacations as a non-taxable expense. But in a pandemic, such a model would be unworkable. Most employers lack the resources to cover vacation costs.

Greece's Chamber of Commerce is promoting a discount holiday destination for as many as two million Greeks who, with the help of special coupons, would have a five-day holiday of their choice between July until the end of December, with many expenses heavily subsidized. The same appears true for Germany, one of Croatia's main source of tourists.

The President of Germany's General Practitioners Association, Klaus Reinhardt, told members to cancel plans for holidays abroad they made. Ditto Finland, which is seeing increased talk of canceled vacations because Finnish economists believe it will help restart economic activity.

A well-informed source told Jutarnji proposed financial measures should, among other things, introduce a financial model encouraging Croats to spend their holidays in Croatia. The government may have to help employers to cover vacation costs first.

The campaign aimed at domestic guests will also be joined by the Croatian National Tourist Board, which is still pushing to keep Croatia's high profile in foreign markets mainly through social networks, while activities towards the domestic market will be directed when conditions are right.

It is still unknown how these campaigns will look and how much money will be invested in them. It is likely that, apart from locals, they will also be targeted at guests from the region, more specifically the countries "easily accessible by car."

According to data from the CNTB, 1.69 million Croats took on a multi-day vacation in 2018. Of them, 55 percent, or 929 thousand, traveled within Croatia. Inside Croatia, they generated 16.2 million overnight stays.

Diving tourism in Istria resulted in 200,000 overnight stays and has become a strong motivator for visiting the peninsula.

According to Barbara Ban/Novac/JutarnjiList on November 14, 2019; as many as 200,000 overnight stays were recorded this year in Istria by tourists who came for one reason: diving. This number was reported at a meeting of the Diving Tourism Professionals Group at Croatian Chamber of Commerce in Pula on Wednesday. However, this figure does not include the number of day visits, which is very high during diving season, which lasts about six months.

- There are numerous diving centers operating throughout the year. Diving is a strong motivator for tourists who prefer a more unique vacation, so diving centers are also recognized as an important factor in the development of tourism in the County of Istria. Therefore, as the group pointed out at the Chamber of Commerce in Pula; it is important to cooperate with the local community, and network with other providers of tourism. By working together, they can create the highest quality destination service which meet the needs of guests in every segments of their stay.

This year, permits have also been granted for performing underwater activities in inland waters and territorial seas in areas where cultural assets are located, based on a public report issued by the Ministry of Culture.

- Diving centers are pleased with the cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and they have a mutual interest preserving the underwater cultural heritage of the Adriatic. Diving centers play an important role in the conservation of the undersea and ecology. After diving, divers often return with the waste they have collected offshore, says Marko Srečec, president of the Diving Tourism Professionals Group.

For this purpose, the group has launched an initiative with municipalities and cities for cooperation in the field of ecology and marine conservation.

- During the coming year, the group plans, among other things, to organize guest lectures at colleges and high schools in order to promote diving tourism as a profession and present activities to as many potentially interested young people who could find employment in diving centers, concluded Srečec.

For more information on tourism in Croatia, follow our travel section. More information about diving in Istria can be found here.

September 1, 2019 - Czech tourists are often referred to as the ‘pašteta tourists’ of  Croatia, or tourists who would rather travel cheap and eat pate on vacation than spend their money in restaurants or bars. But is this really the truth? 

After the Croatian media reported about the shameful act of a Czech traveler who dumped feces from his yacht into the sea near Komiža, many comments followed stereotyping Czech tourists in the Adriatic. The news even spread to the Czech Republic, and the portal Blesk claims that Croats unjustifiably launched a discriminatory campaign against their tourists, reports Splitski Dnevnik.

"It is very unfair to give us the stamp of ‘pašteta tourists’. Czech guests are absolutely crucial for Croats. Nearly one million people come to the Adriatic every year,” said Jan Papež, spokesman for the Czech Association of Travel Agents in Blesk.

Moreover, according to Papež, they do not only spend their summers staying in the cheapest accommodation.

"Many go to four-star and higher-category hotels," he added. He also emphasized that after the war in the early 1990s, when the world was not interested in Croatia, the Czechs came first.

"And now we are not losing interest, even though prices are increasing by five to ten percent every year," Papež said.

Last year, 32,763 Czech boaters visited Croatia (and realized 218,404 overnights). And it probably doesn’t need to be stressed that they didn't eat pate, the author wrote. Most Czech tourists also rent boats on-site, which cost between 800 to 50,000 euros per week.

But how much they spend doesn’t end here. Anchoring and mooring boats must also be taken into account. For example, in Split, anchoring a yacht from 10 to 20 meters will cost around 700 to 1600 kuna per night.

Parking a car in the marina sets you back around 40 to 60 euros a week, which is supplemented by fresh water, fuel or electricity, or wifi for an overnight stay in the marina. The total cost of the week is about 600 euros per person, without traveling around Croatia, food, and drink, the Czech journalist calculated.

"According to a rough estimate, Czech boaters spend around 180 million kuna in the country that calls us 'pašteta tourists'," Blesk added.

According to a survey by the University of Rijeka last year, Czechs spend an average of 390 kuna a day in Croatia, which isn't much compared to the British who spend an average of 915 kuna.

“But the Croats themselves spend even less. They are the second-largest group of tourists in the country, spending 368 kuna a day,” the portal said.

If the statistics do not lie and we multiply 5,489,607 Czech overnights in Croatia by average spending, Czech tourists brought about 2.2 billion kuna to Croatia last season alone,” Blesk concluded. 

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

An awful story has found itself on the social networking platform Twitter after a tourist spoke of their horror after having paid over 6,000 euros to rent a villa on the gorgeous island of Hvar, only to arrive there and be greeted with nothing else but a dirt road and some trucks.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 20th of August, 2019, ''Here, we arrived at the villa on August the 18th and it turned out to be all a hoax. We have nowhere to stay. We also called the booking agent, he told us it wasn't his problem that we would have to sleep outside now,'' tourist Julie wrote on Twitter.

As 24sata reports, she claims that, together with a group of friends with whom she rented a villa on the island of Hvar for 6,420 euros, someone had cheated her out of it all. The villa didn't even exist. When they arrived at the destination on Hvar where the ten villas were allegedly supposed to be, they were greeted by a dirt road, several trucks, and some excavators.

From an entire villa that they paid a large amount of money for, Julie and this extremely unfortunate group of tourists didn't even get as much as the letter V.

''Nobody wanted to help us. We learned from some of the neighbours near the construction site that there had been more cases like this. We called the customer service, they offered us a refund within ten days or to book another accommodation, but at our expense,'' Julie wrote.

This awful situation is unfortunately not entirely uncommon and has happened several times in Croatia as well as in other countries across the globe. 

Read Julie's original Tweets and watch the video she uploaded of what she was greeted with instead of a beautiful Hvar villa here.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more.

Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli expressed satisfaction with the tourism results in Croatia, where during the first half of the year, there have been 6.5 million arrivals and 26 million overnight stays, which is in line with expectations, reports Novi List on July 1, 2019.

"We have the results after the first six months, and we have executed what we had predicted. With a small imbalance in May due to the weather, everything else has gone to plan. At this time we have realized about 26 million overnights and about 6.5 million tourist arrivals.

Thus, everything is in line with our predictions, both in Istria and in other parts of the Adriatic,” Cappelli told reporters at the expert meeting “Investment Potential of Tourist Land” in Funtana. 

According to last year's statistics from the Croatian National Tourist Board, in the first six months of 2018, Croatia saw 6.4 million arrivals and 25.4 million overnight stays.

The minister also said that it is imperative that in the first half of this year that neither German nor British tourists are in the minus, as was predicted.

Cappelli emphasised once again that everything was going to plan and is accounted for by the growth of physical tourism indicators this year of about two to three percent.

Minister Cappelli is in Funtana participating in a meeting on the investment potential of tourism land, in which a draft bill of unreported construction land was presented, which is in public debate.

Before the meeting, the minister attended the opening ceremony of city beach Materada, for which the Ministry of Tourism granted Poreč almost half a million kuna through the tender from the Tourism Development Fund, while the Poreč Tourist Board invested an additional 1.5 million kuna.

The settlement included a coastal area stretching between the Špadići and Materada settlements in the length of 400 meters or 2.834 square meters, which will become the largest beach to be renovated in Poreč this year. The project paid special attention to persons with disabilities.

In other words, the City of Poreč has invested nearly 20 million kuna in the town's beaches over the past four years.

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.