As Novac writes on the 12th of July, 2019, at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), a session of the Tourist business council was held, discussing the current season's situation with tourism and what the expectations for the end of 2019 are.

After several years of growth at unrealistically high rates caused by external factors, the Croatian tourist season of 2019 has so far seen a slight stagnation and a decline that will be felt the most in private accommodation, although the Croatian National Tourist Board's data for the first six months oddly shows the opposite.

''We have to prepare ourselves well for these new circumstances and be prepared to have to fight for each and every guest,'' said Franco Palma at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce.

Igor Borojević, head of the Croatian National Tourist Board's market strategy department, attempted to defend the situation and claimed that these rather unimpressive figures for summer 2019 represent only a third of the arrivals, or a quarter of the realised overnight stays, and when it comes to the full season's evaluation, July and August will be crucial, the two months during which Croatia typically realises half of its annual indicators.

Croatian bed capacity increased by four percent, primarily in private accommodation, but when it comes to occupancy, the rates appear to be relatively low. In the last three years, Croatia has got 165,000 new beds, of which 154,000 are in private accommodation facilities, while there has only been very modest growth in the country's hotel accommodation.

''Despite this, hotels have remained the carriers of Croatian tourist traffic during the first half of the year, accounting for 50 percent of arrivals and 39 percent of overnight stays,'' Borojević claimed, adding that 2/3 of the major emission markets grew.

High growth rates have also been achieved with some long-haul markets from outside of Europe, such as from the United States of America, with a 13.7 percent increase, a 41 percent increase has been experienced from China, and a significant 53 percent increase has been seen from Taiwan. The market share in the first half of the year has a 20 percent share in total arrivals and a 10 percent share in overnight stays, with over 80 new airline lines contributing to it.

The Croatian National Tourist Board's figures show that during the first six months of this year, Croatia recorded growth of 6 percent, saw 6.8 million arrivals and 26.2 million overnight stays, marking an increase of 3 percent. This is, apparently, a great achievement with regard to what is frequently being referred to as a very challenging tourist year, accompanied by the recovery of Croatia's traditional competitive markets such as Turkey.

''This points to the strengthening of the Croatian tourist offer during the pre-season,'' noted Dragan Kovačević.

Istria, Kvarner and Split-Dalmatia County are the top destinations, while Dubrovnik, Rovinj and the Croatian capital of Zagreb remain the most visited cities in the country.

Croatian hotels, especially those of a higher category, are expected continue to grow slightly, although prices are 10 to 30 percent more expensive than in Europe's long-time tourism experts, such as Spain and Greece, which could easily push Croatia down in the future.

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Croatia is a country which likes to measure its ''tourism success'' with the numbers of overnight stays realised, not giving a second glance to any real economic factors that the tourist season has had on the country's economy, and playing a very surface level type song to the masses, the composer of which is the beloved eVisitor system.

As Plava Kamenica writes on the 6th of July, 2019, as we reported recently, the current tourist information presented by the Croatian Tourism Association (Hrvatska Udruga Turizma), isn't all that positive. The Croatian Tourism Association surveyed fifteen leading hotel and tourist companies which operate within the Republic of Croatia, and according to them, everything is less this year than it was last year, and the range we're talking about here is large, from one percent to as much as twenty percent less. On average, about three to seven percent less hotels have been booked in Croatia compared to last year.

Most of the respondents in the aforementioned association's survey said the tempo of bookings and reservations in hotels is significantly slower than it was last year. The worst hit are apartment areas, and even camps aren't doing too well, despite the good weather we're experiencing after a very rainy May, it appears that there have been less reservations recorded this year than there were last year, which wasn't all that great either when it comes to July and August.

Novi list has placed this information, which may come as a bit of a surprise to some and the birth of an omen for others, as the main topic on its first page. Other Croatian media outlets, including TCN, have been publishing equally bad news about Croatia's tourism, and Index has questioned some of the representatives of Croatia's various island-based tourist boards to find out more. The survey showed that most of Croatia's islands have recorded a decline in tourist traffic, and among the worse of all lies the central Dalmatian island of Brač, which is being considered the island with the worst imaginable tourist policy and practice.

By analysing all these pieces of bad news, we have to be honest with ourselves and say that it is nothing to do with any sort of ''natural'' July dip, but about the beginning of the end of the current tourism concept here in Croatia. It's had its day, it seems.

Croatia's tourism concept has three critical weak points. Firstly, most of the country's hotel companies are made for mass, third-rate quality tourism, which simply can't attract more demanding (and higher paying) guests, while at the same time, Croatia's hotels can't compete with massive Turkish and North African tourism, because Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia will always, always be cheaper.

Secondly, largely uncontrolled apartment renting has damaged at least Dalmatian tourism potential in the long run. Thirdly, the state has wiped out the restaurant industry with its draconian taxation policies, and without this industry, there can be no tourism, especially while Croatia's hotel industry seems to remain uncompetitive.

The negative results of this odd policy of Russian roulette with tourism, in which Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli participated for three years now, are finally rearing their ugly heads, and while it's difficult to predict just where this will lead - it's unlikely to be anywhere good.

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When not discussing daytrippers and cruise ship passengers, foreign tourists generally spend huge amounts in Croatia, particularly during the summer months. It seems however that Croatia's desire for all-year tourism and a stronger pre and post-season are coming to fruition as the numbers look promising.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes on the 4th of July, 2019, revenues from foreign tourists in Croatia increased by 5.4 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, according to data from the Croatian National Bank (CNB/HNB).

During January, February and March 2019, tourism revenues from foreign guests amounted to a massive 475 million euros, which is 25 million euros more than was recorded during the same period of 2018. This is more than twice the growth compared to the first quarter of last year, when tourism made 54.3 million euros more than it did back in 2017, which was mainly thanks to last year's earlier Easter.

The increase in revenue in this first quarter of this year matches the increase of foreign tourists' arrivals in Croatia, by almost five percent, while in March and and Easter weekend in the first quarter of last year brought 27 percent more tourists to Croatia.

Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli is pleased with the results of 2019's first quarter.

''The government places great emphasis on the growth and development of the quality of tourism, and significant advances are most noticeable through continuous revenue growth. In the mandate of this government, revenues for the first quarter increased by 23 percent. It's also proof that our policy of strengthening the pre-season yields positive results, not only in terms of tourist traffic, which grew by 36 percent in the same period, but also in tourist spending,'' stated Minister Cappelli.

Throughout 2018, foreign tourists realised slightly more than 10 billion euro in revenue in Croatia, and in the first quarter of the same year, 450.2 million euros in revenue was realised. Shortly before the beginning of the current government's mandate, back in 2016, the first quarter brought Croatia tourism revenue in the amount of 390 million euros, which was 4.5 percent of the total annual tourist income realised by foreign tourists, amounting to 8.6 billion euros.

In that same year, foreign tourists made up 448,000 arrivals during the first quarter, compared to 626,000 in the first three months of this year. Thus, during the mandate of the current Government of Croatia, the first quarter was strengthened by 178 thousand arrivals of foreign tourists and 85 million euros in foreigner tourist income in three years.

What exactly the physical results of the second quarter, which will give a more accurate image of this year's pre-season, are still unknown.

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There's no doubt that Croatia is truly a stunning country with a lot to boast about. From being extremely rich in natural resources to outstanding beauty, there's something for everyone in this very conveniently positioned little nation of a mere four million inhabitants. 

Pristine beaches and the sparkling Adriatic sea, the glitz and the glamour of the Dalmatian coast, Istria's rolling wine country, the funky Croatian capital of Zagreb, the rugged beauty of Gorski Kotar and Lika, to the golden fields of Slavonia and Baranja... the list goes on and on. The Croatian Tourist Board didn't do badly in picking the now classic ''Croatia full of life'' slogan to market the country to the rest of the world, but is it really true? 

Those of us living and working here know very well that Croatia being full of life certainly isn't true in the economic sense, unless it is providing Croatian lives to the labour markets of other countries as some sort of export product, that is. Tourists, however, get to enjoy the freedom of ''surface level Croatia'', it looks a bit like a runway model before she takes her makeup off. The sea, the sunshine, the picturesque scenery and the friendly locals who you'd never know are likely working under less than acceptable conditions paint a beautiful image of Croatia for those merely here to enjoy it. Apparently.

As Glas Istre writes on the 6th of June, 2019, stinking drains and sewers, poor and very limited public transport, overcrowded cities, national parks and beaches, and a total and utter lack of parking places are just some of the far more negative aspects of Croatia that foreign tourists claim to experience when visiting the country. Although it is indeed seen as strikingly beautiful, Croatia, as foreign guests consider it, has enormous problems in managing its destinations, according to a report from Novac.hr.

The perception and brand of Croatia itself is defined by its incredible nature and natural beauty, those are things we can't influence (thankfully, as if we could we'd likely mess them up).

Owing to Croatia's lucky geographical position, as many as 55.6 percent of Croatia-related announcements on social networks or any other websites and platforms mention Croatia's abundance of sunshine, the sea, the beaches and the national parks, which are things that, rather ironically, tourists see as the only good things about the country. Nature, as Siniša Topalović, a partner in the consulting company Horwath HTL states, isn't a term used by the Croatian Tourist Board to brand Croatia.

Croatia Full of Life is not remotely what tourists actually perceive because no events are mentioned anywhere by the aforementioned tourist board. Croatia, at least in the eyes of our visitors, is not full of life, according to Topalović. In fact, only the Croatian capital of Zagreb succeeded in living up to the ''full of life'' slogan. Along with the city's Upper Town (Gornji grad), where tourists are typically delighted with various events and festivals which are now well recognised, both during winter and summer, and tourists visiting the Croatian capital are fascinated by the city's numerous quirky cafés and the cultural phenomenon of coffee drinking throughout the day.

On the other hand, gastronomy, which Croatia is indeed often praised for, is recognised as one of Croatia's ''stand out'' features, either. When tourists write and talk about their visit to Croatia, less than ten percent of them mention the country's food and drink, and when they pay attention to our gastronomy, they do so in a typically very generic manner, mentioning only the basics, whereas when discussing other countries and their gastronomic offers, much more detail tends to be revealed.

However, that is actually in line with what the Croatian Tourist Board does present on their social networks. Of the total of 1,100 published pieces of content on Instagram between July and October last year, only 40 of the posts are about the country's rich gastronomy, while out of 400 such posts on Facebook, only about 15 of them talk about food and drink. Most of the content, as expected, refers to Croatia's natural architecture.

The results of what tourists really think of Croatia were part of pilot studies conducted jointly by the startup thinktourism and the consulting company Horwath HTL through the new eDEST platform, which should serve as a support in managing tourist destinations.

It is, as Topalović explained, an innovative tourism product that provides an insight into tourists' perceptions about a specific country, region, destination or particular tourist attraction. EDEST gathers together all comments, posts and reviews made by tourists from all forums, social networks, blogs and other websites and analyses and compares the perception of tourists about a particular destination with what the destination is actually trying to brand.

''People write all sorts on the Internet, and more than sixty percent of tourists are just browsing when choosing a location to spend their holiday in. With younger generations, this is the case in over ninety percent of cases. Therefore, we collect what they write and publish, and we offer an insight into what tourists are saying about this location, that is, eDEST is able to see the destination through the eyes of the visitor,'' explained James Chappell from Horwath HTL.

The idea for this platform came from the start-up thinktourism, whose employees noted that there was a strong discrepancy between what a particular destination would want and what it actually was portraying in the eyes of visitors.

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As Barbara Ban/Novac writes on the 30th of May, 2019, world tourism officials met this Tuesday in Zagreb at the 64th meeting of the World Travel Organisation Commission (UNWTO), which was inaugurated among others by UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, a well known Georgian politician and diplomat. This event has now been held for the second time in the Republic of Croatia, and it's particularly important because Croatia is chairing the commission.

With that, the largest number of delegations to have come to Zagreb arrived - from as many as 44 countries. Pololikashvili has nothing but complete praise for Croatia's striking tourism success.

''Croatia is a true European tourism success story. Just last year alone, it hosted about 20 million visitors, thanks to its beautiful coastline, rich culture and heritage, and its vibrant cities. Every year, the tourism sector contributes to the Croatian economy with about 10 billion euros and employs a large number of people, including young people. In addition, Croatia has long supported UNWTO.

This is the second time for the Regional Commission for Europe to meet here and it's wonderful to come back. The meeting in Zagreb focused on the implementation of the UNWTO's Framework convention on tourism ethics, the goals of which are the establishment of tourism as a driver for sustainable development and the opening up of tourism to all.

Zagreb is also home to the Sustainable Tourism Observatory. It's part of UNWTO's global network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories and has an important task. It follows the tourist numbers of the very popular Adriatic coastal region and identifies the ways in which the sector can be managed in a more efficient, sustainable way.

How much is Croatia recognised as a tourist country across the world?

''Croatia is a very popular tourist destination, and it's understandable why that is so. It's famous for its coastline, beaches and historic towns. Croatia also offers a diversified tourist offer. The market for sport tourism as well as gastronomy is growing. The growth of these two sectors is really encouraging. For example, gastronomic tourism can play a key role in protecting the state and regional heritage and encourages tourists to visit places other than the main tourist destination-type cities, and thus the economic benefit of tourism is more evenly distributed.''

What are the expectations of tourism this year and what can we expect in the future?

''The latest UNWTO tourist barometer shows that, globally, international tourist arrivals are continuing to grow, currently at a rate of four percent per year. UNWTO expects global international travel arrivals to increase between three and four percent in 2019. Europe is still the most popular tourist destination in the world, although Asia, the Pacific and Africa are growing, within its regions, and beyond them.

We can expect this trend to continue in the coming years. We've already exceeded 1.4 billion international arrivals per year and we expect that in a little more than a decade, by 2030, that figure will reach 1.8 billion. But this growth is accompanied by different consumer habits, which determine new ethical patterns of behavior, interest in culture and communities, but also the enormous impact of new technologies, smarter cities and disruptive business practices.''

Given the increasing growth of tourism, one of the biggest problems is the so-called tourist "overproduction". Do you have any guidelines to resolve this problem?

''Tourism can bring many benefits, but also challenges. This is visible in very popular destinations. Quality management is crucial for the proper management of tourist destinations. This means that the private and public sector must jointly ensure that as many people benefit from tourism as possible and that the satisfaction of visitors isn't to the detriment of local residents and communities.

It's encouraging to see that this is happening in Croatia. The extension of the tourist season and the constant efforts to promote the country's popularisation, and not explicit focus on several locations, are positive steps.''

The fact that the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) meeting having been held in the Croatian capital of Zagreb is important for the further promotion of Croatian tourism on a global scale, and this is undoubtedly considered to be the case for Croatian Minister of Tourism, Gari Cappelli. He said that this was an opportunity to highlight Croatia's candidacy for the Executive Council of the organisation where all UNWTO decisions were prepared, which would enable Croatia to create its activities in the world's top tourist organisation.

We've heard that global tourism has been growing for years, regardless of terrorism and unstable political situations. Has Croatia used enough of the opportunities for such trends and what can be expected of this year?

''Our tourism policy is focused on the quality and sustainability of the entire tourist system and the further activation of other economic activities, primarily domestic production in the function of tourism activities, where agriculture is extremely important.

As we're witnessing, trends are more variable and more challenging. The impacts from the environment include unpredictable socio-economic factors and therefore competitiveness can only be sustained and improved by quality and innovation and a clear tourism policy. We have recently introduced a reform package of tourism laws due to come into force in 2020 which are based on destination management. This means that we'll run public coordinating functions, from planning and organisation to control, in order to create the prerequisites essential for the development of a destination's [tourism] product.''

This is an opportunity for Croatia to be the focus of the interest of the cream of the crop of the world tourism scene. How much is Croatia recognised as a tourist country today across the world?

''Croatia is no longer only the land of the sun and the sea, although we can be proud of our resources. Our natural benefits are our great comparative advantage. By putting them in the function of tourism, comparative advantages should be made competitive. Our country is a country of knowledge, innovation, good hosts, diversity and more quality tourist offers in all segments. In addition, the fact is that we're more attractive to investment also goes in our favour. Last year, we saw almost one billion euros in investment, which means it's 55 percent more in 2019 than it was in 2016. This year, investments are about one billion and 50 million euros, and already 60 percent of those investments have been realised.''

Which markets have we not yet sufficiently addressed, and what about promotion on distant markets?

''We strive to maintain our tourist demand on our traditional foreign markets such as Germany, Italy, Slovenia and others, but also expand onto new markets, with special attention to distant markets such as the United States, China, Korea, Japan... Each year we note the rise of tourist arrivals from these areas, and this is going beyond the peak months of the tourist season. This has also contributed to the positioning of our program of Croatia as an aviodestination, in which we invested 70 million kuna in two years and this year, we're connected with 81 destinations in 25 countries across the world. We have a direct line with Korea, soon with the USA, and there's also a direct link with China.''

Given the continued growth of tourism, one of the biggest problems we face is excessive tourism. Do we have any guidance here in Croatia on how to deal with this problem?

''Excessive tourism growth leaves a negative impact and some countries are bad examples of how mass tourism and sudden growth permanently destroys key resources - the natural basis. Sustainability awareness is very important, and the implementation of the principle of responsible management is crucial to the development of the [type of] tourism we strive for. That's why we've recently included in our progrm, 25 million kuna's worth of funding for the development of sustainability studies so that residents, tourists and stakeholders of certain destinations know what the capacity limits are.''

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Click here for the original article/interview by Barbara Ban for Novac/Jutarnji