Sunday, 23 August 2020

PHOTOS: Secluded And Beautiful - Vir Island A Safe Choice For Late Summer

August 23, 2020 – Croatian Tourism minister Nikolina Brnjac's recent visit to Vir island highlighted it's safe epidemiological record. Pictures show what to expect from a peaceful and secluded Vir.

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Croatian Minister for Tourism, Mrs. Nikolina Brnjac, was welcomed on Vir island by the Mayor of Vir Kristijan Kapović, President of the Municipal Council of Vir, Rajko Radović, Deputy Mayor Antonio Vučetić, Director of the Vir Tourist Board Srđan Liverić, Director of the islanders' own tourism company Vir Turizam Kristina Perić, Head of Vir Turizam Mate Čulina, director of Tourist Board of the City of Zadar Mario Paleka © Virski List

Mrs. Nikolina Brnjac was not the first Croatian Tourism Minister to visit Vir island, located north-west of Zadar. Her three most-recent predecessors had also taken the short journey via bridge from Privlaka and Nin to reach the nevertheless peaceful and secluded island. However, Brnjac was the first to do so in August, at the peak of the tourist season. And, she had good reason for doing so.

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Though connected to the mainland by a short road bridge, Vir island manages to retain a peaceful seclusion

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Vir island has plenty of beaches to choose from and lots of space © Anton Unković / Tourist Board Municipality Vir

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Some of Vir island's beaches are remote, but easily accessible by boat © Zvonko Kucelin / Tourist Board Municipality Vir

As reported in TCN earlier this season, Vir island is one of 2020's success stories. In a challenging year for tourism, Vir island had bucked all trends and actually improved on last year's visitor numbers. It was the first Croatian destination of 2020 to reach one million overnight stays. The island is keenly observing epidemiological guidelines, has positioned itself as a safe place to visit and has reaped the rewards.

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Even on Vir island's more popular beaches, there's still lots of room for everyone © Vir Turizam

With over a month left to tour its beautiful, spacious beaches and clear, turquoise seas, these images give an idea of what you can expect from a visit to Vir.

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Venetian fortress Kaštelina is one of the island's most significant landmarks © Tourist Board Municipality Vir  

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Vir island is perfect for walking and exploring. Often, you'll find yourself alone on its many kilometres of shoreline © Tourist Board Municipality Vir  

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Boats in the harbour on Vir island at sunset © Zvonko Kucelin / Tourist Board Municipality Vir

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Sunset over the Adriatic, as seen from Vir island © Sanja Grgić Ćurić / Tourist Board Municipality Vir

Tuesday, 21 July 2020

Croatian IT Expert Returns from Ireland, Creates Booking Platform for Vir

As Kazimir Skrbic/Morski writes on the 20th of July, 2020, a young marketing and IT expert from Vir, Tomislav Lukic, and his wife Matea, launched a platform to offer free marketing for all businesses on the island of Vir.

In just a few days, this free web platform, the Island of Vir (otokvir.eu), managed to attract the attention of dozens of businesses located on Vir, primarily those who rent to tourists and those who own restaurants, in order to create a unique online place where users can make their own accounts and represent their businesses. In the same place, end users can also use the platform to find and select the best products and services from Vir, so their common denominator is actually already contained in the platform's subtitle: Find everything you need - top-notch accommodation, businesses and services, restaurants, beaches and popular events.

''Everything is completely free, because the initial idea of ​​this project was to create an online place where businesses affected by the pandemic can advertise their business. For now, we have about twenty new accounts, and our plan is to have at least a hundred registered business entities by the beginning of the summer season. In this way, we want to be part of the solution in the fight against the pandemic, and everyone can get involved,'' says Tomislav Lukic, a young IT expert and master of economics specialiding in website development and digital marketing, who quickly made the idea a reality along with his wife, Matea. On the platform, Lukic posted several video presentations for everyone using this kind of marketing for the first time, in which he explains to users, step by step, how to open an account and present their business.

''Everything is very simple, but still, I'm very happy to answer questions or explain any ambiguities to all those interested. This platform is one of the projects I’m working on because I’ve been thinking about this type of project for a while now. With the arrival of the pandemic, I realised that digitising business and online content would be a good solution, so the platform was conceived as a free place to add everything in one place,'' says Tomislav.

''Most importantly, everything placed on the site can be easily evaluated so that end users can be sure to choose what suits them best,'' says this young IT expert from Vir who is constantly on the road from Rijeka to Vir with his wife.

Before returning to Croatia, he lived and worked in Ireland in the IT sector for four years. Although the business situation in Ireland was not bad at all, Tomislav and Matea decided to return to Croatia and try their hand at business at home.

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Tuesday, 14 July 2020

Vir Island Becomes One of Adriatic's Most Thriving Holiday Destinations

July 14, 2020 - Hungarians visiting Croatia seem to be most interested in holidaying on the island of Vir, and after Slovenes and Germans, they are the most frequent guests there.

But in this pandemic, Vir has already become the most thriving tourist destination when compared to last year, reports RTL.

More than half a million overnight stays have been recorded there so far, which is almost 80 percent of last year's figures, and in the first 12 days of July, Vir is also in first place with 214,000 overnight stays, which is more than 70 percent of last year's result in the same period.

"In this corona situation, we have proven to be a tough nut to crack, and unlike many other areas in the Adriatic, we are still alive," Mayor Kristijan Kapovic told RTL Direkt.

From the new year to July, more than 33,000 guests came to Vir, and eVisitor currently has 27,000 registered guests on Vir.

"There are about 4,000 of us on Vir. Today, Vir has more than 30,000 inhabitants, both temporary and permanent," the mayor added.

He adds that this has nothing to do with weekenders who have houses on Vir.

"As for the tourists who come to the apartments and rooms, there are currently 9,000 of them. Most of the tourists are from the area - Slovaks, Hungarians, Slovenes, Germans, Czechs and Poles, BiH. The rest are 20,000 weekenders. They are also foreigners. The ownership structure has changed in the last 20 years. More than 50 percent of property owners are again from those countries. In these times of crisis, notorious destinations that rely on organized accommodation are now in a deficit position. Real estate tourism, in the case of Vir, owned by foreigners, has proven to be something that gives results," he explains.

Kapovic says that so far, they have not had a single case of the coronavirus, and considering the situation and a large number of tourists, he assumes that they could by the end of the season.

"So far, we are sailing well; that problem has not touched us. People feel comfortable and safe here," he says.

Tourism Minister Cappelli is urging Headquarters to tighten measures.

"We respect all decisions of the Headquarters. We are trying to instill new security in guests, who come from countries where epidemiological measures are stricter," said Kapovic.

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Monday, 15 June 2020

Vir Island Welcomed Most Guests in Croatia Last Month

June 15, 2020 - In May, the island of Vir boasted the most guests in Croatia, more than Rovinj, Medulin, Mali Losinj and Krk. Despite all the limiting factors, Vir recorded 13.4 percent fewer overnight stays and only 1.1 percent fewer tourist arrivals compared to last year!

Slobodna Dalmacija reports that according to the eVisitor system, a total of 49,566 overnight stays were recorded in Vir in May (57,208 last year) and 2,877 arrivals (2,909 last year), of which Croats achieved 37,252 overnight stays (75.1 percent) with an increase of 26.9 and foreign guests 12,314 (24.9 percent) with a drop of 55.8 percent. Most of them were Slovenes and Germans, Hungarians and Austrians.

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Now, you might be wondering... HOW?

"How's that? It's nice! We quarantined the guests," says Kristijan Kapović, the mayor of Vir municipality.

Kapović was in the company of an 'expert council', the director of the municipal tourist board Srđan Liverić, the head of the tourist agency Vir Turizam Mate Čulina, and his deputy Antonio Vučetić. The theme at the table was the tourist figures of this unusually popular island.

"From January 1 to June 1 this year, we have 53 percent in arrivals of foreign guests compared to the same period last year, or a decrease of 39 percent in overnight stays. In the same period, we have an increase of 15 percent in arrivals and as much as 39 percent in overnight stays of domestic guests compared to last year," said Kapović.

Of foreigners, mostly Slovenians came, only two percent less, followed by Germans (-54 percent), BiH (-52 percent), Hungarians (-60 percent), Austrians (-72 percent). I emphasize that these are the numbers while the lockdown for Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia was still ongoing," said Kapović. 

"At the time when we closed our borders and declared quarantine, there were about 700 guests in Vir, mostly Croats, Slovenes, and Hungarians. Some found themselves there, and some escaped the coronavirus here. These are mostly our weekenders, as we call them, who come to us all year round because they have their real estate here. But now they find themselves in a situation where they have to stay by force.

Their overnight stays were reflected in the statistics and hence ours, I would say a minimal drop in the number of arrivals and overnight stays for the first five months, given the general circumstances," the mayor explains.

Vir survived the pandemic without a single infection, which further convinced its regular guests that it is a safe holiday destination. 

Namely, out of almost twelve thousand registered facilities on the island, as many as ten thousand are intended for occasional housing. The owners of more than half of such facilities are foreign citizens, and most of them are from Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, and Poland. 

"Vir had recorded 154,096 arrivals and 2,635,664 overnight stays last year, of which 110,258 were foreign tourists who made 1,159,908 overnight stays. We were the eighth destination in the country. We achieved these figures thanks to the arrivals of foreign and weekend visitors. Foreigners and weekenders come all year round and spend an average of fifteen days on the island, while domestic guests stay for almost forty days.

They say that we are a destination of apartments and non-commercial tourism. I claim to you, and this crisis has confirmed this, that our tourism is more resilient and sustainable long-term than the tourism of large hotel complexes that have been insisted on for years. This is due to the influence of certain lobbies, and not a well-designed development tourism policy," claims Kapović, who emphasized again that Vir was the eighth destination in the country.

"Out of the total number of overnight stays from last year, almost 1.2 million are foreign guests," said the director of the Tourist Board, Srđan Liverić.

"Our main season lasts from June 15 to September 15, and in that period, we achieve 80 percent of tourist numbers. The other 20 percent is equally divided into pre-season and post-season," he explains.

The head of the Vir Turizam agency Mate Čulina joined in: "In addition to these cottages and holiday homes owned by foreigners, there are 2,500 registered renters with fifteen thousand beds on offer. Landlords alone make about 800,000 overnight stays a year," says Čulina, adding that the municipal agency works with mostly Croatian landlords.

"Provisions for this year are about 30 percent weaker than last year. For example, some who had provisions worth 140,000 euros for the season in January has now dropped to 30,000. But not everything is so black; a lot is on hold. People have lowered prices from 20 to 30 and even more for all summer months. However, they hope that after the opening of the borders, which will surely happen by the end of June, they could achieve a positive season in July, August and September.

Of course, what worries them the most is what will happen with the pandemic, but also what will happen with the now traditional events on the island, which are a great magnet for guests and weekenders.

Guests and weekenders are mostly interested in whether there will be a Vir Summer," continues Čulina.

"Once a local event for the entertainment of domestic tourists, over the years has become the largest, most interesting and most spectacular summer program in Zadar County. When you compare only the number and quality of concerts and performers who parade through the Vir Summer, Vir seems like Las Vegas compared to Zadar.

But this is no accident. One million euros are allocated annually for the programs, organization and promotion of the Vir Summer program, and the number of entertainment and cultural events has risen from the former ten to more than seventy over the years. When sports programs that start in April and end in October are added to that, with numerous international activities, such as jet ski competitions, Vir brings guests practically all year round and fills its capacities," explains Čulina.

"So I say if the borders open, and they will right after Corpus Christi, we will get our weekenders, our regular foreign and domestic guests, the property owners on the island. If there are about 150 thousand of them this year, by all indications, we will have a good tourist season," points out Mayor Kapović.

You can read the full interview on Slobodna Dalmacija HERE.

Saturday, 6 June 2020

Slovakian TV Reporters Praise Vir as Safe and Desirable Destination

As Morski writes on the 5th of June, 2020, reporters from the Slovakian television station RTVS came to Vir where they worked on a story of the island of Vir, referring to it as a a safe and desirable tourist destination.

In epidemiological circumstances that mostly prevent Slovakian citizens from leaving their country and due to the extremely strict rules when it comes to social distancing and behaviour in Slovakia itself, the trip to Croatia for the RTVS journalist team was like winning a raffle, and staying in Vir was a breath of not only fresh air but of long-awaited freedom of movement.

''Our colleagues in Slovakia are jealous of us because of this trip. They keep asking how it is here, and we tell everyone that Vir is really beautiful,'' say reporter Andrej Bálint and cameraman Róbert Beňo, who spent the whole of Thursday filming the island with conversations with Vir locals about the tourist offer on the island and especially the situation with the coronavirus pandemic.

They interviewed the Deputy Mayor of Vir and the Commander of the Vir Civil Protection Headquarters Antonio Vucetic, who introduced the Slovakian journalists to the fact that there were no cases of infected people on the island during the coronavirus crisis, while the director of the Vir Tourist Board, Srdjan Liveric, recommended Vir to Slovakian holidaymakers as a safe and traditionally friendly tourist destination.

''Croatia is the most popular tourist destination for Slovaks, so we were most interested in the current security situation in Croatia. We have very strict measures in place due to coronavirus, they're almost prison-like, but we expect their gradual easing and the possibility of us being able to go away on holiday. It seems that many Slovaks will stay in Slovakia this summer, but for those who do plan to travel, we want to explore safe destinations. Everyone in Slovakia is living in anticipation of the easing of the measures,'' explained Bálint.

The island of Vir is the only Croatian tourist destination that the Slovak journalists will visit during this trip for their field research, but it isn't a mere coincidence. During the filming of a television report about Slovak women living outside their homeland, in Italy, Sweden, Spain and Croatia, the story of a Slovakian woman and well-known blogger Miriam Kelecic was especially interesting to the television reporters. She introduced Vir as a safe and beautiful destination, so Bálint and Beňo readily responded. This was their first visit to the island, and it was not spoiled even by the blowing of a strong southerly wind.

''The ambience on the island is beautiful, and the sea is especially gorgeous. I've never seen such a clear sea,'' said Bálint who was delighted to come to Vir.

''I once visited Dubrovnik with my family when I was a small child, so I guess you can sort of say that this is actually my first time in Croatia. I really like Vir, there are a lot of beautiful shots to be taken from the landscape,'' added Beňo. Full of impressions from the short trip due to the obligation to return to Slovakia within the given 48 hours, Andrej and Róbert pointed out that the message they will send out to their viewers and compatriots will be a positive one.

''Croatia is a safe destination, so our message will be that Slovaks have no reason to fear about going on holiday here. Vir and Croatia are certainly our choice,'' the reporters readily concluded.

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Monday, 3 February 2020

Vir Municipality to be Featured on Popular German TV Channel

February 3, 2020 - Vir Municipality will be featured in one of the strongest national television channels in Germany, which will present the municipality as a tourist center with an emphasis on cycling tourism and family tourism.

“The intensive marketing and business campaign of the Vir Municipality representatives in the German tourism market, which began at the fairs in Stuttgart and Cologne in mid-January, continued with the participation at major fairs in Berlin and Düsseldorf. The Berlin Grüne Woche 2020 is a unique international exhibition of food, agriculture and gardening, bringing together more than 80 international ministries and food producers as the starting point of the Global Food and Agriculture Forum. In its 85th International Week, Berlin Green Week highlighted the importance and rich offer of a fascinating world of food and drink, renewable raw materials, organic agriculture, gardening and, above all, rural areas, which will become increasingly important in the future,” said the Vir Local Government for Vecernji List.

“It is a large global gathering of culinary diversity with a variety of food concepts and a wide range of fresh produce markets, and as the Republic of Croatia was a partner country at this fair, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic also attended the opening. We have agreed to cooperate with the OPGs who presented at this year's Grüne Woche, so our guests and exhibitors will be at the Autumn Vir Gastro & Wine Festival,” Deputy Mayor Vir Antonio Vučetić said about the general impression from Berlin Green Week, attended by the Vir delegation.

Along with Deputy Vučetić, the Vir Municipality is also represented by municipal councilor Nikolina Vučetić, the director of the destination company Vir tourism Kristina Perić and the director of the Vir maintenance company Marino Radovic.

“We have agreed to cooperate with Berlin Brandenburg TV, whose team will shoot a promotional tourist film about our island for the German market. This is one of the strongest national television channels in Germany, which will present Vir as a tourist center with an emphasis on cycling tourism and family tourism,” stressed the Virski List director about the importance of promoting in the German market.

“Agriculture Minister Marija Vuckovic, President of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce Luka Burilovic and Director of the Croatian National  Tourist Board Office in Germany Romeo Draghicchio also attended the big Berlin event, and the Vir delegation also spent time with the high representatives of the Republic of Croatia, while in Düsseldorf, at an exclusive Düsseldorf Boat Show event, the Vir delegation hung out with Claudia Grginić. This is a story about a Vir weekend, the well-known Markuševec shipping company, and the director of the family-owned company Yacht Grginić, whose charter fleet with the nine-meter Mirakula 30 and the twelve-meter Mirakula 40 has long won over the European market. This fair was also used for establishing business and agency connections, presenting the island, its beauties, and the overall tourist offer,” the local government added.

“The importance of appearing on the German tourist market is best illustrated by the fact that in the last year, 17,604 tourists from Germany came to the island of Vir, who realized 224,717 tourist overnights. Germany is the second-largest market for Vir by overnights and third by tourist arrivals, so in addition to a significant 12,800 overnights on average (only Slovenes have more), Germans still represent a great tourism potential and a challenge for Vir tourism,” they added. 

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

Tuesday, 3 December 2019

Want to Pay for Your Stay with Cryptocurrency? Head to Vir Island

December 3, 2019 - With ninety-six apartments offering advance payment and reservations via cryptocurrency thanks to the blog Ostrov Vir, and given the size of the island, its population, and the number of accommodation units, Vir has become one of the world's leading providers of crypto services.

HRTurizam reports that this story was recently published by the Czech portal Arbolet, whose internet team provides consulting and work in the crypto market. Arbolet member Václav contacted Miriam Kelečić, who runs the Slovakian blog Ostrov Vir and mediates apartment rentals on Vir to tourists from Slovakia and the Czech Republic, so the island's crypto market is almost immediately open to members of this community.

“I thought for a long time about using cryptocurrency payments, but did not know the area well enough. This is where Mr. Václav helped me the most,” says Miriam, thanks to whom accommodation on Vir can now be paid by cryptocurrency, that is, by booking through Ostrov Vir. Those 96 apartments paid in cryptocurrency represent 2.51 percent of the total Vir accommodation capacity, consisting of 3,819 accommodation units. In fact, the percentage in foreign exchange is higher because the number of apartments is an absolute figure of 100% occupancy with payment by card or cash, which means that the share of cryptocurrency in foreign exchange by the summer season will surely be even higher.

Miriam is the most influential promoter of Vir in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and through her work and bringing the Travel Channel television team to Vir, the island has opened to the booming Slovakian tourist market. The Vir influencer and blogger at the same time represents the Slovakian and Czech apartment owners associations on the island of Vir, some of whom have already started receiving payments for cryptocurrencies BTC, BCH, LTC, ETH, and USDC. According to Arbolet, the service is connected to the Coinbase Commerce system, whose user interface is simple, intuitive to use, and extremely easy to understand.

Cryptocurrencies, known as virtual or digital currencies, only exist online; it is not issued or controlled by any central bank. Bitcoin is the most well-known cryptocurrency, also known as digital gold, and is globally accepted for online payments. There are several bitcoin ATMs in Croatia today - in Zagreb, Split, and Rijeka, and the popularity of bitcoin usage is also being contributed by entrepreneurs, such as those on Vir, who accept it in online payments for tourist accommodation or other services.

Apart from cryptocurrencies being used for online payments, they are traded like any other currency. Thus, the value of bitcoin nine years ago was $0.003 USD, and more than $9,000 last year. Today, there are hundreds of other cryptocurrencies and new ones are emerging almost daily. Some survive and grow, some fail, but the growth of the crypto market is persistent. Thus, more and more online stores are offering cryptocurrency payments, while digital wallet owners are looking for deals where they can exchange their cryptocurrency units for products or services.

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

Wednesday, 13 November 2019

Vir Becomes Record Holder: Dalmatian Island Skyrockets in Popularity

As Novac writes on the 12th of November, 2019, there have never been better figures for the tourist season for the island of Vir. With 127,085 overnight stays realised in October alone, it outshone many other destinations across the country.

The total tourist turnover in overnight stays in the period from January the 1st to the end of October saw the island of Vir acheive 2,587,930 overnight stays in total, finishing in seventh place in the list of Croatia's top 10 destinations for 2019.

Dubrovnik achieved better results in October with the figure of 407,722, Zagreb with 234,703 and Split with 181,058. Zadar, Rovinj, Opatija, Poreč, Labin and Konavle remain behind Vir, Croatia's new record holder, writes Zadarski list.

Vir is also the new Croatian record holder in another statistical segment of tourist traffic monitoring, which is overnight stays realised in non-commercial accommodation, and the figures for that in October amounted to 125,216. In the same categories, Vir is the ''traditional champion'' of Croatian tourism in terms of the total figures realised so far in 2019.

The figures for October also show something else - that 98.5 percent of the tourist traffic on this island during the aforementioned period was achieved on the basis of individual traffic, which indicates an increasing number of ''weekenders'' and property owners during the post-season on the island.

In terms of sporting events, the favourable weather in October brought 127,285 overnight stays to Vir, an increase of 25.1 percent, of which 83.3 percent was generated by Croatian guests. When looking at the picture of foreign arrivals, Slovenians realised the most overnight stays, while the highest growth was recorded by guests from Germany. In addition to the Slovenians and the Germans, Austrian, Slovakian and Czech passport holders also recorded solid figures in October.

With regard to the total data so far, out of 2,587,930 overnight stays realised on Vir since the beginning of the year, 1,435,520 overnight stays were realised by domestic tourists, ie 55.5 percent of them, and 1,152,410 were realised by foreign guests, which is 44.5 percent, with total growth of four percent. The highest number of overnight stays was recorded by Slovenian citizens with 295,345 such stays acheived, followed by Germans with 223,415, followed then by Hungarians, Slovaks, Czechs, Austrians, Poles, Bosnians, Swedes and Swiss citizens.

These figures have further strengthened Vir's position, not only on the list which showcases Croatia's top 10 national destination elite, but in a general touristic sense. This positive trend has also been confirmed by the higher number of tourist arrivals in general, which was expressed in October by significant growth of 16.4 percent.

In October, 458,710 overnight stays realised by tourists were recorded at the level of Zadar County as a whole, making it the fifth Croatian county in tourist terms behind Split-Dalmatia, Dubrovnik-Neretva, Istria and Kvarner.

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Saturday, 27 July 2019

Hit Island: One More Bed Most Wanted Thing on Vir Island!

Vir island used to be known in Croatia as one of the places with the most illegaly built buildings, but these day's it's one of the rare places in Croatia where the tourist records are being broken this year. 

Sanja Jurišić writes for dnevnik.hr, about the tourist boom on the island: while others are trying to hide their tourist numbers in 2019, the tourist workers on Vir are bragging about theirs. One more bed and one more table at the restaurants are constantly being sought, and it's almost impossible to find an empty spot on the beach. Around 5000 people live on the island year-round, and there are ten times as many guests vacationing there at the moment. The last exact number is that there are over 45000 guests on the island, which is 2 percent more than in the same period last year. And in 2018 Vir recorded over 2.5 million overnight stays.

Srđan Liverić, the Tourist Board of Vir director says that those numbers put Vir at the top of the tourist destination in Zadar County and in the top seven in Croatia. This year they expect (and have good reason to expect!) even better results.

Vir's success did not fall from the skies, it's a result of hard work and a lot of investments into infrastructure - over 500 million kuna, to be exact. Currently there are over 15 thousand beds and 1800 private renters on the island. The number of four-star apartments with a breathtaking view is increasing rapidly. A renter from Vir island, Robert Maloča says that their season lasts for 80, 90 days at the moment, but they're working on prolonging that. That's achieved with offering quality content, but also by going to tourist fairs around the world, which brings customers from everywhere, in addition to the weekend vacationers who help bring their numbers up. Peter from New York says that there's music, there's bars, there's a lot of people on the beaches - this is paradise! 

Antonio Vučetić from Vir municipality says that Vir is the non-commercial record holder in Croatia. He stresses that it's not a minus for them, and invites all non-commercial customers to come to Vir. This successful tourist story could bring additional work on improving the beaches and a new hotel might get built in the centre of the town. 

Friday, 12 July 2019

VIDEO: More Footage as Shark Appears in Waters Near Vir!

Another shark says hello to the camera after getting itself stuck in an area fenced off for swimmers near Vir.

The Mako shark which made itself somewhat famous in various places along the Dalmatian coast, from Makarska to the Korčula channel, to the Brač channel, captured the attention of many people. While those counting on tourist money weren't best pleased with the camera loving animal's timing, many were delighted to get to be able to see such a beautiful animal up close and personal, and capture video footage of it.

After the Mako shark, which appeared to be juvenile and healthy, what was suspected to have been a Blue shark appeared in the sea near Primošten, and very close to the shore for that matter. 

Experts quickly weighed in to try to stop the spread of ''Jaws-style'' propaganda, reminding everyone that the Mako shark in particular is a protected species and is highly unlikely to harm or even go anywhere near a swimmer. 

The experts talked about how the appearance of Mako sharks in the Croatian Adriatic was in fact an excellent thing, and that there was once an abundance of them before their population decreased significantly following the end of the Second World War.

After the sharks came snakes, with some amazing footage of the longest type of European snake making its way across the water and attempting to board and nearby boat in its quest for dry land. The expert stated that all snakes can swim, that the snake, which was likely in an overhanging tree, had probably fallen accidentally into the water. He reiterated just what the shark experts did - the snake will do all it can to avoid humans and is highly unlikely to bite.

Now, after an apparently snakeless, sharkless period, another shark has come to say hello to the cameras. This time in the sea near Vir.

As Index writes on the 12th of July, 2019, this morning at around 08:30, a shark was seen swimming in the vicinity of people at Biskupljača beach on the Dalmatian island of Vir. As the Facebook page Cro2go posted, a family from Zagreb who are on holiday on Vir managed to capture video footage of it. 

"Apparenty, it was circling the beach all the time, we didn't know whether or not it was gone... There were other people who filmed the shark, some people even went out on a boat to see what the situation was. It's allegedly a type which doesn't attack people, a Blue shark,'' stated the family who filmed the shark.

HRT reports that the shark had somehow managed to enter into an area fenced off for swimmers. After unsuccessfully attempting to get back out to the open sea, two swimmers helpfully directed the animal back to where it needed to be.

Watch the video here:

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