“After the exceptionally successful 2017 tourism year, we enter 2018 with the same goal, a goal of further positioning of Croatia as a year-round destination,” stated Tourism Minister Cappelli.
The 30th session of the Croatian Tourism Board’s (HTZ) Tourism Council has taken place, where council members adopted a new Rulebook on the Organisational Structure of the HTZ Main Office and regulation of employment positions, but also other important activities and projects from the marketing and advertising domains. The session was led by Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli, supported by the HTZ Main Office director Kristjan Staničić. It was director Staničić who emphasised the importance of the reorganisation of the work and activity of HTZ, necessary in order to keep up with trends and increase efficiency of promotional activities in foreign emitting markets.
“The current organisational structure is several years old, and new times and new trends of business demand the definition of new framework. Our goal is to be more efficient, proactive and finally more competitive, a precondition for continued growth of Croatian tourism. The new regulation of positions will bring more efficient and optimized operations, simpler and faster coordination of employees and thus faster completion of tasks and respect for deadlines,” said director Staničić, adding the new regulation is a result of a situation analysis undertaken in the past six months.
Basic changes with the new regulations is the creation of five sectors, instead of the previous seven. “With the new regulations we have decided to merge several organisational units into one sector. Thus sectors for advertising, ‘Croatia’ brand and the market research and strategic planning sectors have been merged into one known as Strategic Communication Sector. This sector will also encompass PR and marketing activities as we feel they are closely connected activities which need better coordination, closer cooperation and synergy. A novelty is also the return of the Congress Section, which will focus on further development and promotion of this important segment which significantly influences year-round business in tourism,” concluded director Staničić. New is also the creation of a sector for international affairs and a network of branch offices which will contribute to even better cooperation of HTZ branches, but also stronger representation and better cooperation of HTZ with global tourism organisations.
Members of the HTZ Tourism Council were presented with information on the ongoing season and market situations, while Minister Cappelli predicted a good tourism year. “After the exceptionally successful 2017 tourism year, we enter 2018 with the same goal, a goal of further positioning of Croatia as a year-round destination and enticing growth of quality and development of Croatian tourism. Positive trends in tourism have continued in January with double digit growth. Along with a very large number of new investments and activities of the Tourism Ministry and HTZ directed to the development of special forms of tourism, better air transportation, I believe we have ahead of us another successful tourism year in which we expect growth of around 5 percent,” stated Minister Cappelli.
Fairs and special presentations will be one of the key activities in further positioning of Croatia on emitting markets and maintaining tourism growth, as confirmed by director Staničić. “We are currently in a period of intense participation and presentation of the Croatian tourism offer at the most important tourism fairs. During January we presented Croatia at a dozen very important fairs such as Ferienmesse in Vienna, Vakantiebeurst in Utrecht, BOOT in Düsseldorf, CMT in Stuttgart and FITUR in Madrid. We are also set to present at the FREE fair in Munich, MITT in Moscow and in March at the ITB in Berlin where we will for the first time work with a new stand designer,” said director Staničić.
Council members also adopted the proposal for special advertising at the Davis Cup Osijek sports event. It is an international sports event of the Davis Cup World Group, between Croatia and Canada tennis teams, to be held in Osijek from 2 to 4 February of 2018.
