6 new direct connections to France have been announced in 2019. That is the result of contiually growing number of tourists arriving to Croatia from France: in 2018 Croatia saw 592,000 French tourists, who stayed here for over 2 million nights, which is over 8% increase when compared to 2017.
To further increase that interest of French tourists in Croatia, Croatian health tourism was promoted at the Les Themalies in Paris, the leading exhibition in France for water therapy and wellness. The exhibition's 37th installement saw more than 30,000 visitors, and over 300 exhibitors, and Croatian exhibition, presenting Croatia's strenghts in health, wellness and spa segment was well visited. Many of the visitors wanted to know if their health-insurance would be able to cover their stay at the Croatian health, spa and welness centres, but they also enquirerd about the prices, availability, quality of the services provided, accommodation etc. The people promoting Croatia at the stand stressed the Croatian strongest points, such as excellent climate, high-end accommodation facilities and top-notch medical staff. Danijela Mihalić Đurica, director of the Croatian Tourist Board in France stresses that their Office is extremely happy with the overall growth in the number of tourists. Also, she adds that the growth is very significant in the pre- and post-season, and that the French tourists seem to arrive more to the regions where they don't traditionally come, such as Istria, Kvarner, Zagreb or Slavonia. Those changes are the result of the increasing offer on the French market by the tour operators. The information coming from them suggests that the growth will continue in this year as well, the director says.
And, of course, better flight connections between Croatia and France will support that growth. Six new direct connections to France announced are Lyon to Dubrovnik and Split , Marseille to Rijeka and Bordeaux to Pula connection by the Spanish low-cost airline Volotea, Air France will introduce Split to Paris direct line, and EasyJet will operate between Nantes and Dubrovnik. Air France has also announced that they will increase their number of flights to Dubrovnik by 150%, compared to 2018!
