As Index writes on the 22nd of June, 2019, with a late Easter and excessively bad weather throughout May, the beginning of the Croatian tourist season is already a bit weaker than it should be, at least according to the claims of various tourist workers.
It might seem like a bit of on obvious statement, but the bad weather in May could have affected only those tourists who had already arrived, and because of the rain and the cold, and probably the boredom that comes with such weather in places like the Dalmatian coast, many would-have-been tourists in Croatia chose somewhere with more stable May weather, such as Spain.
Speaking in the present, this year's late Easter and a very rainy May are both behind us, the heat has well and truly arrived, the school holidays have begun, and hotel owners and private renters are expecting their guests. However, they all complain that this year they are less booked up than they were last year, but in spite of those claims, they're still not talking about any specific numbers. Some say shyly that they will be ''satisfied'' if their number of bookings from tourists are only five percent less than they were last year.
As Croatia still goes on and on the most about the number of overnight stays achieved and not about the much more complex overall economic effects on the country, Index decided to check out the prices of some of the accommodation in Croatia compared to that of other, comparable Mediterranean destinations.
Umag in Croatia is more expensive than Portugal, Spain, France, and even Italy...
In its proverbial sea of options, the all powerful Google readily provides information on the average price of accommodation in three star hotels.
Of the ten Croatian destinations the aforementioned newspaper chose to check, Umag is by far the most expensive. The average price of an overnight stay in a three star hotel in Umag stands at 1211 kuna! Not only is the most expensive accommodation in Umag in Croatia, but it's also the most expensive of all the destinations that were checked - from Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco to Tunisia. The search didn't encompass Dubrovnik as Index wanted to avoid bigger cities, which would certainly be the only cities with bigger price tags than the Pearl of the Adriatic.
When it comes to competition on the Mediterranean, Umag closest to the popular Spanish island of Mallorca, where an overnight stay at a three star hotel costs 952 kuna on average. It's still 60 kuna cheaper than on the Croatian island of Krk where 1,012 kuna is needed for a bed, a bathroom and some breakfast in the morning.
Of the Croatian destinations, the cheapest is the magical island of Pag, where an overnight stay costs 610 kuna on average, Makarska is about ten kuna more expensive, and for under 700 kuna, you're looking at the island of Vis. Of course, this isn't all encompassing, but we're talking specifically about the average prices of accommodation in three star hotels.
For one night in the Croatian destination of Umag, you'll get three nights in North Africa or in Turkey.
The price of hotel accommodation is often the ''largest'' item to budget for when planning for holidays by far. It's quite easy to find cheap flights to any destination in the Mediterranean, and its often cheap even to fly to much more distant destinations.
The prices of average and below average accommodation in Croatia will have to decrease in the coming years.
The differences in price when comparing Croatian destinations to other similar destinations can hardly be justified, so the fact is, although it may seem a bit unfair to compare Croatia with the likes of Turkey, a tourism kind which subsidises its tourism a great deal, that it doesn't interest visitors.
How will Croatian destinations and their prices do over the next several years? With the return of former tourism kings such as Turkey and other countries from within Turkey's region which are recovering from conflicts, it's difficult to say what sort of sacrifices Croatia will need to make to keep hold of its beloved overnight stay count.
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