September 1, 2019 - Czech tourists are often referred to as the ‘pašteta tourists’ of Croatia, or tourists who would rather travel cheap and eat pate on vacation than spend their money in restaurants or bars. But is this really the truth?
After the Croatian media reported about the shameful act of a Czech traveler who dumped feces from his yacht into the sea near Komiža, many comments followed stereotyping Czech tourists in the Adriatic. The news even spread to the Czech Republic, and the portal Blesk claims that Croats unjustifiably launched a discriminatory campaign against their tourists, reports Splitski Dnevnik.
"It is very unfair to give us the stamp of ‘pašteta tourists’. Czech guests are absolutely crucial for Croats. Nearly one million people come to the Adriatic every year,” said Jan Papež, spokesman for the Czech Association of Travel Agents in Blesk.
Moreover, according to Papež, they do not only spend their summers staying in the cheapest accommodation.
"Many go to four-star and higher-category hotels," he added. He also emphasized that after the war in the early 1990s, when the world was not interested in Croatia, the Czechs came first.
"And now we are not losing interest, even though prices are increasing by five to ten percent every year," Papež said.
Last year, 32,763 Czech boaters visited Croatia (and realized 218,404 overnights). And it probably doesn’t need to be stressed that they didn't eat pate, the author wrote. Most Czech tourists also rent boats on-site, which cost between 800 to 50,000 euros per week.
But how much they spend doesn’t end here. Anchoring and mooring boats must also be taken into account. For example, in Split, anchoring a yacht from 10 to 20 meters will cost around 700 to 1600 kuna per night.
Parking a car in the marina sets you back around 40 to 60 euros a week, which is supplemented by fresh water, fuel or electricity, or wifi for an overnight stay in the marina. The total cost of the week is about 600 euros per person, without traveling around Croatia, food, and drink, the Czech journalist calculated.
"According to a rough estimate, Czech boaters spend around 180 million kuna in the country that calls us 'pašteta tourists'," Blesk added.
According to a survey by the University of Rijeka last year, Czechs spend an average of 390 kuna a day in Croatia, which isn't much compared to the British who spend an average of 915 kuna.
“But the Croats themselves spend even less. They are the second-largest group of tourists in the country, spending 368 kuna a day,” the portal said.
If the statistics do not lie and we multiply 5,489,607 Czech overnights in Croatia by average spending, Czech tourists brought about 2.2 billion kuna to Croatia last season alone,” Blesk concluded.
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