May the 12th, 2021 - The Croatian 2021 tourist season continues to have multiple question marks hanging over its head as warmer weather is here and the summer is rapidly approaching. Despite the advent of numerous vaccines which are highly effective against the novel coronavirus, issues with tourism and travel remain.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian tourist market has finally been somewhat more lively in recent days, and the agencies for renting apartments and holiday homes are recording slightly more inquiries from foreign guests, but they're primarily related to July and August. Some guests say that they've already been vaccinated, and some ask if the hosts have received the vaccine, there are even requests for everyone they will come into contact with during their stay to be vaccinated, writes Slobodna Dalmacija.
The owner of a boarding house from the Central Dalmatian island of Brac, who wished to remain anonymous, will have to fulfill such a request put to them by would-be guests. This individual says that given the improving situation with the pandemic over recent days, there are more inquiries from guests for the upcoming Croatian 2021 tourist season.
Minimal interest
Bookings for the month of June is currently extremely poor, in fact it's terrible. However, guests are insecure and tend to ask for a greater possibility of cancellation, even when they're offered various discounts on making an advance payment. This was confirmed by Natasa Ljubicic from the "Top Season" agency.
''Most of them inquire about the possibilities of cancellation and typically ask for a complete refund in such a case. This is very inconvenient for owners who want to agree to cancel, but at least three days before arrival, but guests want it to be made possible one day before their planned arrival,'' explained Natasa, who has many years of experience under her belt. She confirmed that interest in apartments in cities is really small, but that she expects that most guests this Croatian 2021 tourist season will book at the last minute, which is understandable given the unstable situation regarding travel for leisure, vaccination certificates and negative test rules at borders.
She added that those guests who come by plane are waiting for the proper regulation of air transport on which they can actually rely, because one day, as she recalled, some guests informed her that their flight to Split had been cancelled.
The Dubrovnik-based agency Online Croatia has also noticed a more lively interest in reservations in recent days. What dominates conversations with foreign tourists is, as with others, the issue of flexible booking cancellations. They have almost no reservations for June, and they're also not interested in September because they assume that tourists are wary of last year's situation happening again this year, when at the end of August the public health situation worsened everywhere and countries began to close their borders.
''This year, it's more complicated to enter the country, given that negative PCR tests or confirmations of vaccination or proof of having recovered from COVID-19 are required, which is, for example, an additional considerable expense for a family of four. According to the latest information we have, such an obligation also applies to children older than seven, and we don't know if it will stay that way because something does alter every now and then,'' stated Maja Cupic, the owner of another agency.
Cupic, whose agency has focused more on closer markets since the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic, also expects that most bookings this Croatian 2021 tourist season will be at the last minute.
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