November 10, 2021 - As Croatia experiences record COVID-19 cases, an unlikely late-season hit - Russian vaccine tourism.
Imagine the following:
A tourism country embarks on a major campaign under the slogan, Stay Safe in Destination.
The shiny campaign looked very nice, but there were a couple of flaws in the campaign.
Firstly, the measures - such as they were - were openly flouted in many areas, with visitors arriving expressing surprise at just how relaxed things were.
And one might have thought that a high vaccination rate would have been a pre-requisite for a Stay Safe campaign to attract people, but not in this Kingdom, where vaccination rates were the 4th lowest in the EU.
Share of adults who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in the European Economic Area (EEA) as of November 4, 2021, by country. - Source Statistica
And yes, vaccination rates were a factor which played a part in the decision on where to travel, confirmed the nice lady expert from Expedia when I asked her at the Q&A session at the recent Days of Croatian Self-Congratulation in Dubrovacka Zupa last month.
Now imagine the destination suddenly sees a rapid rise in cases, far above the EU average.
Far above.
With such alarming numbers, some countries might veer towards a strategy of lockdown or similar. But none would have come up with the genius of this destination.
In a country where it can not vaccinate its own citizens, and with record numbers of new cases hardly being a top tourism draw, a new kind of tourism is launched - Russian vaccine tourism! Fly in to Croatia for your free EU-compliant vaccine.
As Euractiv reports - Croatia now most popular vaccine tourism destination among Russians.
Simple Flying has more details on the packages available:
"Russian Express, a tour agency, is selling four-day trips to Croatia for vaccine tourism at the cost of 439 euros ($510). The tours have been running since September, and they are increasingly popular, Večernji reports.
"Croatia offers free vaccinations to foreigners. Russian citizens are getting vaccinated in walk-in vaccine centers in the cities of Zagreb and Pula with no appointment required."
Quite brilliant.
