ZAGREB, February 10, 2020 - The Croatian association called Dugine Obitelji (Rainbow Families) that gathers LGBTI persons who are or want to become parents said Monday that the Constitutional Court's decision under which the Foster Care Act must include life partners was important because it bans discrimination.

The Constitutional Court last Friday published a decision in which it concludes that courts and relevant bodies have the duty to enable everyone to participate in "the public service of foster care" under equal terms.

The court reached the conclusion after considering motions for the assessment of the constitutionality of three Foster Care Act articles which numerous political parties, associations and individuals claimed to be discriminate against same-sex partners.

"The decision recognises and prevents discrimination against life partners and is doing what politicians in Croatia have not been doing for years -- treat all Croatian residents equally, regardless of their sexual orientation," the coordinator of the Rainbow Families, Daniel Martinović, told a news conference.

He also commented on negative reactions to the Constitutional Court's decision.

"We are confident that it is extremely hypocritical to say that it is better for children without adequate parental care to remain in an institution than to be placed in a home of a same-sex partners. Experts and education workers of the welfare centres should decide who should or should not be a foster parent, and not those who continue to generalise and use prejudice to justify their homophobic points of view," Martinović said.

More LGBT news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 10th of February, 2020, the measures for Croatian self-employment support are experiencing a real boom with more and more people making use of them, according to Martina Gelencir for srednja.hr.

In the last three years, as many as 18,791 beneficiaries have been included in this active employment policy measure. The new year also brought with it some news related to Croatian self-employment support - a larger amount of funds that beneficiaries can receive in less developed areas of Croatia.

Croatian self-employment grants are state aid granted to unemployed persons who decide to start their own business and are registered with the CES. As of 2020, some good news awaits users.

Greater subsidies for those living in underdeveloped areas

''In 2020, greater financial support is being provided for persons wanting to become self employed in less developed areas, thereby affecting the economic development and demographic picture of those areas. Specifically, the amount of Croatian self-employment support is determined by the area in which the person resides and opens a business entity,''

The condition is that for at least 12 months before applying for Croatian self-employment funding, the person must have resided in the area, except in the cases of Index VII and VIII where the above condition doesn't apply. According to the Decision on the classification of local and regional self-government units, and according to the level of development, Croatian self-employment grants are divided into three groups, namely: the first group for municipalities and cities from I to IV; second group V to VI; third group VII to VIII, as was explained from the Croatian Employment Service.

Thus, beneficiaries living in the least developed areas (Grades I to IV) will receive a subsidy of up to 100,000 kuna, or 110,000 kuna if on-the-job training is combined. Beneficiaries in other groups with grades V through VI can receive a subsidy of 85,000 kuna, or up to 95,000 if combined with on-the-job training. The latter, which are the third group of people who live in the most developed areas (Grades VII and VIII), can receive a subsidy of up to 75,000 kuna or up to 85,000 kuna if combined with on-the-job training.

The number of newly enrolled users of Croatian self-employment support is skyrocketing

The main target group for the use of the measure of Croatian self-employment support are unemployed persons registered with the CES, who have carried out all the activities available in the competent regional office (individual counselling, self-employment workshops) in cooperation with the self-employment counsellor in accordance with the dynamics of developing their entrepreneurial idea.

The second target group is Croatian returnees from EU countries with regulated residence, and the condition that a person must have been resident in the area for at least 12 months does not apply in this case.

It is a measure that, according to the CES, is being used by more and more people. Back in 2017, there were 3,583 newcomers to the measure, with 8,723 new users last year. In 2017, a total of 5,824 people benefited from the Croatian self-employment support measures, which is up from 15,069 last year.

According to what the CES has said to srednja.hr, in the past few years, Croatian self-employment grants were most often awarded to businesses in the field of specialised construction, personal services, professional, scientific and technical activities, and in computer programming, consulting and other related activities.

Most continue with their work even after the measure expires

In addition to the increase in the number of beneficiaries of the measure, the good news is that the overwhelming majority of beneficiaries who have received support continue to operate after the first year of operation, ie after the measure expires for them.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle and business pages for more.

This remarkable young Croat plays this ''role'' so well that he is also the winner of the Inspire 2030 Award for the Most Influential Young Entrepreneur Under 30.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 10th of February, 2020, Nikola Zec is just nineteen years old, a second-year student at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Rijeka, and he already owns three companies.

Although it sounds incredible, especially for Croatia, for this young Croat, life in which he plays the roles of both student and business man is a common daily routine. Moreover, Nikola Zec has two years of entrepreneurial experience behind him, since he started his first company back in high school, and it also brought him the status of one of the largest importers of snacks in the Balkans.

According to Glas Istre, he is also the winner of the Inspire 2030 award for the most influential young entrepreneur under the age of 30, which, Nikola says, is just one of several awards he has won so far.

''I'm a student of Business Economics at the Faculty of Economics in Rijeka, the director and founder of startups WorldFood Box and Gooders News and the entrepreneurial consulting agency Nikola Zec Business. The first company I started was WorldFood Box back in high school and we're currently the biggest importers of foreign food, namely sweets and snacks on the Balkan market.

In addition to the WorldFood Box, I'm currently working on launching the first positive news outlet in Croatia called Gooders News, with which I want to change the way the media communicates with the public. Gooders News began its preparations and work back in May last year, and we first introduced ourselves to the public in early October with the aim of spreading positive news and promoting positivity through humorous content. Through Gooders News, I want to inform the public about the importance of positive thinking and maintaining good mental health,'' said Nikola.

The move, this talented young Croat added, was decided by the devastating results of a World Health Organisation survey that listed depression the world's second biggest health problem. After conducting his own market research, he came to the conclusion that the constant pressure of negative news has a markedly negative impact on the mental health of readers, writes Glas Istre.

''Our goal is not to manipulate content for the sake of creating a false sense of positivity, but our goal is to change the everyday life and mindset of the Croatian public with quality entertaining, humorous and positive content.

In addition, we believe that negative news media is still extremely important in order to encourage a change in the definition of the media, but we believe that there must be positive content in the sea of ​​negative news that will create a certain balance.

Our wish is to move away from the classic media communication with the public and to bring to the Croatian market a business model that is already recognised in a similar, video form in the rest of the world. They want to grow their business without controversial articles and provide their readers with humorous and informative content in a completely different form than is already known,'' explained Nikola Zec.

Make sure to follow our Made in Croatia and business pages for more.

For many years, a more digital Croatia was the stuff of fantasies. How could this little country which loves the idea of making people take time off work to masochistically wait in lines to be told false information by poorly trained member of staff ever give up on that and opt for the ''do it yourself from home'' approach of more advanced countries? 

Amazingly enough, it seems Croatia is slowly but surely entering the 21st century, the idea of taking numbers and waiting in lines for hours on end are coming to an end, and a digital Croatia is now closer than ever.

As Marija Crnjak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 10th of February, 2020, the Institute has received 141.5 million kuna grants from the European Social Fund for the project of the digitisation of the pension insurance services, which should last for 46 months - meet eHZMO.

A co-financing contract for a project worth a total of 166.6 million kuna was signed on Friday at the Ministry of Labour. During the aforementioned 46 months, which is the project foreseen duration, the modernisation of the HZMO information and communication system and business processes will be carried out to increase internal efficiency and effectiveness for staff and individuals alike.

The new IT solutions, based in part on the use of artificial intelligence, will enable users to e-communicate with HZMO for most services without the need to take time out of their day to physically come to counters to speak to staff, and the consolidation of business after the completion of the project will provide a more proactive approach to users and have certain services made available regardless of opening hours.

"Considering the number of users that HZMO deals with on a daily basis and with today's digital environment, the quality of service depends largely on adequate IT support. An increasing number of citizens want to solve their problem with the service they need with a single click from their own home," said Ivan Serdar, HZMO's director.

For more on digital Croatia, give our lifestyle page a follow.

The author of the following text, prof. Dr. Boris Podobnik, Vice-Dean for Science and Head of Business Analytics at ZSEM, is one of the most cited Croatian scientists. This prominent Croatian scientist is also a professor of physics at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the University of Rijeka. He is an expert in interdisciplinary science, network theory, game theory, migration and corruption.

As Index/prof. Dr. Boris Podobnik writes on the 10th of February, 2020, a number of Croats are delighted when HDZ loses the elections and is replaced by SDP, and a similar number of Croats look forward to anything of the opposite. If one looks at how Croatia's GDP has changed with who was in power, it can be seen that Croatia sank steadily regardless of which of the two parties headed the country.

For some, personal worldview may mean something to them, whether they watch reports about Bleiburg or Tito, but there are those among us, both leftists and right-wingers, and those who are somewhere in between, for whom arguments over Tito and Bleiburg are far more important than whether we're among the more successful or worst countries in EU will ever be. If either of these parties must continue to rule, is there any chance of them being forced to change?

The prominent Croatian scientist then goes on to showcase just how the Croatian public can finally manage to rid itself of the chains of both HDZ and SDP.

1. Encouraging private enterprise, economic freedom and innovation throughout society

The main reason for Croatia's undeniable decline - more precisely the setbacks and lagging when compared to other countries - is that the whole world is in the mode of capitalism and private enterprise, and our SDP and HDZ governments are building policies that favour the public and state sectors, as if there were still communist regimes in the world (read Europe). Preferring the public sector to the private sector in the face of globalisation and private enterprise is as smart a choice as, for example, insisting on tango dancing because you're a passionate Latino lover - while the orchestra plays the waltz.

And that is exactly how the Croatian economy is. A shaky state that is forcing the public sector, with its high levels of corruption and stifling private initiative, to be doomed to fail, again, because the world is in the mode of capitalism.

Of course, there are thriving public sectors in the world, but only in societies with a low tolerance for corruption, such as the developed Western democracies, especially the Nordic countries or in Asia, in Singapore. In these countries, the public sector is also based on the principles of the private sector: good workers and professionals are valued, and wages are at least partly linked to work performance. This is not necessarily in conflict with the existence of a union; in the Swedish public sector, unions negotiate wages, but in a completely decentralised manner. This means that the salaries of the professors are not decided by the union pharaohs, but are negotiated at the national, regional and educational levels.

This allows good professors to directly choose better pay and better working conditions. But this level of civilisation is science-fiction for both Croatian politicians and for Croatian trade unionists. Who will organise such key economic institutions that will be resistant to elections and blackmail on both sides? It's clear to us that wherever HDZ or SDP are, the grass doesn't grow when it comes to quality staff. It happens, but rarely. And when it does, these people are drowned in a sea of ​​fools with certain Croatian party memberships.

I can say to my friends that Chinese Communists would be happy to follow and develop Mao Tse-Tung Communism, but they realised that introducing a free market and copying the West, especially America, was a necessary prerequisite for faster economic growth, convergence towards the West, and keeping up with it.

Unfortunately, what the Chinese Communists managed to understand is not understood by the Croatian leftists, nor is it by the right-wingers, because they love the public sector and uhljebism more than their wives (or husbands). On the contrary, they would constantly expand the public sector because that is what membership is looking for, and it is precisely the membership that chooses the president of the party.

Our platform, more precisely the Third Way, must insist on economic freedoms and private enterprise, not on state intervention, because there are currently too many non-experts and economic analfabets in the state apparatus, who lead firms which only know how to accumulate losses and ultimately lead the state to ruin. If we don't alter, the Greek scenario is inevitable - it's only a matter of time. It is true that the Greeks didn't have King Tomislav and Prince Domagoj, but they did give Aristotle, Archimedes, and a plethora of minds who created our civilisation, but these minds didn't leave Greece with generations of people who would prevent the Greek economic collapse. So let us try.

2. Replacing party staff with professionals

In connection with the first objective, the deregulation of the state and economic freedoms, unlike the party duopoly, we must demand that state-owned firms and agencies be run not by party people, but by the best personnel to be found either in Croatia or abroad.

There is nothing more stupid than when you hear from the mouths of HDZ or SDP politicians that they're setting up their people to do the job because that's a prerequisite for running the business well. Why does the head of SDP and the head of the water supply and sewer system need to be someone who is left-wing? Because the faeces wouldn't flow properly if the company wasn't headed by a left-leaning person, a man of a particular worldview? These jokers are Croatian politicians.

Croatia Airlines has been failing for years because they're politically fit rather than actually capable. I experience a mild stroke every time I see that our national airline has astronomical losses in a country visited by 20 million tourists each year! Well, did everyone arrive on horses, on camels, or did they just arrive on foot? We, as a platform, must insist that state-owned companies have the most capable of candidates, be they Croats, Finns or Swedes, and regardless of their political orientation.

They clearly must then have higher salaries than the prime minister because the prime minister is a political function, in contrast to heads of state-owned firms who must be professionals. Then the Croatian prime minister must grumble that he has a lower salary than the heads of state-owned firms, but that shouldn't be a problem for him if he's truly patriotic and uncorrupted.

It is better for any of our state-owned companies to have a foreign professional at the head than someone who speaks excellent Croatian but is absolutely nothing of an expert in the field. Language is not important for running a state-owned company because the only thing that matters is that the state-owned company doesn't accumulate losses. If state-owned firms generally don't accumulate losses, the state as a whole will not follow the Greek scenario, and this scenario is likely if the firms are led by the HDZ-SDP duopoly.

Contrary to what the new president Milanovic thinks, former Prime Minister Oreskovic (at least in my opinion) was the most capable prime minister because, although he did not speak brilliant Croatian, he didn't allow for any uhljebljivanje, which is why they hated him in HDZ and in SDP as well. So, I take my hat off to him.

3. Improving the position of the private sector versus the public and the state

In Croatia, you often hear, especially from the heads of public sector unions, that "salaries in public services are lagging behind salaries in the private sector". This is total nonsense and a misunderstanding of the economy, and in economics and finance, what is riskier has to bear a higher yield, and so stocks in an unpredictable market are riskier than government bonds, and they therefore have to bear a higher yield.

If jobs in the private sector are much riskier than jobs in public services, and they are because let's say it's easier to lose your job and the work is more stressful, then salaries in the private sector must necessarily be higher than salaries in public services, which I wrote about in a scientific paper article with my colleague Vukovic. In feudalism, the peasants were serfs, and if one rebelled for example because they eat less frequently than the feudal lords, then he'd be dismembered or decapitated.

But today, when feudalism is no longer in effect, that layer of society is no longer obliged to serve on a specific part of the land owned by feudal lords, and disenfranchised private-sector workers are allowed to go west, where it's better for them.

Public sector workers can claim greater rights, often rights that those in the private sector can only dream of, but there are fewer and fewer private sector workers who should be guaranteed these rights because, owing to such things, private sector workers are increasingly leaving their jobs and heading to the West, where not only do they have higher wages, but indeed more rights, and this is not negligible for workers.

If we don't work on a significant increase in wages in the private sector, people will constantly be fleeing to the west. Today in the EU, patriotism is out of fashion and when it's out of fashion, why live in Croatia as a worker? It's nice to go to Germany or Austria because you can live there in a more dignified and better way.

To stop people leaving to go to the West, the Third Way platform must educate the public that wages in the private sector must be higher than in the public sector.

I don't see massive transitions from the public to the private sector, but I know quite a few people in the private sector who would be happy to settle for the public sector. That the private sector is at greater risk is economic nonsense and must change, otherwise we will just experience an unprecedented exodus of people from the private sector.

4. Radical reforms that will transform Croatia into Switzerland, not Moldova

Radical economic and social reforms must be sought because talking about becoming Switzerland or one of the richest EU countries, as they know so well how to do during election campaigns, without actually carrying out serious reforms - only economically illiterate person can suggest.

A successful society like that of the Swiss is a well-placed pyramid where if you're smarter and more successful, the higher up you are. In Croatia, thanks to corruption and nepotism, only the stupid and the incompetent are at the very top. There is absolutely nothing worse for an employee than his superior being completely ignorant or even a notorious idiot. Unfortunately for Croatia, in the past decades, thanks to HDZ and SDP to a greater extent, the state apparatus has accumulated a sea of ​​incompetent party cadres who couldn't get a fair job through the proper process, but only with the help of a party membership card or because of nepotism.

On the contrary, there is also nepotism in the form of political strife, which is also seen in the emergence of young politicians who ascend into parties and any state legal and political bodies simply because they are someone's spouse, son or daughter, uncle or cousin, or son or daughter-in-law.

As both major parties base their political activities on uhljebljivanje, it just doesn't occur to them to reduce the number of uhljebs, because uhljebs and those who are about to become uhljebs are their members, and it determines not only the party president, but also the prime minister.

If the country has that thirty-year title of ''uhljeb capital'' then how can we expect to reach the level of Switzerland, Singapore or some other civilised country with a bunch of unnecessary people in the state apparatus? Clearly, the incompetent and the corrupt cannot be monitored, they're so incompetent that they cannot even be repaired because they're the cancer of society, and in medicine - that means surgical removal.

True, we're not doctors, and the state is not a human body, so we approach the malignant tumor of society as surgeons who also cut the surrounding healthy tissue "just in case," but what we can and must do is "cut off," say, 30 percent of the worst.

5. A corrupt state prefers inclined quasi-entrepreneurs and punishes the capable ones

In a democracy, you get power if you have a majority, and there aren't enough HDZ and SDP members enough to constitute a government. On top of that, there isn't enough money for everyone to live well.

First, these people get who I call "dreamers of corruption" on their side, which are those who don't benefit from corruption because they're not in a corrupt quagmire, but would be happy to be in one if given the opportunity. They're often not enough to make up a majority either, so the corrupt authorities are constantly attracting quasi-entrepreneurs, giving them jobs within the state. Such quasi-entrepreneurs survive on the market mainly through business with the state, and thus become advocates of the status quo because they fear change.

Both the left and the right have their "own" entrepreneurs, but the right probably has more of them. Quasi-entrepreneurs, those who, for example, don't pay their workers, enter the ruling party smoothly, so that the government, or the state, helps them with pre-bankruptcy settlements, or tax exemptions. In doing so, the corrupt state constantly wants to increase the number of such dependent businesses, and it wants to increase them in such a way as to assimilate them like Star Trek's Borg, making it difficult for honest businesses to do business.

Eventually what happens is that honest businessmen die out and go extinct and the only ones who remain are the ones the left-wingers rightly call exploiters. These are individuals for whom workers are slaves to harass, threaten, and not pay.

But the problem for leftists is that they don't see the iron boot of the state, which makes the business climate unfavourable to free enterprise. When businesses are small, there are very few new jobs and few job choices for workers. The worker is not, then, a "sought commodity" and therefore cannot negotiate for a higher salary and choose employers so that he goes to the one who gives him better pay and working conditions. Even worse is when the private sector starts hiring people the party key - when the duopoly gives jobs to the private sector, then in turn, they ask them to hire a relative or party-mate and put them in a high position. This only exists with huge firms.

This is an advanced economic metastasis that needs radical therapy. Therapy is certainly not some new stud of "professional overseers of corruption", but a drastic reduction in state influence in all walks of life of citizens. A tumor is not treated with chamomile, a tumor is ripped out.

But if both SDP and HDZ have amassed a large number of people on their side, how can we, the minority that wants to create a ''Switzerland'', make a change? If they're prone to radical change by the minority, is there any chance of change? Yes, because fortunately HDZ and SDP don't like each other despite their enormous level of similarity and therefore need smaller parties for power. If we, as a bloc, collect at least ten percent of the assembly, those who don't want change will have to implement it, because without this new bloc, they will not be in power.

Are we ashamed of sinking and wanting a rich, not poor Croatia? In Croatia, the left-right conflict is no longer important, but "are you ashamed of failing or not"? If you're not too ashamed, stick with the HDZ-SDP duopoly because they're not for change, because their own membership is more dear to them than their country is. If you are ashamed, there is a third option that is for a strong private sector, but also for a strong public sector, which is not a hindrance but a service to the private sector. It is so in the west, but it isn't in Croatia at the moment.

Make sure to follow our dedicated politics and business pages for more.

The first Seabin device, a floating “trash can” and seawater filter, was installed on Friday in the passenger port of Rijeka.

Rijeka Based Initiative S.E.A. Donated Seabin Device

The Rijeka-based Initiative S.E.A. (Save, Embrace, Achieve) donated the Seabin device to the Port Authority of Rijeka to raise awareness about the need to protect and conserve the marine environment. The initiative also introduces sustainable solutions for the use and management of marine life as one of its most valuable resources.

Seabin is a floating trash can which constantly filters seawater, collecting plastics, microplastics, detergents, oils and other materials from the surface, preventing them from drifting off to the open sea and harming marine flora and fauna, according to Morski HR on February 10, 2020.

“The initiative was founded to primarily to raise awareness about the need to change environmental attitudes, especially in our oceans, and to foster further debate on the ‘green transition’ which is beginning to take hold in response to the global environmental crisis. The focus of the initiative is to dispose of plastics and micro plastics. It also promotes implementing the most advanced green methods, practices and technologies for better environmental management and utilization of its resources,” they explained.

Seabin Acts as Floating ‘Trash Can’ in Marinas, Yacht Clubs, Ports

According to their website, the Seabin V5 unit is a ‘trash skimmer’ designed to be installed in water at marinas, yacht clubs, ports and any body of water with a calm environment and available suitable services.

The unit acts as a floating trash can which skims the water surface by pumping water into the device. The Seabin V5 can intercept floating debris, macro and micro plastics and microfibers with an additional filter. By acting as a trash skimmer, the Seabin V5 is also able to clean the water from contaminated organic material including leaves and seaweed.

The Seabin V5 can be equipped with oil absorbent pads that absorb petroleum-based surface oils and detergent which is predominant in most marinas worldwide.

Surface Water Passes Through Catch Bag At 25,000 Liters Per Hour

Water is sucked in from the surface where it passes through a catch bag inside Seabin. The device is equipped with submersible water pump capable of displacing 25,000 liters per hour and can be plugged directly into either a 110V or 220V outlet. The water is then pumped back into the marina leaving litter and debris trapped in the catch bag.

The Seabin V5 can catch an estimated 3.9 kilograms of floating debris per day or 1.4 tons per year (depending on weather and debris volumes) including micro plastics as small as 2 millimeters.

Follow our Lifestyle page for more information on environmental initiatives in Croatia. More information about the Seabin V5 can be found on their website and Facebook page.

February 10, 2020 - More great promotion to the growing Chinese market, as Metan Development Group's Explore Croatia films on Hvar.

One of my favourite Croatian tourism promotion stories took place a few years ago at a tourism fair in Seoul. Either the national or Zagreb tourist board had a stand there to put their toes in the water of a potential new market for Croatia. Expectations were apparently, but it was another step in the Croatian tourism expansion into Asian markets.

The Croatian stans was one of the most popular of the whole show, according to the reports I was given, especially popular with young single Korean women. 

While the tourist board was understandably delighted with the surge of interest, it was also a little confused about the sudden popularity of Croatia. And then the reason was revealed. 

Just a few weeks earlier, a new Korean reality show, The Romantic, aired on national television. It followed 5 attractive single Korean women and 5 attractive single men on a journey through a romantic European country called Croatia. The narrator was one of Korea's top pop heartthrobs, the footage from Croatia was spectacular. And the rest is history. 

Korean tourism arrivals jumped from 16,000 in 2011 to over 400,000, with the majority coming in the shoulder months. Indeed, South Koreans comprise the largest number of visitors to Central Dalmatian in January and February. 

And while the potential of the Korean market is significant, it is minuscule compared to that of the Chinese market. With many Asians preferring to travel in the off- and shoulder seasons, the potential tp develop Croatia's 12-month tourism is huge. 

Especially when January is as gorgeous as this... 

Last month saw a major filming project of Croatia's tourism potential for the Chinese market. As previously reported on TCN,  Larry Namer, founding partner of E! Entertainment and Metan Development Group, was brought to Croatia by his associate producer Ana Muhar Blanquart Zagreb, and the reason for his arrival was the documentary series Explore the World.

It is a series consisting of twelve episodes, done in documentary style, that should be presented to the viewers of the Chinese television stations Youku and Mango TV, which have more than 700 million subscribers, among other carefully selected world destinations. 

The Metan crew were on Hvar filming for two days on January 16 and 17, where they stayed at Suncani Hvar's Hotel Riva overlooking Hvar's elite waterfront. 

And what a promotion for the sunshine island. Hvar is famous for its 2,718 hours of sunshine every year on average, making it the sunniest island in Europe. And with glorious days like these in mid-January, and little danger of off-season overtourism, the images relayed to the huge potential market in China will no doubt be glorious. 

One more promotion of the island voted the very best in Europe last year by readers of Conde Nast. 

To learn more about the island, check out the Total Croatia Hvar in a Page guide. 

ZAGREB, February 10 2020 - The Ministry for Tourism is inviting applications for grants until March 13 to allocate 5 million kuna in total for development of cycling tourism in continental Croatia, and eligible applicants include local government units from the 14 continental counties, the ministry has announced.

The funds are to be allocated from a programme for developing cycling tourism on the continent in 2020.

The Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli says that increasing the tourism potential of continental Croatia contributes to a more even development of tourism in the country, and biking tourism, along with food tourism and health tourism, represents a highly attractive product.

"Those products are especially important for continental Croatia, which has all the prerequisites for stronger tourism positioning. Apart from that, biking tourism attracts visitors throughout the whole year, and it emphasises both the natural and the cultural heritage of particular destinations, promoting both sustainability and conservation, which is one of the basis for the further development of tourism in Croatia," the minister has said when grant applications were invited.

The ministry is co-funding around 90% of eligible costs for the implementation of an individual project. The minimum grant amounts to 100,000 kuna, and the maximum to 500,000 kuna.

The ministry notes that they have already co-financed the drafting of operational plans for cycling tourism in the 14 continental counties in 2017, and they point out the fact that the project has sparked considerable interest in all continental counties during the last 3 years, causing all of them to make a considerable step forward in developing that type of tourism.

More tourism news can be found in the Travel section.