As Barbara Ban/Novac writes, according to the Croatian eVisitor system, more than 600,000 thousand overnight stays were realised in Kvarner in the first five months of 2021, which is 30 percent more than were recorded back during the same period in 2020. It is also equal to 40 percent of the overnight stays recorded for Kvarner tourism compared to the record, pre-pandemic year of 2019.
The highest number of overnight stays were realised by Croatian guests (234,000, which is 75 percent of the realised overnight stays for Kvarner tourism when compared to 2019), followed by guests from Germany (more than 126,500 overnight stays) and guests from Slovenia (66,000 overnight stays).
The island of Krk, the Opatija Riviera and the Cres-Losinj islands were the most sought after destinations for Kvarner tourism, and if we’re to talk about the type of accommodation facilities sought, from January to May, most overnight stays were realised in family/private accommodation (216,000 overnight stays), hotels (157,000 overnight stays) and camps (126,500 overnight stays).
“In mid-May, with the gradual calming down of the epidemiological situation, many European countries began to ease their anti-epidemic measures. In Kvarner, we began to record a stable and significant growth of overnight stays during the month of May – for example, in the first week of May we realised about 36,000 overnight stays, while that number rose to almost 120,000 overnight stays in the last week of May. Over recent days, about 20,000 guests have been staying in Kvarner every day, and we’re very happy that loyal guests from Germany have returned in large numbers and in May they hold the first place in terms of the number of overnight stays (104,000 overnight stays, a 36 percent share in total overnight stays),” stated Kvarner Tourist Board director Irena Persic Zivadinov.
Numerous studies tell us how guests want and now even need to travel following such a long time of being restricted, and this is especially the case during the hot summer months. For example, the European Travel Commission (ETC) says as many as 56 percent of Europeans plan to travel within the rest of Europe by the end of August. TUI analyses also confirm that guests will choose destinations that are easily and quickly accessible by car, while “last-minute” bookings and the ability to change the date of stay at any time without additional costs will be almost crucial in the decisions of guests.
Analyses from the Booking.com platform also show that 79 percent of respondents are looking forward to being able to travel elsewhere again after a period of isolation and numerous restrictions placed on movement, while 64 percent of respondents say that travel is now even more important to them than it ever was before the pandemic.
“Since the beginning of 2021, we’ve done a series of virtual presentations. The participants of these presentations, whether they’re representatives of tour operators, agents or media representatives, confirmed to us that guests want and need to travel. That’s why the Kvarner Tourist Board continues to present the region throughout the month of June through presentations and advertising campaigns. Thanks to the EU digital COVID certificates and the growing vaccination of the EU’s population, we believe that movement between countries, especially at the EU level, will be greatly facilitated and encourage guests to travel again. In cooperation with the County Teaching Institute for Public Health and the Health Centre, we’ll continue to organise locations for conducting COVID-19 testing.
Additional tourist clinics will soon be open, where guests will also be able to take tests, and many accommodation facilities – hotels and camps – will conduct tests on COVID-19 only for their guests, right there on the spot. In this way, we’ll try to ensure a carefree and safe stay for guests in Kvarner. Guests are always looking for quality, which also gives them a sense of security and protection in their destination, at all levels. In addition to all that, the proximity and accessibility of Kvarner will certainly remain our important imperative in 2021 as well,” pointsed out the director of the Kvarner Tourist Board.
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