The Cro Card can be used by Croatians on vacation in continental Croatia throughout the year and off-season at sea.
The “Cro card”, designed by Horwath HTL, is a tourist voucher where during the year, Croatian employers would pay their employees a certain amount for expenses on domestic tourism and hospitality services. This would in turn reduce the dependence of the Croatian tourist industry solely on foreign guests, encouraging stronger domestic tourism for Croatians.
Tportal reports that the first tourist vouchers or “Cro cards” should begin to arrive in 2018 – at least such is the plan of Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli who inherited this project from his predecessor Anton Kliman. How it will all work, and what amount will be available to the public, is yet to be defined.
On the table there are currently two scenarios: the first would abolish the existing recourse to 2,500 kuna, and introduce a travel voucher with 10,000 kuna per year. In the second scenario, the voucher would amount to 5,000 kuna, while maintaining recourse.
The money would be paid to employers into a special bank account, and the citizens would spend the money through Cro cards, much like how you would use a card from a checking account. A percentage would be set for each category of costs. For now, the proposal is that 50% would be limited for lodging, about 30% for food and drink, and the rest of the money would be for museums, wellness and similar content.
The Cro card will be used so that citizens can go on vacation in continental Croatia throughout the year or enjoy an off-season holiday by the sea.
Which of the two models will be selected will be determined in negotiations with the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Finance, employers and unions.
The state will use tax incentives to stimulate businesses to provide their employees Cro cards. It is being considered to introduce tax relief on profits in the amount of 25 up to 100% of the amount paid for the travel voucher.
“I would, of course, be much happier if the tax rate for caterers was less, but we must consider the comprehensive tax reform. During the year, we viewed what will be the impact of tax reforms and searched for new solutions to maximally assist caterers through other measures to facilitate business. Given that the tax reform focuses on stimulating and increasing the standard of living, which will allow increased consumption, it supports the project of Cro cards which aims to mobilize the domestic tourism market. The use of such vouchers would allow between 10 to 21 thousand new jobs, and from 7 to 11 billion kuna of new investments, which would ultimately generate between 2 to 4 billion kuna net income, which is a great opportunity for restaurant owners,” said Cappelli while announcing that Cro Card should enter into full force in 2018.
