Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli and the director of the Croatian Tourist Board (HTZ) Kristjan Staničić, ahead of this week’s ITB Berlin, pointed out that they expect a similar number of German tourists as last year, or about 3 million, and that despite somewhat slowed early bookings, they believe in a good overall annual result in Croatian tourism, reports Poslovni.hr on March 4, 2019.
The largest international travel trade show ITB Berlin, which will be held from March 6 to 10, will gather more than 10,000 exhibitors from around 190 countries, including Croatia, whose tourist offer will be presented to a business audience from the German and other markets by the HTZ and more than 30 tourist companies and communities.
Hundreds of Croatian tourism professionals traditionally present at the ITB, who will negotiate concrete business deals with partners and hear about current trends in business and market interest for the tourist offer.
And while there should be international growth in tourist travel this year, for some regions, unlike the last two or three years, announcements ahead of this ITB are somewhat more cautious, with slower or smaller bookings for the coming months and summer, especially in the Mediterranean, which is one of the most visited tourist regions in the world.
For example, Spain, one of the strongest tourist countries in the world, recorded a decline in bookings in the first months of this year compared to the same period last year, especially from the British market, with Portugal and some other countries in the minus, while Croatia has also slowed down.
On the other hand, Turkey is pushing a great offer, has a price advantage and is investing in marketing, similar to Greece, Egypt and other countries in North Africa, who are seeking to attract as many tourists as possible since they lost them in the last two or three years due to political and other instability.
“I know that there is anxiety because foreign markets are slower, but we need to be patient and impose quality without lowering prices, which I am against. Slower bookings are happening because now there is a lot more capacity on the market than two or three years ago when there was migrant and political turmoil in Turkey, Greece, Egypt and other countries in North Africa, which are now more stable, so tourists have more places to choose from and it is certain that this year there will be more prominent ‘last minute’ bookings, that is, they will wait for more favorable prices,” said Cappelli.
He is aware that those in the tourism sector are a bit nervous, but that the market will do its part. Nevertheless, Cappelli advises the sector to listen carefully to the market in the next two to three weeks, and then decide whether it is necessary to react with price corrections or other measures.
Cappelli also says that there is no panic from the big hotel houses, for the time being, and that summer bookings are now similar to last year, with slightly better pre-season bookings, which the Minister points out as more important, because “the peak season will work out last minute and come to the previous level, and there should be no problem here.”
“The ITB will show a lot, especially from the German market, for which we have already taken additional activities and investments in marketing actions. We anticipated 2.5 million kuna, which is the most for a particular market from the total, recently additionally allocated 10 million kuna for promotion from the HTZ budget for all markets. We expect Germany to keep the same figures as in 2018, and this can be confirmed by previous talks and information from our German partners, who said that Germany would not be reducing the number of trips this year,” says Cappelli.
Both Cappelli and Staničić recalled that Germany is still the most critical market for Croatian tourism, which in a certain way signals to many and what they should do.
“After the ITB, we will have clearer information about the status of bookings from the German market, from which almost 3 million tourists visited us last year. To further boost bookings and attract German tourists to Croatia, there is a large campaign on the 11 most popular German TV channels, and at the beginning of March, a pre-season campaign on 12 markets with an emphasis on the promotion of cultural, active tourism and eno-gastronomy,” Staničić.
At ITB, they will meet with representatives of numerous partners, such as TUI, FTI, Condor, British Airways, Eurowings, Jet2 and others, as well as representatives of the National Tourism Organization of Albania, and participate in the international the manifestation of the Danube countries “Donavausalon”, which this year Croatia is a partner country.
“At the HTZ booth at ITB we will have 23 co-exhibitors/companies and tourist boards, and we believe in a great presentation, as we believe that this tourist year will show good results. This optimism is thanks to the first two months of this year, where according to eVisitor, almost 485,000 tourists visited Croatia, which is 9 percent more than the same period in 2018. An increase of 4 percent was also recorded with 1.3 million overnight stays,” Staničić concluded.
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