As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, as the warmer weather finally approaches, one of the concerns of the Croatian authorities and the tourism sector is how to stop the spread of the coronavirus and vaccinate as many Croatian residents as possible by the beginning of the tourist season. A lot will depend on the epidemiologists, with whom the setting up of tourist testing points has been agreed, and the development of the situation with the “vaccination certificate” at the level of the European Union (EU) will continue being monitored.
Economic analyst Damir Novotny says that the change in the structure of demand will definitely continue, ie what is available in terms of destinations which can be reached by car will continue to experience tourism, which means that Croatia can expect guests from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary, as well as Poles who like to travel from the north all the way to the Croatian Adriatic, according to local portal Glas Slavonije.
“There will be mostly people arriving by car, there won´t be much air transport going on, there won´t really be any groups of tourists but individual trips. This then reduces total tourist spending by 30, 40, maybe even 50 percent. It depends on how much capacity will be ready for those individual guests who have different requirements and it is very likely that the camps will be very well filled, hotels will probably do well, and for other types of accommodation… it is difficult to say,” predicted Novotny.
He believes that vaccination alone will not play a big role in tourism, as the effects of vaccination can be expected possibly next year only. His assessment is that nothing particularly spectacular, but by no means tragic, is likely to happen in tourism, and that it will be somewhere around last year’s level. This means that the Croatian mass tourism we loved to complain about not so long ago will not be reborn this summer season either.
According to economic expert Luka Brkic, he also believes that the focus will be on Croatian destinations that can be reached by car, and that guests from Slovenia, Austria and Germany can be counted on.
“Great Britain is a very important market for Croatian tourism, and they mostly come here by air, but that is questionable, even though they have a high level of vaccination. Because after each opening up, things just close down again quickly,” explained Brkic for Glas Slavonije.
Croatian mass tourism had a tremendously negative effect on destinations like Dubrovnik, which must now find other ways to bring in the cash after lying on its laurels for far too long.
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