Things have very much picked up in the economic sense when compared to the dire months of March and April, when the coronavirus pandemic got its claws into Croatia and lockdown saw the amount of issued bills drop by an enormous amount as spending took a downhill turn, but we’re far from out of the woods yet.
The tourist season might be faring better than we could have ever hoped back in spring when dire predictions for the travel and tourism sector across the world were published everywhere, but that doesn’t mean that things are looking up financially as many of the traditional ”big spenders” in Croatian tourism are struggling to get here as air travel remains interrupted for many.
As Novac/Gordana Grgas writes on the 12th of August, 2020, while the Croatian coast has been full of guests throughout August so far, data from the fiscalisation system shows an increase in consumption, but it also shows just much weaker it is than the comparable period last year due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis. In total, since the second part of February 2020, the number of issued bills has decreased by a discouraging 28 percent, and the monetary figure on those same bills has decreased by 19 percent.
In terms of Croatian tourism, more precisely in the activity of providing accommodation and food preparation and serving, in the same period, a much larger decrease in the number of issued bills is visible – 44 percent, and the monetary amount on those same bills has dropped by an extremely concerning 50 percent.
The first days of August, however, show that the tourist season is now very much in full swing. Namely, according to the latest data published on Monday by the Tax Administration, last week (from the 3rd to the 9th of August) compared to the same period back in 2019, a decrease in the number of bills issued of 21 percent and a decrease in the monetary amount of 15 percent are visible across all activities, and in tourism, a reduction in the number of bills of 26 percent was seen, with the monetary amount standing at the same number. Last week, 1.3 billion kuna was earned, and now 985 million kuna has been earned.
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