August the 12th, 2024 – The Austrian media have unleashed some pretty negative headlines aimed at Croatia and Croatian tourism, but why?
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the widely-read and very influential Austrian Kronen Zeitung has highlighted what it deems to be serious problems with Croatian tourism.
In their view, at least in the sense of tourists coming to Croatia from the north and west of Europe. The problem is the prices and traffic difficulties, believes the Austrian media. Austrian nationals claim to be particularly irritated by the stoppages and traffic jams due to the construction site of the tunnel on the A10 heading towards Carinthia.
Tourists from Salzburg have been choosing Croatia as their number one summer holiday destination for many years now, but that seems to be changing, the Austrian media publication writes.
Croatia is otherwise known as the most popular Austrian holiday destination in the Mediterranean that can be reached by car, reports N1, but with more negative headlines appearing about Croatian tourism, perhaps we need to look more deeply at some painful deficits. According to the notions put forth by the Austrian media, if Croatia fails to invest more into Croatian tourism than the competition across the Mediterranean does, the country may lose faithful visitors.
We all know that at this moment in time, prices across the board in the country are high, and Croatian tourism is far from immune to those hikes, nor is it free of greed. The profession on the whole is increasingly hearing appeals directed at private accommodation owners and restaurateurs that their price hikes must be accompanied by an actual raise in quality.
In short, the Austrian media hasn’t picked up on anything surprising, and these are all issues that we ourselves have been lamenting about Croatian tourism for many months now, if not upwards of a year.
The aforementioned Austrian media also writes about the unusually warm Adriatic Sea which is failing to provide all that much refreshment during these intense heatwaves. Croatia can hardly influence that so directly nor so instantly, as climate change is to blame.
It seems that tourists who have been loyal to Croatia for years are slowly but surely being turned off by the current state of Croatian tourism. The entire article was published under a rather damning title: “Croatia? Never again, not for any price!” The results of such publications about Croatian tourism could have dire implications.
The Zeitung also writes that neighbouring Italy, as the second most popular destination for Austrians, has long been more expensive. This is especially true for the accommodation offer and food segment, but after Croatia’s Eurozone accession back at the beginning of 2023, this is no longer the case.
Additionally, there is still great demand for nearby Greece, as well as for Turkey. Turkey, writes the Krone Zeitung, scores highly with its ratio of price to overall impression and tourist offer.
Both Turkey and Tunisia offer attractive all inclusive offers for family arrangements. Therefore, it is not surprising that Salzburg Airport is seeing an increase in the number of flights to those destinations. What that will mean concretely for Croatian tourism going forward remains to be seen.
