New directors are coming to HTZ offices around the world.
The Tourist Council of the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) decided on Thursday to announce a public competition for ten directors of HTZ overseas offices and to open several new offices, reports Poslovni.hr on May 26, 2017.
Explaining the Council’s decision, Minister of Tourism and HTZ President Gari Cappelli said that the aim of the public competition, as well as of numerous other planned activities, was reorganization and increased efficiency of HTZ’s offices abroad, as well as of the Main Office in Zagreb.
“Competition for HTZ directors abroad will be a chance for many young and educated people and we invite them to apply. In order to get the best quality staff, we have decided to change the rules, which mean that successful candidates must have five years of working experience in tourism, but they no longer have to have experience in management positions. Also, flexibility and knowledge of the market they are running for will be important,” said Cappelli.
The competition is being announced because the current directors’ terms are set to expire this year.
The Council also accepted the proposal to move the office in Germany from Frankfurt to Berlin, with Minister Cappelli suggesting to the Council members to think whether the office in Frankfurt should be completely closed or left in operation, together with the existing office in Munich. A proposal to open an office in New York for the North American market has also been accepted, in place of the current “home-based” model, with additional employee joining the current director.
“We believe that, with the opening of offices in Berlin and New York, we can achieve much better results in the German and American markets. These are exceptionally strong markets. For example, from the US we have increased the number of tourists by 60 percent. We should also think about the opening of an office in Zurich, and perhaps also in Rome and China, for which there is a great deal of interest for both Chinese and Korean partners,” Cappelli continued.
Director of the HTZ Main Office Ratomir Ivičić informed the members of the Council about the current status of the tourist season. He said that to date the trends were positive, with an increase of about 15 percent from January, although the month of May has recorded a slight decline of 2.5%.
“A small drop in the number of arrivals and overnight stays in May was expected, but we expect great June and summer months, so we believe that the cumulative result will be a double digit growth in tourism,” Ivičić said. He noted that general growth had been recorded in all foreign markets and that Croatia was still in a hit destination in many countries.
A two-month public competition for the new director of the HTZ Main Office will conclude on 30 May. It is still not know whether anyone has applied so far.
