A passionate appeal from Nenad Bach for Croatia to get serious about tourism from America, a potential goldmine.
Six years ago, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. In order to slow down the progression of the disease, I try to do more dancing, boxing and playing table tennis. I play table tennis with my good American friend Bob, a successful businessman and my fierce opponent in this beautiful game. Just the other day, Bob told me that his family has a tradition to go for a vacation together once a year (his family has as many as 18 members). I immediately told him: “This year, you must come and visit Croatia.” But, his answer was: “Yes, we have thought about it, but you do not have direct flights from New York and my mother is over 80 years old.”
And then I remembered the scene which I have seen too many times. I have talked with three Croatian prime ministers, including the current outgoing Prime Minister Milanović, and I have tried to explain them the importance of direct air links with the largest economy in the world. Milanović gave me a short answer: “That will happen by itself.” Not only did it not happen “by itself”, but actually what happened was the complete opposite.
Our neighbors will soon start with direct flights from Belgrade to New York in June, and we just pretend that we cannot see that they will be taking away the earnings which have been expected to enter the Croatian wallets. The whole world is fighting to attract American tourists. They say that one American spends over seven times more than an average guest who traditionally visits Croatia.
Every year, about 300,000 Americans visit Croatia, which is a relatively small number compared to 14 million visits during a year. But, the main reason why this number is not at least a million is the same problem which Bob’s family had to face. There are no direct non-stop flights. And, it is not like there were no such flights thirty years ago. Yugoslav Airlines JAT used to fly to the USA up to 25 times a week during a tourist season!
The fact that we have not had flights since the end of the Homeland War means that we have lost about 100 billion kuna, and no one has been held responsible. This is more than the value of INA, Pliva and all of banks together.
1. Sine qua non. Any strategist of Croatian tourism who knows what they are talking about will say that a prerequisite for the success of a tourist country is air transport. What is there more to prove?
2. Everybody is fighting for American tourists, and we have just one person covering the whole of North America, and we are talking about approximately 350 million people! Not even a seven-headed dragon could answer all the calls.
3. We have lost the geostrategic position in Southeast Europe as a “hub” for all other destinations. So, Slovenians, Hungarians, Serbs, Albanians, Macedonians… All of them could fly from the United States via Zagreb. Croatia Airlines could have done it all.
4. Businesses and companies which were not established and the decreased number of new jobs are invaluable in the context of healthy life of a nation, both in regards to demographic and business development.
5. The investment in this project would cost the state between 5 and 15 million dollars. With an economic multiplier – today we are losing hundreds of millions annually.
6. With our own planes we have the so-called “captive audience”, and every flight is also the opportunity to promote our country, people, history, culture…
7. Let’s use the Dalmatian brand – indigenous Croatian dogs which are recognizable throughout the world thanks to Disney. Let us paint the planes with their spots shaped like Croatian islands. The same design should be used for flight attendant and pilot uniforms. That would be a world tourist attraction!
8. This project can be achieved within 3-4 months.
9. Here is another recent example. The Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra is celebrating 145 years of existence and at the beginning of February they will perform in New York (that will be the first appearance in the history of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra at the prestigious Carnegie Hall). The whole orchestra and support staff will fly for more than 18 hours, instead of eight hours which is a reasonable time for the trip. How much will it cost and how much more tiring it will be than is really necessary, with connecting flights and all the time spent waiting at airports… (who knows, with direct flights maybe our best orchestra would perform at Carnegie Hall a bit more frequently than once every 145 years…?!)
This is my last appeal to the future Croatian Prime Minister, the current Prime Minister-designate. Mr. Orešković, you are the fourth one to whom I present this initiative. You are coming to Croatia from the Diaspora, like me, so I hope you will be able to look at things more clearly and make better decisions for Croatia. More than 20 years of unsuccessful lobbying against corruption and incompetence, I cannot do it anymore.
Original article in Croatian in Poslovni.hr, published on January 14, 2016, is here.
