Among the five largest, only Uniline and Katarina Line are in the green, the largest loss is felt by Atlas, who announces a turnaround in the current year
After losing three percent of income last year, Atlas from Dubrovnik is no longer the largest Croatian tourism agency or tour operator by income: according to business results in 2015 it was overtaken by Uniline Pula, an agency whose income rose by 8.9%, Poslovni Dnevnik reports on June 20, 2016.
“The success of Uniline achieved in the tourism agency and tour operator sector did not come over night. In the years of doing business behind us we have built trust and loyalty of clients and business partners across our international network, and the current success, as well as the one yet to follow, is based on Uniline team’s strength,” said Boris Žgomba, Management President of Uniline. Žgomba was elected last year for the third time as President of the Croatian Association of Travel Agencies (UHPA), although according to the Statute he did not have the option to run again after two terms. Žgomba did win a third mandate, after receiving the same number of votes as Katica Hauptfeld from Opatija, owner of Katarina Line.
Katarina Line agency, with only 35 employees, is holding strong in third place with an income growth of 13.5%, first in profit: last year they increased their profit by a huge 44.4%, to 2.6 million Euro. “We aim for light growth followed also by a light growth in employees, while placing profit aside as we prepare for new investments. 2015 was a good year for which we had prepared a palette of new products with the help of our young team of professionals, with an accent on deals for higher-paying clients in overseas countries,” agency owner tells us.
The last year was bad for Atlas agency – the member of the Adriatica-net group, whose largest individual owner is Agrokor, saw income fall by 1.33 million Euro last year and as much as 12.6 million in the last two years. The losses of Dubrovnik-based Atlas have been between 9.33 and 13.33 million Euro for years.
“Last year was one of restructuring, business consolidation, creation of new business models and new partner acquisition, all in order to form the conditions for growth in 2016 and the following years. We have tracked the influence of the world crisis and terrorist attacks which destabilised the market and resulted in changes in behaviour of our clients,” said Tomislav Matija Varga, Management President.
“The Russian market crisis had a large influence on the business results. Although it is too early to talk of the current season, trends from our emitting markets are good and we believe in significant growth. We believe the current year will form conditions for further business development and solidification of market position as the largest tourism group in the region,” announces Varga. The last two of five largest agencies are also experiencing losses, although income has risen. The Meeting Point Croatia from Rijeka had losses of 360,000 Euro, while Kompas from Poreč had 173,000 in losses.
