As Marija Crnjak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 6th of September, 2019, unofficial confirmation from the Ministry of Tourism that Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli has now appointed Ivan Herak as a special advisor for the strategic tourism development plan and EU projects was recently received.
As was publised by Glas Istre, an Istrian portal on Thursday, Herak will hold office without a fee, and his appointment was preceded by the explicit consent of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.
The engagement of Ivan Herak, who is actually the former Minister of Tourism during the mandate of the Croatian Government led by Zlatko Mateša from 1999 to 2000, is not a surprise or a shock when it comes to Gari Cappelli’s team. Gari Cappelli’s advisory post was initially offered to Herak way back in the spring of 2017, and only now has it apparently been properly formalised.
This marks just one of a number of Herak’s engagements, the rest of which don’t all have something to do with the tourism industry.
Herak appears to be a jack of all trades. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the Institute of Tourism, a professor at the Swiss School of Business in Geneva, he teaches postgraduate doctoral studies at the Faculty of Economics in Osijek and he is an advisor to the Chinese Association for SE Europe.
He has also recently been hired by the Chinese for the construction of a brand new football stadium, a camp, an academy and other business facilities that are being planned on the site adjacent to the existing Gorica Football Club stadium.
On top of all that, Herak is also the director of the Eurogate Sport Industries company which based in Zagreb. When it comes to tourism, in his public speeches, he advocated for the lowering of VAT in the tourism sector and addressing the issue of tourist land. He has also frequently warned against the extremely detrimental nature of the over-development of cruise ship tourism in Croatia.
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