New Tourism Minister talks about situation in his sector.
Tourism in Croatia is a very successful sector of the economy, but it is important now to launch new improvements which will bring even better results in the coming years – that is a message of new Tourism Minister Garry Cappelli on the occasion of the Days of Croatian Tourism annual conference, reports Večernji List on October 20, 2016.
The event is a traditional annual meeting of tourism sector and it is taking place on 26 and 27 October in Bol on the island of Brač. Cappelli, who became the Minister a week ago, said that this tourist season was very successful and added that such trends would continue. “First reports for the coming year so far are very good, demand and bookings on foreign markets are growing, and we will see where it is necessary to improve our promotion”, said Cappelli.
He will focus on the creation of conditions for new investments in tourism, which includes adoption of regulation which will enable unused military buildings to be used for tourism purposes, as well as the introduction of the CRO card project, which aims to encourage travel within Croatia. “Data of the Central Bureau of Statistics show that more than 2 million Croatian citizens do not go on vacation, mostly due to financial reasons, and it is estimated that the CRO card, as a kind of a tourist ‘voucher’, could increase travel within Croatia by as much as 30 percent”, said Cappelli.
“It is important to discuss the creation of better conditions for people who work in tourism, because even though we have the sun and the sea, people are the key factor. There is also very important cooperation between private and public sector at all levels (state, counties, towns) in order to create conditions for sustainable growth of employment in the tourism industry”, said the Minister. He considers air transport to be one of the prerequisites for year-round tourism and attracting tourists from distant markets, which each year provide increasing contribution to tourist revenues and traffic.
“The reason why we are successful in tourism is the cooperation between the public and private sector, and we have to continue to strengthen it, especially since tourism accounts for a large part of the Croatian GDP and has a huge impact on other sectors of the economy”, said Cappelli. He pointed out the importance of his Ministry as a coordinator for cooperation with other ministries. “Inter-agency cooperation is very important and we will try to create much better business conditions, and thus increase the standard of living, create jobs, and ultimately improve the Croatian economy”, said the Minister.
