After the Croatian National Tourist Board launched the communication platform “Croatia Full of Magic” on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at the end of last year, which will be active for a few more days, a new online campaign, “Croatia Full of New Beginnings,” marked #CroatiaWishList2021, will begin in target markets, reports Slobodna Dalmacija.
The beginning of the year is usually a period of travel planning. Still, as the coronavirus pandemic has turned all established patterns of life upside down, it has dealt one of the strongest blows to tourism. Its recovery will largely depend on the development of the pandemic, and in the Mediterranean, workers in the tourism industry agree, a battle will be fought for every guest. The keyword “safety” will play a significant role when choosing a holiday destination.
For example, Turkey, whose huge advertising budget Croatia cannot compete with, is conducting a fierce campaign on digital platforms under the slogan “Safe in Turkey,” and on the website “Safe Tourism Go Turkey,” it is possible to find everything a tourist needs to stay in that country – from potential accommodation and catering facilities to travel agencies, and transportation, with the indispensable label of safety.
Greece is also at a low start, where the introduction of COVID passports is mentioned. Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis announced that there would be two categories of tourists by the end of the pandemic, those who have not been vaccinated and those who have. For them, he explained, the condition for entering Greece would be neither quarantine nor a negative COVID test, but only a vaccination certificate and the option of mutually recognizing certificates between countries of departure and destination is being considered.
For those tourists who are not vaccinated, Greece plans to expand border control measures, which could affect the flow of guests and ultimately contribute to fewer holidays in the country. Minister Theoharis believes that the vaccination will affect tourist reservations from the countries they are interested in, namely Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and France.
Will Croatia implement special COVID protocols for tourists in 2021? And will Croatia introduce COVID passports? Slobodna Dalmacija asked Kristjan Staničić, director of the Croatian National Tourist Board (CNTB).
“Croatia is a very active member of the European Travel Commission (ETC) at whose last session the emphasis was placed on the importance of the post-pandemic recovery of tourism, i.e., the importance of implementing uniform health and hygiene protocols and promoting tourism and tourism products through joint promotional campaigns. In this context, a large global ETC campaign has been announced this year, and co-branding and transnational campaigns are planned, which will be partly co-financed by the European Union,” says Kristjan Staničić, emphasizing that the level of security in Croatia will be further raised through active vaccination of tourism workers, who themselves are aware of how important the safety segment is in these market circumstances.
“The Ministry of Tourism and Sports is also preparing a special safety label that will be available to all tourism service providers if they meet all prescribed epidemiological safety measures and protocols. Namely, an important message to everyone is that the precondition for a successful season will be a high degree of vaccination of the population,” adds the Croatian National Tourist Board director.
Thus, he reveals, the CNTB will launch a unique campaign in February that will highlight all the advantages of Croatia as a safe tourist destination through seven specially prepared “safety” videos, which will show all potential guests that Croatia is a well-prepared destination that guarantees a quality and safe stay.
“The campaign will be conducted on our subpage, which is updated daily with all relevant information related to travel in these new circumstances caused by the coronavirus pandemic. We will start implementing the main promotional and invitation campaigns in March, i.e., in the spring when the first major realization of tourist traffic in Croatian destinations is expected,” says the Croatian National Tourist Board director.
He believes that this year, especially its first quarter, will be marked by the intensity of epidemiological measures being taken in significant markets to slow down and curb the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, he explains, we cannot hope to establish more substantial tourist flows. Still, the arrival of spring and periods of nice weather will undoubtedly positively affect the epidemiological situation and travel.
“We expect a distinct last-minute demand, as well as that for safe, and at the same time quickly and easily accessible destinations. There will be greater demand for accommodation that provides additional security, such as holiday homes, accommodation on boats, in camps, and staying outdoors in nature. A positive effect is also expected from the vaccination of the population, which is confirmed, for example, by the data of the tour operator TUI Nordic, which recorded an increase in reservations as soon as the news of the vaccination process was published. In general, this year we expect, measured by overnight stays, achieving about 60 percent of the results from the record 2019, as well as maintaining the position of our country as one of the leading destinations in the Mediterranean,” Kristjan Staničić concluded optimistically.
The online campaign “Croatia Full of New Beginnings” will be active until mid-February, focusing on 18 markets.
“The campaign aims to draw attention to Croatia through new beginnings and new beautiful and positive wishes in 2021. Visuals of lesser-known Croatian places will be used, with short and interesting stories as suggestions on what to visit, taste, and how to spend a holiday in Croatia. The focus will be on products such as eno-gastronomy, natural beauty, hiking trails, and nautical tourism. From the end of January, we will start implementing a special promotional campaign to position Croatia as an attractive destination for digital nomads, especially in the US, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, and Sweden,” said the Croatian National Tourist Board.
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