As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, while in normal years, Croatian hotel owners would have their hands full with looking for manpower for the summer season ahead and polishing up seasonal facilities to start work on Easter weekend or on May the 1st, right now ,most of them don’t know when they can open their doors at all.
Although a few weeks ago they announced through the Croatian Tourism Association that they were ready to open from Easter onwards, in the meantime, a good part of the market has entered a total closure due to mutated strains of the virus appearing and vaccination not quite going as planned.
As mentioned above, the process of procuring vaccines that was supposed to speed up the end of the pandemic has stalled, which also affects the enthusiasm of guests, so the concern is currently greater than it was about a month ago.
The biggest dilemma which lies in front of Croatian hotels is the current need to weigh up the cost-effectiveness of opening their doors, which is a criterion to study even in the best years. Easter falls early in 2021, at the very beginning of April, and as such they need to figure out how to bridge it until May the 1st and then until Pentecost at the end of May, when the swimming season is already starting.
Tourist consultant Sinisa Topalovic warned the public about this last week, and as we reported, he believes that tourist traffic in the pre-season in 2021 is illusory to expect.
There are no concrete plans yet…
Therefore, Croatian hotel owners have already focused on the summer season in terms of their marketing, for which they’re offering discounts and various combinations to attract guests to push the button right now and book their holidays for summer. In the meantime, they are trying to fill the facilities that are intended for year-round operation and are open despite very low tourist traffic.
Valamar currently has only one hotel open, Diamant from Porec, and two camping resorts in Istria and Krk. On the eve of Easter, they plan to open only three of their hotels, Porec’s Marea Suites, Padua on Rab and President down in Dubrovnik, as well as eight camps in Istria and Kvarner.
Other facilities are planned to open successively, depending on the state of booking, as is the case with Plava Laguna/Blue Lagoon, which has three hotels open, Molindrio in Porec, Melia Coral in Umag and Bonavia in Rijeka. At the moment, their traffic is mostly made up of sports groups, but they have no concrete plans to open in the spring yet, their plans to open depend entirely on demand.
The company Sunce Hotels encourages its guests to direct their summer booking where they will receive a guarantee of the best offer, now they have a special offer in which they offer a 35 percent discount on early bookings. On their website, the calendar only opens from April the 30th, and they decided to start work on May the 1st, but only in part of the hotel. Solaris has opened for early booking, but only for mobile homes and villas.
The smaller Croatian hotel owners are the most flexible
Due to the nature of the business, small hotels are somewhat more flexible in their decision-making, as it is easier to fill 10 rooms instead of 500 of them.
The Istrian wine hotel San Canzian recently informed its guests on social media that it opens the season on March the 19th, Boskinac from Pag is urging its guests to book their places now, because they have already sold out all the rooms for Valentine’s Day.
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