May 14, 2020 – The Croatian National Tourist Board explains those unusual tourist statistics and updates its travel page.
Earlier today I published an article called There are 41 Days in April in the Kingdom of Accidental Tourism, which took a more detailed look at the very unusual tourism numbers reported for April. 9,453 arrivals generated 391,628 overnight stays, meaning that each tourist stayed for an average of 41 days over the 30-day period of April, 2020, which is clearly absurd.
I sent the Croatian National Tourist Board some questions about the statistics, also asking about their plans to update one of their travel pages, as well as clarification on why Jelsa has both a seaplane port and an airport (the latter of which I never found in my 13 years living here). As always, the Croatian National Tourist Board was quick to respond, and I am publishing the response in full below, so that people can see the explanation without my commentary and draw their own conclusions.
Dear Mr. Bradbury,
In response to your inquiry, please find a brief overview below, as well as responses to your specific questions.
In April, we recorded a very small number of arrivals and with a seemingly “disproportionately” large number of overnight stays (only 9,453 arrivals with 391,628 overnight stays). Considering that this is a report for the period of April, the arrivals of tourists and guests who spent any night in April in Croatia arrivals were recorded in an earlier period and spilled over into April, namely March or February, or in any case prior to April 1, 2020.
If you look at tourist traffic by type of accommodation, which is also available in the report cited, then the reasons become even clearer – 59% of overnight stays were realized in the non-commercial segment, i.e. by “weekenders”. Perhaps due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, they decided to spend time outside their place of residence – which received lots of media coverage in articles at the start of the epidemiological crisis and again after the earthquake in Zagreb. Their arrivals were recorded in March, and with some perhaps even earlier. Furthermore, 35% of overnight stays were realized in household facilities where we assume that some of the guests who decided to stay in Croatia at the beginning of the crisis were accommodated.
There are only 30 days in April, yet tourists stayed on average for 41 days. Can you explain how this is possible?
Arrivals were registered before April 1st and therefore not counted in April’s arrival numbers, but are recorded as overnights.
There was only one South African who stayed for 149 nights in April. Can you explain how this is possible?
There were South Africans staying in Croatia in April whose arrivals were registered before April 1st.
There were no tourists from Belarus, Indonesia, Estonia, Morocco and Thailand, and yet they all recorded overnight stays. Can you explain how this is possible?
Arrivals of those guests were registered before April 1st.
I lived on Hvar for 13 years and am aware of the Jelsa sea port and the Stari Grad air field. Can you tell me where the second airport in Jelsa is please? Is the Hvar airport the one in Stari Grad or is there another?
All information provided regarding airfields was provided by the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency and includes commercial airports as well as airfields which are used for non-commercial purposes. Unfortunately, a typo occurred when transferring the information to the website, as this is Jelas – an airfield near Slavonski Brod. Thank you for pointing out this typo.
Do you plan to add any information to this page to help visitors with current info, or is talking about Croatia Airlines and listing airports from the Official Gazette sufficient info for tourists wanting to fly to Croatia?
The CNTB has a section dedicated to current Covid-19 travel advice, whereas currently Croatia Airlines is the only airline actively flying, information pertaining to such is highlighted.
The current information on the website is provided below, while unlike news portals, our information is updated only when official communication is made available to us by the service provider. And as such, with no other airlines currently flying, the advice is to contact these airlines directly. Should this change, as stated below, we will provide updates accordingly.
Are there flights to Croatia?
Croatia currently maintains one daily return flight: Zagreb – Frankfurt – Zagreb operated by Croatia Airlines. Croatia Airlines is currently in discussions about reinstating other flights, such as Amsterdam, Brussels and London, but all are pending further approval. For more information on Croatia Airlines flights, please check their website.
Once official information on other commercial airlines and/or any flights resuming becomes available, an update on these flights will be provided. If you already have tickets for upcoming travel and/or have a question regarding travel with a specific airline, it is best to contact the airline directly as most are updating their flight schedules on a week by week basis. Should you be unable to use your current flight ticket we recommend postponing your travel to a later date.
All other information on the website Travel section has been updated to direct travellers back to the Covid-19 travel section: *The information provided below is valid under normal travel conditions, for current travel guidelines due to Covid-19, please find specific guidelines here.
And just as the Croatian National Tourist Board was quick to respond, so too it was quick to update the flight page according to the parameters it chooses to inform people. Jelsa had two airports this morning, now it has none. And one more obscure reference to an article in the Official Gazette has gone.
Change is slow, painful and embarrassingly public in Croatia, but it is happening. Just this week, the Ministry of Tourism upgraded from fax numbers to email (the year is 2020), and someone at the Croatian National Tourist Board seems to understand that obscure references to articles in the Official Gazette are not the first thing tourists are looking for when they click on pages claiming to tell them how to get to Croatia.
