The ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has raised its ugly head here in Croatia once again after a couple of weeks of relative peace, is seeing even some of Croatian tourism’s most faithful guests cancel their reservations as the lie about Croatia being a ”coronavirus free” country is exposed for what it is.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 23rd of June, 2020, athough holiday homes are currently one of the most sought-after types of accommodation, private renters are facing a very difficult peak season that will be affected by the latest developments with the coronavirus epidemic. But even without that, reservations are sinking.
”We have loyal guests and people who really wanted to come and kept their reservations until the very last minute, however, as the situation isn’t improving, as we approach July and August and the dates of their arrival, they have started to cancel them. We all hoped that with these reservations and last minute bookings, we’d reach those 40 percent of last year’s figures, but now it’s slowly starting to be questionable,” Martina Nimac Kalcina, president of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce’s Family Accommodation Association, told Novi list.
Thus, for example, as she states, there is an example that the Slovenes, who are the closest to Croatia geographically and who booked their holidays even during the height of the coronavirus epidemic, are now cancelling their reservations. The southern counties, such as Dubrovnik-Neretva County, are especially dependent on airlines, unlike Kvarner and Istria, which can easily be reached by car.
”Everyone hoped that it would be better, but since it isn’t, it’s important to do someething with what we have left for July and August. But it should also be noted that guests who still do have reservations really want to come. It’s just that their arrival will depend on the situation at the border, quarantines and the airlines,” concluded the president of the Family Tourism Association of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce.
Family accommodation expert Nedo Pinezic sought to make the reminder clear that it is difficult for the Croatian tourism sector as a whole to try to be smart in this situation, given that the booking situation changes from day to day, and it is mostly influenced by the epidemiological situation in Croatia and the increase in the number of patients infected with the new coronavirus.
This coincides with the announcement of the German Robert Koch Institute where they said that all travelers from Germany who travel to regions that have more than 50 patients per 100 thousand inhabitants, will be required to be tested or quarantined upon their return home to Germany. The number of patients is being monitored, primarily by individual regions. It is also clear that more vulnerable groups of guests, such as seniors, are being very cautious indeed.
For more on Croatian tourism in the coronavirus era, follow our dedicated section.
