High hopes from of the new Minister of Tourism.
The selection of Anton Kliman as the new Tourism Minister has been a surprise for many in the Croatian tourism sector, but everybody hopes he will be a successful minister and that Croatian tourism will achieve even better results, reports Tportal on January 23, 2016.
Since Kliman will also be the president of the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ), crucially important will be his communication and cooperation with local tourist board system, which is expected to undergo reorganization and modernization process. The director of the HTZ Main Office Ratomir Ivičić expects good cooperation. “Personally I do not know Kliman, but I see he is a tourism entrepreneur so I believe they he will be a fine minister and that we will have excellent cooperation in developing new and continuing current projects”, says Ivičić.
Director of the Split Tourist Board Alijana Vukšić also expects good cooperation and says that “we will help him as we did with previous ministers, and we expect to work together in the coming period in order to position Croatia at the top of global tourism”. Director of the Mali Lošinj Tourist Board Đurđica Šimičić expects that the new minister will speed up the implementation of the island airport project. “What is important is good collaboration with other ministries to quickly and effectively eliminate the problems which hinder the development of tourism. People of Lošinj expect to have better transport links with the mainland”, says Šimičić.
“While I do not know Kliman, based on publicly available information at the moment we have nothing against him and we believe that he will be a successful minister”, says the president of the national hotel association UPUHH Kristian Šustar. “We still have no clear legal and economic framework which would enable growth of tourism in the coming years, which should certainly be a priority for the new minister. I believe in cooperation with the new minister and I offer him any assistance and support in future work on projects related to hotels and tourism as a whole”, says Šustar.
Nedjeljko Pinezić, president of the Association of Family Tourism at the Croatian Chamber of Economy, which represents 50 percent of the total accommodation capacities of Croatian tourism, believes that Kliman knows tourist industry and points out that in his local community he is regarded as a good entrepreneur and a decent man, which is more important than the fact that he is not a well-known politician.
Representatives of the camping sector from the Croatian Camping Union are also ready to cooperate and their president Tihomir Nikolaš says that “they are sure that the minister will show special sensitivity for the camping sector which should have equal conditions as other countries, which means reducing the highest rate of VAT on the Mediterranean”.
Boris Žgomba, president of the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies says that Kliman is a good and thoughtful person open to discussion and cooperation. “Kliman can be a good minister and we should give him a chance. I hope he will be a good partner with us in solving our problems, including the excessively high rate of VAT for travel agency services”, says Žgomba.
