Krk island has more than enough reason to be extremely pleased with this year.
The Kvarner island’s tourism sector is about to break another record, exceeding the last year’s total number of arrivals and overnight stays by the end of September!
The Tourist Board of Krk island held their final press conference of the season, reporting remarkable results they’ve achieved this year. Before the end of August, Krk recorded 690.000 arrivals and 4.08 million overnight stays. In spite of bad weather the area has been experiencing in recent weeks, it’s expected the island will surpass the last year’s total by the end of this month, reaching the 4.5 million stays mark before October rolls around, reports Novi list on September 20, 2017.
Head of the tourist board Majda Šale stated the recorded figures are generated only in the sector of commercial accommodation, not including the so-called non-commercial accommodation that’s officially recorded by the eVisitor system of the Croatian National Tourist Board. According to Šale, if they added up the non-commercial figures to the already impressive numbers, the total tourist traffic on Krk island would reach 743.000 of arrivals and 5.74 million overnight stays – 35% of the tourist traffic in the entire Primorje-Gorski kotar County.
Asked about the possible reasons for the record increase, representatives of the Tourist Board Krk cited multiple diverse factors, such as a convenient schedule of religious holidays, an array of geo-political issues that turned the tourists’ attention to Croatia as a safe country, as well as an investment into tourist infrastructure worth 370 million kuna in this year alone. The funds were directed towards substantial improvements in accommodation facilities owned by Hotel Njivice, Valamar Riviera, Falkensteiner and the Hadria company, along with other minor investors. Local authorities have also invested in existing tourist infrastructure to raise the quality level of the tourist offer, making Krk island an even more recognisable, attractive and coveted destination.
The topic of challenges brought by the fast-growing tourism industry was also discussed at the conference. This especially entails the infrastructure on the island that needs to be improved and expanded in order to enable Krk to cope with an increased number of visitors. Another future challenge might be a shortage of labour in the tourism sector. However, as stated by Šale, Krk has the knowledge, the experience and enough resources to deal with all potential problems and work on further development of responsible and sustainable tourism.
