ZAGREB, Aug 17, 2020 – Croatia’s Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, who is at the helm of the national COVID response team, said on Sunday that he had no concerns over the continuation of the tourist season following travel warnings from some countries.
“I am not concerned over the remainder of the tourist season. There are currently 760,000 tourists in Croatia. In the course of the day, tens of thousands from EU member-states have entered Croatia,” Bozinovic told the NOVA TV commercial broadcaster on Sunday evening.
A few days ago Italy and Austria decided to add Croatia to their lists of high-risk COVID countries.
The Croatian minister admitted that it would have been better, if such decisions had not been made, however, he added that Croatia would continue doing its best to make sure that the struggle against the coronavirus infection is efficient and that the tourist postseason is good.
Bozinovic says every country makes decisions it deems appropriate.
Since the start of the tourist season, there has existed some kind of contraposition of interests: on one hand, countries do not want their nationals to travel abroad and there spend their money, and on the other hand tourist destinations such as Croatia would like to attract as many guests as possible.
He said that there were some indications that tourists would continue visiting Croatia.
Asked whether Croatia would respond to Austria after it imposed the obligatory tests for arrivals from our country, Bozinovic said that “Croatia does not think that way.”
“We are focused primarily on our interests.”
We are trying to use our potentials and capacities to make sure that the favourable developments continue, the minister said.
As for Slovenia which is mulling some restrictions on arrivals from Croatia, he said that Zagreb is in permanent contact with Slovenia’s authorities, and that it remained to be seen on Monday what would happen.
Slovenia to decide on possible restrictions on arrivals from Croatia on Thursday
In the meantime, the Slovenian government’s spokesman said that they would decide on possible restrictions on Thursday. On Tuesday we will see the results of tests made on Monday and if there are no changes in the work on nightclubs (in Croatia), we will must respond in some way, Jelko Kacin said on Sunday evening.
