Today in Zagreb as part of the 5th Forum of the Croatian Congress Industry, Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli presented an action plan for the development of congress tourism.
The action plan was developed on the basis of the Tourism Development Strategy until 2020 in order to determine the steps to develop one of the key tourism products in the coming years, reports HRTurizam on 6 December, 2016.
“Business tourism is one of the most promising tourist products that can significantly contribute to increasing the competitiveness of Croatian tourism. Over the past few years, revenues achieved in the segment of business travel accounted for only about 3 percent of total revenues in tourism, and laying the foundations of the action plan will enable an increase in revenue and create recognizable tourist products that will extend the tourist season. We have set a goal for ourselves with the realization of revenues in tourism from 14-15 billion euros, and business tourism can certainly have a major contribution,” said Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli.
According to the Tourism Development Strategy until 2020, the tourism product of “business meetings” is considered one of the potentially most important Croatian tourist products. In fact, despite occasional fluctuations, market trends point to a global stable growth of this product as reflected in the performance in Croatia, added the Ministry of Tourism.
Inputs from the market furthermore indicate the perception of Croatia as an attractive and desirable destination for business meetings. Following its various features, congress tourism is also a product with a positive impact on some of the major challenges of Croatian tourism, such as the extension of the tourist season, hotel capacity utilization and an increase in tourist spending. On the other hand, the further development of congress tourism gets competitive as hosting business meetings in Croatia implies overcoming a series of challenges, from strengthening the organizational, logistical and human resources to significant investments in production infrastructure and promotion.
“This Action Plan sets the vision that by 2020, Croatia would have developed into one of the most popular European destinations for small and medium business meetings of associations and corporations. Croatian positioning in the international market for business meetings will be based on the cooperation of the private and public sector, modern and creative products embedded in the destination value chain, quality congress management and innovative marketing,” concluded the Ministry of Tourism.
