On Wednesday, Minister of Tourism and Sports Nikolina Brnjac said that she did not expect the Croatian coast to change from orange to red in the newest ECDC corona map on Thursday, reports T.portal.hr.
Answering questions from journalists before the Government session, the Minister pointed out that Croatia has much better numbers in tourism this year than last year.
“As of today, we are at 55.3 million overnight stays and 9 million tourist arrivals, which is 1.2 million more arrivals compared to 2020, and compared to 2109, we are at about 60 percent of arrivals and more than 70 percent of overnight stays. But what we are pleased about is the data on consumption, i.e., the value of fiscalized bills, which is about 70 percent compared to 2019, which means that more is spent this year in accommodation, especially in higher categories,” said Brnjac.
For July and August, the value of fiscalized bills exceeded the results from the same months in 2019, which means that the tourism sector is stable and able to work the season in such conditions.
There are good announcements for the continuation of the season. Booking is good for both September and October, Brnjac pointed out, and therefore appealed to everyone to pay attention to the epidemiological situation, because, as she emphasized, if we continue with good numbers, we can remain the safest destination in the Mediterranean and try to stay in the orange zone on the ECDC map.
She hopes that good booking will continue. We need to stay responsible and get vaccinated in as many numbers as possible, and we need to look at the whole country, not just the coast, and do everything we can not to have closures like some countries had earlier this season.
She reminded that the Ministry co-finances rapid antigen tests for tourists with more than 20 million kuna, and that they held meetings with all prefects and the sector several times around the season, as well as other institutions, and established more than 350 testing points across the coast so tourists can return to their countries as easily and quickly as possible.
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