Chinese tourists are looking for good food, shopping and direct flights to Croatia
A delegation of 26 representatives of the largest tour agencies and operators from the Chinese province of Zhejiang arrived in Zadar on Tuesday, October 20, 2015. For the next few days, they will travel across Croatia in order to familiarize themselves with Croatia’s best known tourist destinations.
On their organized fam trip, Chinese tour operators will visit Zadar, National Park Krka, Skradin, Šibenik, Split, Dubrovnik and Konavle and after that they are heading to Montenegro. This fam trip is one of the activities by the Tourism Board and Ministry of Tourism on the vast Chinese market.
Deputy Minister of tourism Daglas Koraca commented on the visit: “As the result of the fam trip we expect the arrival of larger organized groups using the airports in the region and given the large potential of the Chinese market, it is our goal to enhance the cooperation between our two countries and attract more tourists. For the first time, Chinese have replaced the Germans as a nation that travels the most, and since Croatia has many things to offer during off-season, and that is when Chinese tourists travel to Europe, this market is very interesting for us.
Since the number of arrivals and overnight stays from China has doubled this year, it is obvious all our current activities on that market are giving great results. more than 150 000 tourists and 200 000 overnight stays have been recorded in the last 12 months and if the long awaited and heavily announced direct flight from China comes to life (and Zadar Airport is the planned charter base), then those numbers should increase dramatically.
One of the tour agency representatives currently in Croatia, Tang Min, commented on what has to be done to increase the number of Chinese tourists: “Chinese tourists like to eat well, have fun and shop. If you can meet these demands then you can be sure their number will increase.
Another tour agency representative, Zhou Yuegin stressed that the key is to implement a direct line since, at the moment, all Chinese travelers have to change at least two planes in order to get to Croatia.
