This year’s Days of Association of Croatian Travel Agencies (UHPA) are being held from 21 to 23 March, for the first time in Slavonia, more precisely in Vinkovci, which is an excellent opportunity to introduce the representatives of travel agencies to the tourist offer of eastern Croatia.
The UHPA is a voluntary national professional association of travel agencies from Croatia and is also registered as an employers’ association. It brings together 228 travel agencies, as well as some 100 affiliated members, including leading hotel companies, restaurants, camps, Croatia Airlines, tourism organisations, educational institutions, rent-a-car companies, etc. The UHPA members realise more than four-fifths of organised travels in Croatia. It is a professional organisation established 27 years ago.
The UHPA Days is an event bringing together more than 200 participants, primarily representatives of travel agencies, representatives of the Ministry of Tourism, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, tourist boards, professional associations, media and others.
The association president Tomislav Fain opened the event. Speaking about the significance of UHPA, he emphasised that 228 regular members of the association employ 3,400 people and last year reported 3.3 billion kuna in turnover. He issued a call to travel agency representatives: “Personally, I think Slavonia can offer a lot, and I hope in the future, once you get to know this part of Slavonia, you will include this region in your offer to help the development of tourism in this part of Croatia.”
Fain stressed that last year was unofficially called “the year of challenges” as it was marked by the implementation of the new Tourism Services Act, the adoption of which was in line with the EU guidelines on travel package arrangements and related travel arrangements. Also, the new law stipulates a reduction in administrative barriers to doing business, specifies which services are considered as health tourism services, further regulates services in conference tourism, regulates who can provide rent-a-car services, additionally regulates the provision of tourist services for active and adventure tourism, etc.
The director of the Croatian National Tourist Board’s (HTZ) head office, Kristijan Staničić, also gave a speech. He stressed that the current state of booking for this year is satisfactory, but added that this year would be intense, challenging and unpredictable. Talking about the relationship between organised and individual tourist travel, he pointed out that organised travel represents one-third of the total tourist turnover and two-thirds of hotel turnover. Organised travel is most prevalent in the pre-season and post-season, while the main season is dominated by individual travel.
Speaking about regions, Staničić stressed that Istria, Dubrovnik and Zagreb have above-average shares of organised tourist travel, which is partly due to the structure of accommodation capacities. Most organised trips come from the markets of Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, Sweden and the United States. He also commented on HTZ activities such as joined advertising, support to destination management companies, fair participation, the Discover Croatia portal development, etc.
He said that the next year would be the key. Given the global trends, efforts will have to be made to change the fundamental model of Croatian tourism. The new strategy and the new strategic marketing plan will also provide new guidelines for the future development of tourism in Croatia.
The director of the Vinkovci Town Tourist Board, Martina Matković, then held an interesting presentation that focused on the historical continuity of 8,000 years of organised human living in the Vinkovci area and all that Vinkovci can offer to tourists of today.
More news on Vinkovci can be found in the Lifestyle section.
