The Brits must be desperate to travel.
It has been one hell of a year for us all, but the Brexit aftermath and the extended lockdowns in the UK have been brutal.
The thought of a foreign holiday in the sun must be enticing indeed.
And so when the London Evening Standard came out with an article covering almost all of the top sunshine holiday hot spots, it was widely read indeed.
But, my friend asked me after sending me the link, where is Croatia?
I clicked on the link. Summer holidays 2021: Your guide to the countries opening up for travel with a Covid ‘vaccine passport’
A nice big section on how to visit Turkey in first place.
Those Greeks are always good at preparing for the season, nestled in in second place in the feature.
Then comes Portugal, ah, the Algarve in June. Imagine.
Next up Cyprus, welcoming guests from May 1.
The French can be visited now, and Spain from May 19 (maybe).
Israel from mid-2021, and the Seychelles from March 25.
I remembered my friend’s question again – where is Croatia?
We scroll on.
Thailand third quarter of 2021.
Hungary holidays. Unknown.
Wow, so there is not even any concrete information about Hungary, but they made the list. Seriously, where is Croatia?
United States (Hawaii) holidays. Unknown.
Estonia, Romania, Georgia, Poland and Lebanon – now.
End of article, which you can read here.
As a senior member of the Kingdom of Accidental Tourism likes to tell people, I am not a tourism expert. He is correct, I am not.
But even I, with my lack of expertise, can see that Croatia should be on a list like this in SOME capacity. This is not me advocating Croatia opening its doors to allow in tourists, not at all.
It is about communicating a message of what Croatia’s position is, so that people can consider Croatia as a holiday destination.
But I guess there are only 70-80 people working at the Croatian National Tourist Board with an alleged annual budget of 400 million kuna in a normal year. Perhaps we should double the workforce and triple the budget to get the message across.
Kristjan Stanicic, Director of the Croatian National Tourist Board, proudly announced a 50% increase in the visibility of the Croatian brand in key markets, without explaining that a lot of that had to do with 11 guys kicking a football around in Moscow in 2018, as well as some phenomenal private pro bono initiatives.
A job well done, it seems from the Evening Standard article.
Read more on this topic with Zoran Pejovic’s Stay Safe or Safe Stay in Croatia or Go Elsewhere.
A London-based travel expert for the Croatian market speaks in Croatian Tourism 2021 Preparations v Competition: The View from London.
