On the second day of the World Travel Market (WTM) in London, Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli held meetings with tour operators and airlines Thomas Cook, TUI, Ryanair and Saga at the Croatian Tourist Board’s booth.
After his meetings, Minister Cappelli expressed his satisfaction that partners are planning to expand their business in Croatia and that Croatia remains one of the most important markets, reports HRTurizam on November 6, 2018.
“Today, we received confirmation from the most important partners in the UK market that our tourism policy is moving in the right direction and that the Croatian market represents outstanding tourist potential in which they plan to expand their offer. The World Travel Market in London traditionally introduces the first impulses on which we base the estimates of the movement of tourist traffic in the following year, and on the basis of the knowledge we have today, I can say that we will continue with the positive movements from the British market, and I believe in other markets as well next year. Regardless of the return of our competition, the markets of Greece and Turkey, announcements and expectations are on the level of last year, with planned growth of up to 7 percent,” said Minister Gari Cappelli.
On the second day of the World Travel Market, Cappelli held meetings with tour operators and airlines Thomas Cook, TUI, Ryanair and Saga
The number of arrivals from the UK is in direct correlation with the number of flights from the market and the length of the flight period. The vast majority of flights begin at the end of April and early May and last until mid-October or late October. The tendency is that each year the flight season is extended, and this is also expected in 2019 for which confirmation has been received at the meetings held within the WTM fair.
At the fair, Niall O’Connor and Gary Butler of Ryanair confirmed that in the new season, eight new lines will open at Zadar Airport, from the Czech Republic, Poland, Italy and Germany and two new connections to Rijeka Airport, from London and Manchester. Representatives David Burling, Helen Caron and Lucy Ling of the tour operator TUI also held a meeting with Minister Cappelli and highlighted the great cooperation with Croatia. They noted that they are planning to introduce a new ‘City Break’ tour on the Zagreb-Plitvice-Krka-Split route.
During the first ten months of this year, British tourist arrivals increased by 8 percent to almost 850,000, while overnight stays grew by 8 percent to nearly 4.4 million. British tourists mostly traveled to the regions of Dalmatia – Dubrovnik (36%), then Split (23%) and Istria (20%), and most of the overnight stays were made in hotels.
