Minister Darko Lorencin predicts that Croatia will have a record year in tourism. In a statement made recently, he mentioned that hotels had an occupation rate that reached even 97% in some cases and, based on these impressive booking rates, the minister predicts a successful 2013 in tourism for the country. The Minister also mentioned that he believes 2014 will also be a great year for the Croatia.
Asked about the main goals of Croatia’s new tourism strategy (in the context of becoming a new member of the European Union), in an interview for TTG Balkans from June 2013, Lorencin said:
“The goal is to place Croatia amongst the top 20 most competitive countries of the world through, amongst other things, additional strengthening of the existing and creation of the new tourist offering.
To realise the set developmental goal, the implementation of strategic goals is imminent: realising new investments amounting to €7 billion; improving the infrastructure and quality of accommodation, that is, the construction on 20,000 new hotel rooms is anticipated, plus the growth of their share from 13,1 to 18,1 per cent; and creation of new content in camps; as well improving the quality of family accommodation; opening around 30,000 new tourism-related workplaces; and increasing tourist spending.”
Speaking about the current situation, the Minister mentioned that he thinks that the country can double its income generated from tourism by 2020. He also added that there are plans to increase capacity of hotel accommodation by 7% by 2020.
“We are in a better position. We have some statistics from Dubrovnik and Zadar counties. Dubrovnik had experienced growth in the number of overnight stays by 6%, and 7% in the number of arrivals. Zadar had 2% growth with the number of overnight stays. We are expecting positive results compared to 2012 when the figures for the first 7 months of the year come in. What is important is that income from tourism has increased by 6.6% in the first six months, and not because of new fiscalisation laws,” said Lorencin to daily Jutarnji list.
Croatia is indeed an European country with a lot to offer to travelers and tourists, and given its new membership in the EU it is no surprise that tourism in this part of the world is blooming.
