This summer, two Chinese police officers will be patrolling the streets of Zagreb with their Croatian colleagues to provide assistance to Chinese visitors, as more and more Chinese tourists are coming to Croatia.

This is the first time the City of Zagreb has joined the Interior Ministry’s Safe Tourist Season project, under which foreign police officers are deployed to the coast to assist local law enforcement authorities during the summer season.

The project began in 2006, and has to date seen some 620 foreign officers in cities along the Croatian Adriatic coast. This year alone, 72 officers are participating in the project, coming from Austria, Poland, Italy, and other European countries in which Croatia is a popular tourist destination.

The two Chinese police officers, who will be wearing their official uniforms, will remain in Zagreb until August 15, Zagreb police chief Marko Rasic said.

There are six Chinese police officers stationed around the country, two in Zagreb, two in Lika-Senj County and two in Dubrovnik-Neretva County.

Rasic said he hoped that the project, implemented in Zagreb for the first time, will produce good results just as it has along the coast.
Chinese tourists will probably feel safer if they see that their police officers are here to assist them, he added.

Zagreb has become a popular tourist destination over the past few years, said Martina Bienenfeld, head of the Zagreb office of the Croatian Tourism Board.

The number of Chinese tourists is constantly growing. In 2017 their arrivals and overnight stays increased by 30 percent compared to the year before. In the first six months of this year, arrivals increased by 36 percent on the year, and a 25 percent increase was recorded in their overnight stays.

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