Good tourism results are expected to continue during Christmas and New Year holidays, but as the pandemic is still significantly impacting travel, responsible conduct and vaccination are important to continue with good results in early 2022, Tourism and Sports Minister Nikolina Brnjac has said.

Brnjac told Hina on Thursday that 129,500 tourists had visited Croatia so far this December and generated 349,400 bed nights, which is 201% more arrivals and 78% more bed nights than in the comparable period in 2020 while compared to 2019 that is 62% more arrivals and 75% more bed nights.

“In some parts of Croatia, like the Kvarner area, tourism results are better than in the first 20 days of December 2019. This year there were 27% more Germans compared to December 2019 and 57% more domestic guests,” Brnjac told Hina.

As for annual results, by 20 December 2021 about 77% of the total tourism turnover of 2019 had been achieved while the best result compared to 2019 was registered in September, when there were 12.1 million bed nights, which was 94% of the bed nights generated in September 2019, she said.

Brnjac considers that it is particularly important that by 20 December, the value of fiscalised receipts in the tourism and hospitality industries had reached 85% of the value of fiscalised receipts in all of 2019.

Tourism in 2022 and beyond: Transition to innovative, resilient and sustainable system

Asked what was in store for tourism in 2022 and the years to come, Brnjac underscored that development towards a transition to an innovative, resilient and sustainable system would follow, meaning that the focus would no longer be on the number of arrivals and bed nights but on the balance of favourable financial effects, impact on the quality of life of the local population, environment and employee satisfaction.

“We are currently preparing a ten-year development strategy for sustainable tourism that will define the main development directions and areas of intervention, that is, reforms so that by 2030 we can realise our strategic objective of positioning Croatia as a globally competitive sustainable tourism destination,” she said.

One of the moves to position Croatia as an innovative and sustainable destination by the ministry is a reforestation project, designed to compensate for CO2 emissions generated by tourists arriving in Croatia by car. The plan is to plant one million trees a year or 10 million by 2030.