Devastated by pandemic restrictions, travel agencies are asking for help

"The media say that travel agencies have received billions of kuna in aid from the state, which is simply not true. Also, (Education) Minister Fuchs and (Tourism) Minister Brnjac are asking travel agencies to find the money to return vouchers given to passengers, and a new law is being mentioned, under which the agency is obliged to give its clients a refund within 15 days. However, what they are not saying is that travel agencies have on average lost over 90 percent of revenue over the past year," the association said in a press release.

They added that the owners of travel agencies could not get loans to refund their clients, that they were forced to sell their own real estate to cover the expenses, and that they had not received any help from the government.

The only aid they received is the 4,000 kuna (€530) monthly grant for workers - but for every employee the employer has to cover the additional cost of transport and other fixed costs, for which no solution has been found to date, the association said.

They said that fixed costs had not been covered either, and since they were closed, agencies could not cover all the costs.

Travel agencies "were not closed by the decision of the national civil protection team, but their operation is (indirectly) completely restricted by government measures," the association stressed.

(€1 = 7.57 kuna)