In the N1 studio on Wednesday, the Minister of Tourism and Sport, Tonci Glavina, spoke about the current tourist season.

Glavina says that tourism is a happy challenge. “There are different approaches in the media, but we have an exceptional tourist season. According to the physical indicators, we have a record high in arrivals. The pre-season was better and confirms that we are on the way to becoming a year-round destination,” he said.

“We have information that the post-season will also be good and that growth should be sought in the low and shoulder seasons, but not in the current period, because we no longer have room for this and it does not contribute to the development of tourism. These figures should remain at the current level and even if they go down, that would not be bad,” he added.

“We have reached the limit”

The reason for this, he said, was to have a sustainable destination and that citizens should not see tourism as a burden, but as something that should improve their standard of living and quality of life.

“We have the same number of overnight stays as last July, which was a record-breaking month. We have fewer arrivals, which means people are staying longer. The figures prove that. There were also 4 per cent more bills issued in July than last year and their value is up 8 per cent,” he explained.

He said predictions of a worse season often come from places where some changes have been noted. “These changes are possible, but not because we have fewer guests, but because we have oversupply. We bring an average of 20,000-30,000 new beds to the market every year, especially in private accommodation,” he emphasised.

“The policy of ‘more, more, more’ must stop”

“We need to address this, because it is impossible to grow so much physically and have high-quality, sustainable tourism at the same time. If we were to fill all these beds, we would be paralysed. We have reached the limit, both in terms of space and human resources,” he said.

“In the high season, we have no space and no need to increase capacity. My message to all tourism stakeholders is that the policy of ‘more, more, more’ must stop. We are now entering an era of quality investment,” he added.

He announced that he would present a legislative proposal in the autumn that would set out the direction in which tourism should develop.