Tourism Minister Tonci Glavina said on Monday in the city of Varazdin that he condemned attacks on foreign workers, but also that these were isolated incidents, which he said were being made into a bigger problem than they actually were.

He was responding to a question from the press about whether these attacks could influence future decisions by seasonal workers to work in Croatia.

“We condemn this act in the strongest possible terms, but sometimes such examples are perhaps made into a much bigger story than they are. If you look at events in other countries that involve violence of any kind or racism, there are many more of them than here. These are individual incidents that are completely unacceptable, but they should not be exaggerated,” said Glavina, who compared the large number of foreign workers in almost all parts of Croatia with the small number of incidents.

He also appealed: “We are an open, polite and cultured country where we always maintain very high quality and human relations with each other. As fellow citizens and neighbours, we must also be so towards our guests, towards our workers who are here and who, together with us, develop our economy and create added value.”

Non-registered holiday accommodation

When asked how many unregistered holiday homes there are in Croatia, Glavina said that this is a question for the State Inspectorate, but pointed out that Croatia is one of the few countries in Europe that has regulated the short-term holiday rental segment.

“The provision of services in households and all these capacities on the market are not part of the black market, but a regulated market, or rather a categorised market. We can now manage that better and more efficiently because it’s not on the black market. We have had great success and progress here, mainly because a lot of work is being done on the ground,” he said, announcing further legislative activity in this area to improve the situation even further.