Croatia Expects to Boost Tourism in 2013 From Tax Cut, EU Entry

As you may have already read, Croatia enters in EU next year. There are going to be some benefits in the branch of tourism, too.

"Croatia expects a boost in tourism next year from its entry in the European Union in July and a sales-tax cut on tourist services to 10 percent from 25 percent in January, Tourism Minister Veljko Ostojic said.

“These two factors will make Croatian tourism more competitive in the Mediterranean region,” he told a panel in Zagreb. He added the government will also step up the sale of state-owned tourist companies such as Club Adriatic d.o.o. and Brijuni Rivijera d.o.o.

Tourism accounts for one-fifth of the Adriatic Sea nation’s economy. Croatia needs foreign investment as it struggles to revive the economy after three years of recession and stagnation.

Tourism arrivals in Croatia rose 5 percent in the first 10 months from a year ago, Ostojic said. Visitors from Germany increased 13.5 percent, the biggest year-on-year rise. The Tourism Ministry relies on data supplied by the Croatian Tourist Association, which also includes nautical tourism."

Holidays in Croatia - more expensive next summer

If you have not visited Croatia yet, it is the right time to do it, especially if you want some cheaper price. Why? Apparantly holidays in Croatia are getting more expensive next summer.

"Holidays in Croatia could get more expensive when it joins the European Union on 1 July 2013. Business daily Poslovni predicts prices could go up by between three and six percent due to new taxes on tourist agencies that will come when adjusting regulations to the EU. Some 10 million foreign tourists visit Croatia every year and tourism is a key part of the country's economy."

Text: croatiantimes.com

Oznake: summer croatia, holiday, croatia

Croatia received Travel Agents Choice Award as the Upcoming Holiday Destination

If you do not have idea where to go on the next holiday, maybe you should consider visiting Croatia, as it is awarded as the upcoming holiday destination by Travel Agents Choice Award. Read more below.

"At the press conference, which was organized on the first day of one of the most important tourism fair, the World Travel Market in London, the Minister of Tourism of the Republic of Croatia, Veljko Ostojic and director of the Croatian National Tourist Board, Meri Matesic were given the Travel's Agents' Choice Award for 2012 in the category "Up and coming Short Haul Destination ".

Travel Agents Choice Awards is awarded by Company BMI Publishing Limited, publisher of the leading British travel magazine Selling Long Haul, and is the only tourism award for which only tourism professionals of the United Kingdom vote.

The award for best upcoming short haul destination is another great recognition of Croatia's most successful season to date, but also the confirmation of an upturn in popularity of our country as a desirable tourist destinations in the UK market, which this year shows a rise in the number of guests as much as 23 percent. Let's add to this that the British Association of Travel Agents - ABTA, which brings together about 6,000 members, chose Croatia as a host of its annual conference in 2013. The conference will be held in October next year in Dubrovnik and gather as many as 700 top experts from the tourism sector of Great Britain and influential representatives of travel agencies.

If you are planning to visit Dubrovnik, it would be good to read New York Times' reportage '36 hours in Dubrovnik' and find some tips on where to go and what to see."

Text: guide2croatia.net

Oznake: croatia, holiday, upcoming holiday destination

Beauty on the Dalmatian Coast - Dubrovnik

This is the third time I write about Dubrovnik, but I just can't help myself, because it is always at the top of my list of the most beautiful cities in the world.

"Dalmatia's most famous city is touted as an unspoiled gem, though this is really a matter of degree. While it's not yet as overrun as, say, Prague or Positano (the two unlikely places that Dubrovnik most resembles), it's well within the crosshairs of mass tourism. Dubrovnik's Old Town maintains a precarious equilibrium between Then and Now, Here and Elsewhere. Menus in Italian, English, and German hang outside every tra-ditional wooden-beamed konoba, or tavern. Benetton and Diesel boutiques line the medieval lanes. And pushcart vendors proffer not just handmade olive soaps but also Old Town mouse pads.

Such culture clashes form the essence of this city, and always have. In the Old Town, one feels a sense of displacement, as if all of Europe had come to cluster within Dubrovnik's fortified walls. At various points, most of Europe has. Witness the twisting staircase above Gundulic Square, an explicit homage to the Spanish Steps; the 16th-century Baroque cathedrals abutting Renaissance palaces and medieval fortresses; and the Gradska Kavana, a café straight out of fin de sičcle Vienna.

The Old Town is shaped like a cereal bowl; from its elevated rim you can gaze across the city's orange roofs to the vividly blue Adriatic beyond. Down below, at the center of the bowl, lies the Stradun, Dubrovnik's limestone main drag. Centuries of casual strollers have buffed the street to an icy gloss—you expect a Zamboni to arrive at any moment. Each evening the Stradun roars to life for the nightly korso, or promenade. A motley crowd emerges: teenagers in sunbleached-blond dreadlocks, grizzled Croatian men smoking pipes, cruise-ship passengers in flip-flops, Italian men in Ferragamo loafers. A white-haired nun passes by, cocooned in an all-white habit. She's trailed by a surfer dude in satin shorts, nothing more. Both wear crucifixes.

The summer crowds may seem unavoidable down on the main streets, so strike up any lane into the higher parts of town. Here the only signs of life are alley cats dozing on the cool and shady stone. The air carries the scent of jasmine and lemon trees, laundry soap, cat spray, and, occasionally, the buttery aroma of scampi frying in tiny kitchens. Climbing a deserted lane one afternoon, I heard, of all things, faint strains of Dixieland echoing down the alleyways. I soon came upon an open doorway, inside which—barely visible in the dim—sat a half-dozen young Croats in shorts, gleefully blowing jazz for an audience of indifferent cats."

Text from: travelandleisure.com