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The director of the Croatian Tourism Association (HUT), Veljko Ostojić, assesses the course of this tourist year as very good, taking into account two truly great seasons, reports HRT.
He reminds that the last successful years were a consequence of the pandemic and that closer destinations like Croatia were much more sought after compared to 'normal years'.
Hoteliers are generally satisfied during the season, which, due to its complexity, requires daily management of business processes. They believe that it is urgent to prevent the market collapse of destinations apartment building and think about prices, because mistakes here harm both facilities and destinations, says Ostojić.
High-class hotels and campsites are recording high occupancy rates, while the situation is somewhat less favorable in apartments and cottages. Regarding the business and the course of the season of HUT members, among which are the largest hotel companies in Croatia, the director of HUT states that they are doing excellent work and have high occupancy rates, especially high-class facilities.
/ / / July 3% less, total 3% more guest arrivals than last year. No talk of a season collapse
5-star hotels are currently 96 percent full, campsites in the same category are 100 percent full, and 4-star hotels are 93 percent full. Registered capacities in cottages are 22 percent full, and commercial facilities for short-term tourist rental are around 55 percent full.
"All these facilities needed to be equipped with infrastructure and, especially now, during the peak season, they are placing a huge burden on the overall infrastructure. To be completely clear - real family accommodation when a guest stays in a facility where a family lives is something extremely positive and specific for our tourism, and this type of accommodation should be further developed by raising its quality, while reconsidering the number of beds that citizens can register, and thus pay 'social' tax. The problem is the 'massive' apartments, flats and weekend houses that are occupied for 40 to 50 days a year, and at the same time they are placing a huge burden on the destination and generally reduce its attractiveness and competitiveness", warns Ostojić.
Therefore, he says, further construction of short-term tourist rental facilities (commercial and non-commercial) must be stopped as soon as possible, in certain destinations and urgently.
He cites the example of the accommodation structure of one of the most touristic municipalities in Croatia (he does not specify which one), where there are a total of 57.000 tourist beds, of which only 2300 are in hotels and 13.200 in campsites. All the rest are in short-term tourist rental facilities, which, he assesses, is "the path to short-term market suicide."
In Croatia, in the last two years, around 110.000 beds in short-term tourist rental facilities, which is the equivalent of 220 hotels Ambasador in Opatija or Olimpija in Vodice.
About price in tourism, which is a popular topic this season, emphasizes that we live in a market economy society and that it is clear that each entrepreneur defines prices at his own discretion. He is both deserving of his business success and responsible for his business failure.
/ / / There is no collapse of Croatian tourism. The market is happening.
This, he adds, is true in industries where there is no complex value chain in which each link depends on each other, but in tourism it is a different story because everything is connected.
"To be clearer, from the example - of course every restaurant or hotel has the right and should define the prices of the services it provides, but that restaurant or hotel is part of the value chain of a particular destination in the narrow and broader sense. The consequences of wrong business decisions are then not only suffered by the restaurant or hotel, but also by the entire destination, which can be declared too expensive in relation to the price and quality provided by the service providers. That is why my message is - let's think", Ostojić appeals.
As there is less tourist traffic from Germany this year, he comments that this is due to the economic crisis, which is affecting the vacation budget, but also because of the still present image of Croatia in Germany as a more affordable Mediterranean destination.
Therefore, he says, it is important to work on quality and ensure that the value for money is adequate, he reports HRT.
/ / / Research: Tourism companies expect a good season and revenue growth
Photo: HUT
