Croatian Tourism to Combat Crisis with Doubled Promotion Funds

The Ministry of Tourism has decided, in light of the anticipated crisis in the tourism sector for the upcoming season, to reprogram budget funds and double them for promotion in 2009 in emitting and new markets.

 Currently, the promotional funds amount to 65.5 million kuna, and the Minister of Tourism, Damir Bajs, announced that they will be „thickened“ by the end of this year. The Croatian Tourist Board will also significantly change its work program for 2009, removing items such as study trips, publishing projects, and financing the Strategic Marketing Plan from the program. The director of HTZ, Niko Bulić, stated that the increased funds will be primarily spent on enhanced joint advertising of the public and private sectors, print, TV, and internet advertising. By the end of the week, Minister Bajs announced the establishment of a Commission with representatives from professional associations and the private sector, including HTZ, HGK, HUH, UHPA, and HUP, which will jointly vote on measures to mitigate the effects of the financial crisis on the tourism sector, which will be made public in two weeks. Bajs stated that he will not request an increase in the budget from the Government for now, but will rather seek additional funds for financing measures later.

– The focus of the ministry’s activities will be the promotion of Croatia in the world, and we will leave everything else for better times.  The ministry will continue to maintain optimistic forecasts, despite the announcement from the World Tourism Organization about slower growth in global tourism traffic of two percent. – concluded Bajs at a press conference on Tuesday, which saw a record number of journalists. The media was interested in HTZ’s reaction to yesterday’s demands from HUP regarding a 25 percent reduction in the amount of fees for tourism membership as part of the financing of the tourist board system, and Niko Bulić emphasized that the reduction in fees will not significantly affect the total revenues of the Main Office since only 25 percent of all contributions from the private sector for tourism enters its budget anyway.  Data from the State Bureau of Statistics for the first ten months confirmed the Ministry’s forecasts –  a 2 percent increase in the number of tourist arrivals (10.3 million) and a 3 percent increase in the number of overnight stays (57.3 million overnight stays). Bajs expects that tourism revenues this year will exceed seven billion euros.  (Željka Laslavić)