Although the World Tourism Organization announced that the recession in tourism and the travel industry will be felt this winter season, Croatians are traveling more than last year, and almost all hotels in Croatia are fully booked for the New Year’s celebration.
Contrary to media announcements that 50 percent more Croatians will go skiing this year compared to last year, the first official data from travel agencies shows that this growth is around ten percent. As a reason for the very good booking, the president of the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies, Ivan Pukšar, cited the good preparedness of travel organizers who issued ski catalogs earlier and offered better payment conditions.
– We estimate that this year around 60 thousand skiers will go skiing through agencies, which is about 30 percent of the total number of ski trips. The prices of packages are slightly higher this year, even up to 30 percent, because the second school semester starts earlier, so the school holiday period falls into the most expensive times. – explains Pukšar, adding that this year there is an increasing interest in ski resorts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the newly opened ski center Kolašin in Montenegro.
For the New Year’s celebration, almost all hotels are fully booked in Istria, Kvarner, and Zadar, with some availability still in the southern part of the Adriatic, in Split and Dubrovnik. Travel during Advent and Christmas is expected to increase by one to two percent compared to last year, with about five percent more winter holidays in the Mediterranean, as well as in bus travel to European metropolises, and cruises are expected to see five to ten percent more passengers. The only area not recording growth is booking for distant exotic destinations, as Croatians are waiting for January when packages in those countries are twice as cheap. (Željka Laslavić)
