For the promotion of domestic tourism in Croatia, the Ministry of Tourism and the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) are investing ten times more funds this year than last year, or around 4 million kuna, said Tourism Minister Damir Bajs today.
This aims to bring Croatian tourism offerings closer to domestic guests, who, according to the minister, are equally important as foreign ones. In general, this year, three times more funds are being invested in the promotion and advertising of Croatian tourism than last year, amounting to 173.23 million kuna, of which the majority, or nearly 120 million kuna, is allocated by the state through the Ministry of Tourism and the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ). The remaining 53.3 million kuna is invested by others, namely the private tourism sector, through measures of joint advertising of the public and private sectors. Of the total ‘state’ 120 million kuna for advertising this year, the largest portion, 33 percent or 39.7 million kuna, goes to TV advertising in foreign markets, 21 percent or 25.4 million kuna for print ads, and 8.3 percent or 10 million kuna (five times more than last year) for online advertising.
Almost 8 percent of the funds, or 9.5 million kuna, is allocated for global TV advertising, and for joint advertising of the private and public tourism sectors in foreign markets, 35.3 million kuna. This year, the goal is to preemptively mitigate or at least reduce any potential negative impacts of the global economic crisis on Croatian tourism and to try to achieve results similar to last year’s (11.3 million tourists or 1 percent more and 57.1 million overnight stays or 2 percent more than in 2007). Repeating last year’s figures would be a success considering that most of Croatia’s most significant tourist markets have been affected by recession. (H)
