At today’s presentation of the market situation, as part of the Crotour 2010 tourism fair, representatives of the Croatian National Tourist Board in foreign markets presented quite positive results of the current bookings.
According to global research, the most important European markets are emerging from a pessimistic phase, and it is predicted that in 2010, five percent more Europeans will travel the world than last year. Mostly still due to holiday tourism. Almost half will use their own car, 35 percent will travel by airplane, and 21 percent will travel organized, through tour operators. As in many years before, key markets for Croatian tourism remain Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, and the Czech Republic, from which, according to HTZ representatives, positive results of current bookings are coming, with a slight optimism for growth, at least regarding the Italian market (a slight two percent increase in bookings is expected), the German market (where interest in Dalmatia is growing), and the Slovenian market (an increase of three to five percent is expected).
In Germany, from which we receive the most tourists, the trend of restrained booking has finally stopped, and the two largest tour operators, TUI and Thomas Cook, are recording a reduction in last year’s losses in traffic, which amounted to about seven percent.
Crisis markets are Hungary, which is still deeply affected by the crisis, and Spain, from which fewer arrivals are expected, but Spanish tour operators are currently increasing capacities and chartering flights to Croatia. For Austrians, Croatia ranks third in popularity, and in Croatia, an Austrian gets 32 percent more value for one euro than in their own country, which is two percent less than last year. The number of Czech tourists is expected to be similar to last year, with about 80 percent of guests coming from that market in their own arrangements, making it difficult to predict how the market will react at the last minute. A positive signal is that the Czech crown is strengthening by 12 percent against the euro compared to last year. Positive signals are also coming from the Russian market, which is slowly emerging from the crisis, and a travel increase of about 20 percent is expected, among which Croatia could also see an increase.
