Bulić: Croatia will rely more on tourists from BiH

Croatian tourism will strongly rely on guests from Bosnia and Herzegovina in the coming years, announced today in Sarajevo the director of the Main Office of the Croatian Tourist Board (HTZ) Niko Bulić while presenting the Croatian tourism offer.

Bulić reminded that 213,300 tourists from BiH in 2009 achieved around 1.08 million overnight stays in Croatia. Although this is a decline of about ten percent compared to 2008, primarily conditioned by the global economic crisis and recession, tourists from BiH still account for slightly more than two percent of the total number of foreign guests in Croatia. Bulić emphasized that HTZ wants to offer them the quality it promotes in other markets and that in the price ratios of the services offered, everyone can find what suits them.

‘We do not want to compete in cheapness of offers but want to be recognized as a high-value destination,’ said Bulić, explaining that this is also the motivation behind the entire promotional campaign led by HTZ. Regarding some comments, such as those that HTZ made mistakes in this campaign, for example stating that Croatia has 1244, not 1246 islands, Bulić said that they can only contribute to more discussions about tourism. ‘We have written data (about 1244 islands) that we received from the Ministry of Tourism,’ said Bulić.

He reminded of the ambitious plans for the development of tourism in Croatia by 2018, according to which the total number of tourist arrivals should increase by 55 to 60 percent, and the number of overnight stays by up to 40 percent. The Croatian ambassador to BiH, Tonči Staničić, who also participated in presenting the Croatian tourism offer, emphasized that such plans also offer great opportunities for engaging Bosnian-Herzegovinian potentials. He mentioned the possibilities of joint appearances in third markets, within which the offers of Dubrovnik, Međugorje, and Mostar could be jointly presented. ‘It is very important that this presentation comes at a positive moment in the development of overall relations between Croatia and BiH,’ said Staničić, not excluding the possibility of contractual regulation of tourism cooperation at the level of the two states. (H)