This year’s tourist season could be saved by internet booking of cheap accommodation. According to the portal PoslovniPuls.com, Croatia is one of the most popular tourist destinations on the world’s largest online hostel service, HostelWorld.com.
Most leading domestic tourist centers are exceptionally well represented on HostelWorld with a rich offer of accommodation facilities – from cheap hostels to private rooms, apartments, and villas. For example, in Dubrovnik, it is possible to find more than 300 available accommodation facilities, including private rooms. Prices vary, and a double room in the otherwise expensive ‘pearl of the Adriatic’ can be found for as low as 10 euros per person during the peak season. In conversations with local renters, PoslovniPuls learns that the registration of new properties from Dubrovnik has been blocked due to oversupply, which only confirms the popularity of the service among local owners of private tourist accommodation. Other Dalmatian cities like Split, Zadar, and Šibenik are also popular among the younger population who most frequently use HostelWorld.
‘Croatia is our second most popular destination in Eastern Europe for 2010, after the Czech Republic. Bookings for Croatia have jumped by 25 percent this year,’ said Aisling White, PR manager of HostelWorld, in an exclusive interview with PoslovniPuls. It seems that this year the Ministry of Tourism has finally recognized all the advantages of internet promotion, as Minister Damir Bajs recently announced an investment of nearly 34 million kuna in the internet promotion of the domestic tourist offer.
