Bajs: In 2011, awarding concessions for tourist land

In Croatian tourism, the most important aspect next year will be the awarding of concessions for tourist land and the development of a strategy, which will have long-term strategic implications for the development of this sector. As this year, numerous joint promotional and other market activities of the public and private tourism sectors will be conducted with the aim of a successful season, emphasizes Tourism Minister Damir Bajs in an interview with Hina.

The awarding of concessions, fees (prices), and other ‘technical’ issues are defined by regulations that are accompanying subordinate acts of the Law on Tourism and other construction land not appraised in the process of transformation and privatization, adopted in July this year. These regulations, Minister Bajs announces, will soon be submitted for approval to the Government, which will ultimately issue concessions for tourist land.

Concessions will be awarded to companies for land that did not enter their founding capital during the transformation for a period of 50 years for a fee that will be paid annually, consisting of a fixed and variable part related to the companies’ revenues. Accordingly, those who earn more will pay more, says Bajs, adding that such a solution has been assessed as fair and developmentally efficient.

He explains that no one wants to further burden the operations of companies but rather enable them to initiate a new investment cycle on areas whose use they have not paid for until now and on which they have not been allowed to build because it was not in their ownership and property-legal relations were unresolved. Companies currently operating on specific land will have priority in applying for concessions, the right to so-called priority concessions, but if they do not wish to apply, they are not obligated to do so. In that case, concessions would be awarded through a tender at the highest price, so whoever wins, wins, says the minister.

He expects that the majority of companies entitled to priority concessions will exercise that right and apply for concessions, and that they will receive them by the beginning of next summer, by June 2011. He believes they will also have the funds for this, and it is likely that the concession fee can be paid in installments. Minister Bajs notes that in drafting the regulations, the Ministry of Tourism collaborated with the Ministry of Justice (which is also the bearer of the Law), as well as in consultations with the private sector, which has sought priority resolution of this issue since the beginning of his mandate.

Therefore, he assesses the adoption of the Law on Tourist Land as extremely important because it resolves a strategic issue of Croatian tourism after nearly twenty years, opening the way for further development of companies and new, urgently needed investments, especially in hotels and camps. This land has also gained the status of special national interest, equating it with forest and agricultural land, and it remains in state ownership, covering about one hundred million square meters of land, mostly along the coast at the most beautiful Croatian locations, emphasizes Bajs.

It is also important that the money from concessions will be reinvested in tourism through a special development-tourism fund and local government, which will have to spend it purposefully to promote standards in tourism. He also announces that next year the long-awaited document for the strategy of Croatian tourism development will begin to be developed. For this job, the first round of the call for expressions of interest was completed at the end of November this year, and although about ten bidding documents were purchased, two serious, valid offers from domestic companies have been received and are being considered. Soon, at the beginning of next year, the second round of the tender will be launched, where offers with prices will also be sought. Once the contract is signed, the deadline for developing this strategy is one year, as stipulated by the tender, and it is also the shortest possible timeframe for such a job, emphasizes Bajs. This means that the strategy for the development of Croatian tourism should be completed by 2012.  (H)