This week, ski destinations will be filled with skiers from Croatia. As usual, Croatian skiing enthusiasts will occupy popular ski resorts in Italy, Slovenia, Austria, and France during the first week of the New Year.
It is estimated that around 200,000 ski migrants will arrive during the Croatian week this time. These are mainly families looking to take advantage of lower prices at some ski resorts in the last week of the school winter holidays. Croatia is also covered in snow this weekend, so winter sports enthusiasts will be able to enjoy the snow here as well, but not too far from home and not in fashionable skiing. It is a pity that so many skiers have been leaving Croatia all these years, even though they could ski here at Bjelolasica, Platak, Sljeme, Plitvice Lakes, Omanovac, or Petehovac. Besides the sea and sun, we can offer domestic and foreign visitors mountains and snow, and when we will further organize ourselves around that is hard to know. Perhaps it will not fill the budget like coastal tourism, but again, why not? What makes the French and Italians so much smarter? The sad story of the Olympic Center Bjelolasica, whose main building burned down in 2011 and the facility at Lake Sabljaci two years later, is telling. Bjelolasica used to host tens of thousands of skiers annually, and now it is being auctioned for just over 20 million kuna, although the total property is estimated at 50 million. This month, the eighth auction will take place, and it is expected that it may finally be sold as the price is significantly lower. If Bjelolasica were to be renovated, it would employ about a hundred people from Ogulin.
After the Christmas and New Year break, the formation of the government will continue with arduous negotiations. Most arduous for the citizens who are waiting for the final end of the political soap opera. The year – marked by the migrant crisis, terrorist attacks, presidential elections at the beginning of the year when we first got a female president, and parliamentary elections at the end of the year when we first got a non-partisan appointee, a likely future prime minister – has not managed to put a final period to the latter. It is learned that we could get a ministry for demographic renewal, a vice president for homeland security, and a deputy instead of the first deputy prime minister. The number of ministries could be reduced from 20 to 17, and the number of state offices, public institutions, institutes, and agencies from 190 to half. All public and state companies would be gathered into a holding. The president of HDZ, Tomislav Karamarko, announced the restructuring of public administration, where party loyalists will no longer be accommodated, the opening of new jobs, and balanced development of the country with four major cities: Zagreb, Osijek, Rijeka, and Split, which will expand economic power around them.
