This year, we expect a record tourist season, despite high prices, and alongside traditional guests from Western Europe, more than 200,000 Chinese guests are anticipated. This is double the number of visitors from that Far Eastern country last year, but still significantly less than the approximately half a million Chinese who cruised through Croatia in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
However, with the pandemic measures behind us and a focus on tourist safety, this number will continue to grow, believes the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in Croatia Qi Qianjin. This is largely due to the joint patrols of Croatian and Chinese police, which have made tourists safer since 2018. For six consecutive years, Chinese police officers have been patrolling during the summer months – at the peak of the season, from mid-July to mid-August – alongside Croatian police officers at destinations most frequently visited by Chinese tourists.
Thus, this year, eight selected members of the Chinese police will conduct a one-month joint police patrol at standard, high-traffic locations in Zagreb, Zadar, Dubrovnik, and Plitvice Lakes National Park. “Chinese-Croatian relations are flourishing through practical cooperation in various fields. I would like to remind you that in 2019, former Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi led a delegation to Croatia that separately met with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović, with whom a high level of consensus was achieved regarding deepening the fight against international organized crime, as well as building capacity for law enforcement. The joint police patrol, as a representative of that capacity, but also of the security cooperation between the two countries, is also a manifestation of the stable and healthy development of bilateral relations,” stated Qi Qianjin.
Moreover, China is the first non-European country with which Croatia has established a joint police unit to assist guests during the tourist season. The goal of this form of cooperation is to achieve the highest possible security for Croatian citizens and foreign tourists who stay in Croatia during the tourist season. The new team of eight police officers, in collaboration with their Croatian colleagues, will contribute to the image of Croatia as a safe tourist destination. Chinese police officers have been participating in the ‘Safe Tourist Destination’ project since 2018 based on a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia and the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China regarding cooperation during the tourist season. So far, a total of 30 Chinese police officers have participated in the project.
The ambassador stated that the figure of 200,000 Chinese tourists will certainly be exceeded, as this refers to visitors in the first half of the year, thus outside the peak season. At the same time, he welcomed Croatian tourists visiting China, stating that they have decided to offer a five-year visa for multiple entries into the country specifically for tourism, business, or family travel purposes.
