CROATIA PARTICIPATING AT INTERNATIONAL TOURIST FAIR IN VIENNA

VIENNA, Jan 25 (Hina) - Croatia is one of some 20 countries participating in an international tourist fair which opened in Vienna on Thursday. The tourist office of every county is featured at Croatia's 70 square metre stand, with special programmes dedicated to the Primorje-Gorski Kotar and Split-Dalmatia counties. About 30 Austrian reporters were presented the tourist, natural, historical, and cultural attractions of the northern Adriatic Kvarner area on Wednesday afternoon. They were mostly interested in prices, tourist programmes and sports activities, the privatisation of hotels, and foreign investments in tourism. According to Zeljko Toncinic, the Vienna director of Croatia's National Tourist Office, the first data on the sale of tourist arrangements for this year point to an increase in the Austrians' interest in spending the summer holidays in Croatia. In the first ten months of 2000, 501,910 Austrians stayed in Croatia, 37 percent more than the year before. They accounted for more than 3.1 million overnight stays, a 33 percent increase against 1999. The Vienna fair wraps up on the 28th. (hina) ha