BULIC: GOOD RESULTS IN TOURIST AFTER-SEASON

ZAGREB, Sept 5 (Hina) - The beginning of the tourist after-season in Croatia seems to be very good with the registered 240,345 tourists. This is a 45-percent-increase as against the same period last year. Of 240,345 guests, 218,892 are foreigners and 21,453 are Croatians. According to the results produced so far in the tourist trade, Croatia is likely to see a 40-percent climb in tourism this year compared to 1999, the Croatian Tourist Association's (HTZ) head office director, Niko Bulic, told Hina on Tuesday. He recalled that last year the Croatian tourism was affected by the Kosovo crisis. This year, however, a step forward has been made in efforts aimed at attracting guests who used to spend their holidays in Croatia as well as to attract new tourists. The best pre-war tourist year was 1990 with 52.5 million overnight stays. The HTZ head office assesses that this year will see some 38 million overnight stays. Croatia's tourism should try to achieve 60 million overnight stays and 10 million arrivals of tourists in the future. Bulic added that the Finance Ministry forecast that this year's revenue in tourism would be 3.2 billion US dollars, but the Croatian National Bank, Tourism Ministry and the HTZ estimated that this revenue would reach some $ 3.5 billion. Of seven Croatian Adriatic counties, Istria County has still the highest number of holiday-makers. All coastal counties have recorded an increase in the number of tourists this year as against 1999, but the biggest climb of 96 percent was achieved in Sibenik- Knin County. (hina) ms