ZAGREB, Apr 26 (Hina) - The Croatian Tourism Ministry will take a set of measures to save the peak tourist season in Croatia - the summer - which has been seriously jeopardised by NATO's air strikes against targets in neighbouring
Yugoslavia. The implementation of the measures will be financed by the state budget with US$9.25 million, Croatian Tourism Minister Ivan Herak told reporters in Zagreb on Monday. The Tourism Ministry has drafted three versions of the set of measures, depending on how long NATO's strikes will last. The trend of cancelling reservations for summer holidays in Croatia is continuing on account of the strikes, despite the fact that Croatia is geographically far from the focus of the crisis and assurances from the government that Croatia is a safe country. The first, optimistic version of the set of measures has been disregarded due
ZAGREB, Apr 26 (Hina) - The Croatian Tourism Ministry will take a
set of measures to save the peak tourist season in Croatia - the
summer - which has been seriously jeopardised by NATO's air strikes
against targets in neighbouring Yugoslavia.
The implementation of the measures will be financed by the state
budget with US$9.25 million, Croatian Tourism Minister Ivan Herak
told reporters in Zagreb on Monday.
The Tourism Ministry has drafted three versions of the set of
measures, depending on how long NATO's strikes will last. The trend
of cancelling reservations for summer holidays in Croatia is
continuing on account of the strikes, despite the fact that Croatia
is geographically far from the focus of the crisis and assurances
from the government that Croatia is a safe country.
The first, optimistic version of the set of measures has been
disregarded due to the fact that the NATO strikes will not end by the
end of April. The second version, called realistic, would come into
effect in case NATO ended its campaign by mid-May. The third, called
the pessimistic one, has been drafted in case the crises continues
into June.
Herak believes that even if the crisis ended by mid-May, Croatia's
tourism business this year suffer a loss of some ten million
overnight stays in relation to last year, when 31 million were
registered. The loss in tourism earnings will be some US$1.1
billion.
Funds earmarked to attract foreign tourists to spend their summer
holidays in Croatia include US$5.8 million for a programme of
additional Croatian Board of Tourism promotional activities, US$1
million for a programme supporting organised domestic and foreign
tourist arrangements, US$2 million for a programme covering
Croatia Airlines summer air bridges, and some US$470,000 for a
programme of additional promotional activities.
According to the pessimistic version, the loss would be between
12.8 million and 15.8 million overnight stays, tourism earnings
would be between US$1.1 billion and US$1.4 billion lower. According
to this, the worst version, a total of US$8.7 million would be
invested in market activities on the state level.
(hina) ha jn