HUT hails adoption of land lease regulations, slams lease rates for hotels

The Croatian Tourism Association (HUT) said on Thursday that it welcomed the adoption of government regulations on land lease rates at camping sites and hotel complexes, but that it was not satisfied with the amounts which should be paid for land lease.

We welcome the adoption of the regulations which we had been waiting for since July 2020, the association said, adding that the prolongation also coincided with the COVID pandemic and objectively unfavourable circumstances.

The Croatian Tourism Association, founded in 2018 as an umbrella sectoral organisation whose members are the 14 biggest hotel companies and major associations of the Croatian tourism sector, said that it was was dissatisfied with land lease rates which hotels will have to pay after land lease replaces concession fees.

More specifically, hotels which have so far paid HRK 3 (€0.4) per square metre of land annually will be required to pay up to €3 per square metre annually, HUT president Veljko Otojić told Hina.

The other reason for dissatisfaction are different caps on the annual amount of land lease.

For instance, in some cases involving strategic tourism development projects where the state owns land, the maximum amount of the land lease will be 1.5% or 2% of the annual revenue of the parties concerned, while for other parties the upper limit is 4% of the annual revenue.

Ostojić also objected that none of HUT's suggestions had been adopted in the process of public consultation.

(Hina/FaH)

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