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United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary-General Taleb Rifai said on Friday the two-day 100th session of the UNWTO Executive Council in Rovinj, which brought together 200 tourism officials and experts from around the world, had been the best UNWTO session ever. Speaking at the final press conference of the event, he said the organisation had been at the highest level, thanking Croatian Tourism Minister Darko Lorencin for that. Croatia has a strong tourism image, it's already a brand, and everyone from the world who came to Rovinj is absolutely satisfied and especially impressed by the people, the kindness, the culture, the service and the rest, Rifai said. He said the session discussed all important UNWTO activities for this year and the next, such as the organisation's budget, the code of ethics in tourism with an emphasis on the protection of children from violence, access to tourism for everyone, seasonality and ways of dealing with it, and a sharing economy, which is increasingly present in tourism. Rifai voiced confidence that foreign tourist arrivals and spending this year would grow 3-5% in comparison to the record year 2014, when more than 1.1 billion tourists travelled around the world, spending close to US$ 1,500 billion.

Nearly 200 tourism officials and experts from about 40 countries gathered in Rovinj on Thursday for the 100th session of United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Executive Council. The two-day session also marks UNWTO's 40 years. Croatia co-chairs the UNWTO Executive Council together with Mozambique, while Jamaica is the chair. Jamaican Tourism and Entertainment Minister Kenneth Wykeham McNeill said nothing could have prepared him for the beauty and hospitality he experienced in Croatia and its northern Adriatic resort of Rovinj. UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai said Croatia always surprised one with the progress in the quality of its tourism product. Twenty years ago it was hard to imagine that small Croatia would become one of the world's tourism leaders and everyone who is attending the session is indeed delighted by everything they have seen and many have said they will come again, he said. Rifai urged Croatia to pursue its tourism policies and development, saying this would quickly lead to even better tourism results. He said the number of foreign tourists globally was expected to continue to grow this year, by four percent from the 1.14 billion who travelled in 2014. It depends on all of us in world tourism, on our cooperation, networking, sustainable tourism policies and incentives whether we will view those billion tourists as an opportunity and obtain positive effects or something opposite, Rifai said. Croatian Tourism Minister Darko Lorencin said Croatia had a tourism strategy whereby it planned to increase tourism revenues from the current EUR 7.5 billion to EUR 14 billion by 2020.

The northern Croatian Adriatic resort of Rovinj is to host this week two big international tourism events that are certain to attract additional attention of the international tourism and media communities - the 100th session of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Executive Council, to take place on May 27-29, and the Red Bull Air Race Championship, a competition of the world's best pilots, to be held on May 30-31. Both events are supported and organised by the Tourism Ministry and the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) in cooperation with local partners in Rovinj and Istria, hotel companies and tourism boards. They all expect a large number of visitors in Rovinj as well as many other benefits for the national tourism industry in general, primarily in terms of promotion. Officials of the Tourism Ministry said the 100th session of the UNWTO Executive Council would bring together more than 200 participants, headed by UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai.

Dubrovacka Rivijera Hotels, the Pliva pharmaceutical company, the Podi Business Zone, and the Varazdin County physical planning and construction department are the winners of awards for the most successful investment projects, presented on Monday as part of the government's "Invest HR" conference. These projects prove that changes are indeed happening in terms of investments, government representatives said. About 40 major investment projects were presented at the conference which the state endorsed directly or through the Investment and Competitiveness Agency. Deputy Prime Minister Branko Grcic said current investments in Croatia were below HRK 70 billion annually, as against more than HRK 90 billion before the crisis, and that it was up to the government to additionally encourage them, especially foreign investments. He said tourism, industry and energy were the sectors with the biggest investment potential.

This year Rijeka Airport is connected with 25 destinations in Europe and Israel as well as 15 additional charter destinations in Scandinavia, the company said on Monday, adding that more destinations could be introduced by the end of this summer season. This summer Rijeka Airport became the base for the newly-established Limitless Airways charter company, founded by Scandjet Travel, which was founded by the Scandjet Aviation Group in 2012 to transport Swedish and Finnish tourists to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Italy. In preparation for this season, Rijeka Airport reorganised flights in line with Schengen Area requirements.