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Croatian Tourism Minister Veljko Ostojic on Saturday expressed his condolences to those involved in a fatal bus accident in which eight Czech nationals died and over 40 were injured when their Zadar-bound bus crashed into a motorway barrier and tumbled near the Krpani tunnel on the motorway from the capital of Zagreb to the Adriatic city of Split at 3.50 am Saturday. The tourism ministry will offer all the logistic support to the families whose dearest ones had travelled in that bus to the Croatian coast on their summer holidays, the Croatian ministry said in a press release.

Croatian Tourism Minister Veljko Ostojic met the Slovenian Minister of Economic Development and Technology, Radovan Zerjav, in the Slovenian town of Otocec Ob Krki on Friday to discuss bilateral cooperation in tourism, joint promotion of tourist services on third markets and expectations from this year's tourist season. Addressing a joint press conference, both ministers expressed their satisfaction with the present cooperation, hopeful that it would continue to develop successfully. Ostojic said that with 1.1 million tourist arrivals and 6.6 million bed/nights last year, Slovenians were the second largest group of foreign tourists visiting Croatia after Germans, adding that he hoped that that would continue this year as well. Citing unofficial figures for the first quarter of the year, Ostojic said that Croatia saw a 9% increase in the number of tourist arrivals and 13% more bed/nights than in the corresponding period of 2011, and that he believed that results later on in the year would be as good.

On the Croatian coast and in Zagreb there were 1.8 million tourists and 6 million overnights in the first 5 months of 2012, which is 9 per cent more tourists and 13 per cent more overnights compared with the same period last year, according to preliminary figures of boards of tourism. Tourism Minister Veljko Ostojic has said the results are excellent and that he is optimistic that this tourist season could be financially better than last year by 3 to 5 per cent. Ostojic said the excellent results were achieved despite the relatively bad weather and the holiday schedule in the low-season.

Trends and the situation on the tourist markets of Croatia and Spain, tourism development strategies, possibilities of using EU funds and the importance of continuing education of tourism staff were the main topics of a meeting Croatian Tourism Minister Veljko Ostojic held in Madrid on Monday with representatives of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and Spain's tourism economy, the Croatian Tourism Ministry said in a statement. Ostojic and the UNWTO representatives talked about legal regulations with an emphasis on the labour economy and about the possibility of organising a UNWTO conference on innovations in tourism next year in Croatia. The talks also focused on destination management, the importance of quality tourism development strategies and the structure of national tourist organisations.

Hotel Spačva after inspection and verification carried out by the Islamic community in Croatia, the Centre for Halal Certification, Halal certificate awarded. Certificate confirms the willingness of hotels to meet the specific principles of food preparation and room for Muslim guests. A prerequisite for the certification of the hotel was the adaptation process of receiving, storing and preparing raw materials from certified suppliers. Certified Halal food manufacturers to not add to the food additives E, which already considered harmful. Given that the average number of guests stated that admission into about 2 million a year, hotel management with the full support of the Islamic Community of Croatia, Tourist Office, VSC, the Municipality of Germans has made all the prerequisites for obtaining Halal certification that the Hotel Manager Kresimir Bogdanovic and presented by Prof. Dr. personnel. Aziz Hasanovic director of the Center for Halal certification of quality first June 2012. Hotel Congress Centre. This is the fourth hotel Spacva Croatian hotel that has this certificate, the first hotel in Croatia, which has certified Halal Park.

Thanks to the “Srijem Visitor Center” project, financed from the pre-accession fund IPA IIIc Business-related infrastructure, City of Ilok restored the Manor Brnjaković - Baroque building of Brnjaković noble family that dates from the late 17th Century - for multi-purpose visitor center. The project worth a total of € 475,497.18, of which the EU contributed with 75% and City of Ilok with 25%. Project partners include the City of Ilok Tourism Board, Vukovar-Srijem County, Vukovar-Srijem Tourism Board, and Wine Cluster Srijem. The goal of the project is to advance the development of tourism, wine production and viticulture in the Srijem and Vukovar-Srijem County area. Among its abundant services on offer, the impressive Brnjaković family manor will also house the Srijem Wine Cluster which will be in an even better position to explain to the centre's visitors the legendary tales of the Traminer, a cherished wine that was served in the court of the British Queen Elizabeth II.

International tourist arrivals worldwide grew by 5.7% in the first two months of 2012. Demand remained strong in both advanced and emerging economy destinations, despite economic constraints in many of the source markets of Europe and North America. The first results of 2012 indicate that international tourism continued to show sustained growth in spite of challenging economic conditions. During the first two months of 2012, international tourist arrivals grew by an estimated 5.7% compared to the same period of 2011, according to the May issue of the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, released in Batumi, Georgia on the occasion of the 54th UNWTO Commission for Europe.

The Tourism Ministry has made public on its web site a catalogue of investment projects with information for potential investors on more than 30 companies, facilities and locations which are priority public tourism projects seeking investors. The 110-page catalogue is divided in three parts and the first contains information on state-owned companies awaiting privatization to be carried out by the Agency for State Property Management. There are 14 such companies and the state holds interests of more than 25 percent in their capital stock. Some of those companies are the Bizovacke Toplice spa, the health and recreational centre Lipik, the hotel companies Podgora, Zivogosce, Medena, Maestral, Imperial and others.