Croatian National Tourist Board Plans to Repeat this Year's Results in 2007

The objective for next year's summer tourist season is to repeat this year's results and to achieve a two per cent growth in both tourist arrivals and tourist nights, stated the Croatian Tourist Board's (HTZ) Tourist Council on Monday.

The Council adopted draft guidelines for 2007 according to which the HTZ wishes to generate 10.39 million domestic and foreign arrivals and 53.49 million nights as well as HRK 220 million in revenue.

According to a HTZ report on the results of this year's first eight months, foreign arrivals went up one per cent to 6.9 million, while foreign nights went up two per cent to 40.24 million. The first indicators show that September is also successful, although August saw a two per cent drop in foreign arrivals and nights, mainly due to bad weather.

In this year's first eight months a drop was registered in Croatia's chief tourist-generating countries - Germany, Italy, France, the Czech Republic and Hungary, while a significant increase was registered in Spain, the US, Austria, Poland, Slovakia and Russia.

There was a nine per cent increase in domestic arrivals (1.02 million) and an eight per cent increase in domestic tourist nights (5.06 million).

Domestic and foreign tourists generated two per cent more arrivals and nights than last year and the HTZ expects the same growth rates to be maintained for the rest of the year.

Discussing the results of this year's season, the HTZ Tourist Council pointed to a drop in catering service quality, exaggerated price increases and incidents with guests, concluding that they caused significant damage in the long run.