​Plenkovic opens Croatian Tourist Board's office in Shanghai

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic officially opened in Shanghai on Monday the Croatian National Tourist Board's (HTZ) first office in China, which should additionally strengthen Croatia's position on the most propulsive global tourist generating market. "Our opening up to China, to Chinese tourists, visitors from your country, is certainly a very important part of the mosaic of Croatia's tourism promotion," Plenkovic said opening the HTZ office in Shanghai's business district.

He recalled that this year a quarter of a million Chinese tourists will have visited Croatia, which is a significant increase compared to 2017.

"During this visit I've had the opportunity to better understand China and I've seen how well Croatia is experienced and accepted. I am very optimistic and I believe that we can count on even higher numbers in tourism, in trade and in our overall relations," Plenkovic said.

The Croatian delegation accompanying Plenkovic on his working visit to China attended the official opening ceremony along with HTZ director Kristjan Stanicic and the president of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), Luka Burilovic. The HTZ office was opened on HGK premises in Shanghai.

"I am happy that, in addition to Chinese tourists, investors too are showing big interest in Croatia and they have already started with large investments in the tourism sector. That positive trend needs to be stimulated and capitalised, and I have no doubts that, with joint efforts, we will succeed in that," Burilovic said.

According to the latest data, in the first ten months of this year, Chinese tourists generated 216,000 arrivals in Croatia and 315,000 bed nights, up 43% and 42% on the year respectively.

The new HTZ office in Shanghai should contribute to a further increase in the number of Chinese tourists in Croatia.

The director of the office, Franka Gulin, said China is the largest global market in every sense and that this fact represents the greatest challenge to Croatia as a relatively small European country.

The potential of the Chinese market is huge and there is no upper limit to the number of Chinese tourists visiting Croatia. In 2016 Chinese tourists generated 122 million tourist trips in the world and spent US$109.8 billion, with an annual growth of about 5%. (Hina)

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