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Focusing on the people behind the tourism numbers and maintaining an honest and open relationship with the media: these are among the main recommendations to emerge from discussions between media representatives and tourism officials attending the first UNWTO International Conference on Tourism and the Media (12-13 September, Zagreb, Croatia). Under the title ‘Tourism in the Headlines’ and in partnership with the Government of Croatia and the World Federation of Travel Journalists and Writers (FIJET), the conference aimed to to analyze the relationship between tourism and the media and address why, despite being one of the world’s largest economic sectors, tourism is not sufficiently featured in the political, business or financial news. Opening the conference, Croatian Prime Minister, Jadranka Kosor, stressed the relevance of tourism as “an engine of economic growth and one of the most effective creators of new jobs,” pointing to the need to reflect this message in the media. This was further echoed by the Minister of Tourism of Croatia, Mr. Damir Bajs, who underlined the main aim of the conference: “to join forces and to try and find ways to give more media importance to such a significant global sector as tourism”.

Nearly half a million tourists more visited Croatia in the first seven months of 2011, compared to the same period of the previous year and of that number as many as 300,000 visited the country in low season, Tourism Minister Damir Bajs told reporters during his visit to the northern Croatian town of Varazdin on Thursday. This means we managed to realize two objectives - maintain the market share in Europe and have the guests from Croatia return; Bajs said. "We expected a good season, low season was very good, July was a good indicator of that trend and we expect food results in August as well," Bajs said adding that the season was not over yet and that he expected good results in the coming low season as well.