Discussion regarding 'Family and Small Hotels'

The Association of Family and Small hotels organized in Split a discussion evaluating the topic ‘Small family hotels’.
Niko Bulić, the Director of the Croatian National Tourist Board, stated that until the year 2010 Croatia would achieve the result of 11 million registered foreign tourist visits per year, 70 million night stays, and a tourist income of EUR 10 billion.

Zdenko Mičić, the State Secretary for Tourism, said that this year’s good results were partly achieved thanks to the better organization of the private accommodation resources which cover 45% of all Croatian tourist accommodation capacities.

Mićić added that the Croatian Government had opened a credit-line, considering those outstanding results. The Program is offering to private renters the possibility of building additional capacities in order to transform their apartments into small family hotels (not more than 40 guests).

According to him, this was one of the most successful projects in the area of Medium and Small Enterprises. From the beginning HRK 750 million of loans had been granted within approximately 220 projects.

Based on a small test group of 300 renters, the Association of Family and Small Hotels produced an analysis which was showing that 50% of the private entrepreneurs had the intention of joining the program in order to become hotel-keepers.

Mičić stated that the Program was ending on September 30th, but that it would go on throughout the following three years. The expected result for the upcoming five years was the opening of 500 small hotels, all objects of high quality (4 and 5 stars) with the capacity of approximately 40 rooms.

The Director of the Association for Family and Small Hotels, Šime Klarić, emphasized that the private accommodation was counting 500 000 beds, and that the County of Split - Dalmatia was the leader in the area of small family hotels.

It was also stated that, regardless of all the numerous negative feedback concerning the introduction of paying lump sum tourist tax, the number of legal renters had increased for another 3 500.