HTZ director: Competitive pricing important for British market

The uncertainties about Brexit make it harder to project trends on the British travel market that also shapes the way tourism develops globally and therefore it is important to prepare competitive prices for that market, the Croatian National Tourism Board (HTZ) director, Kristjan Stanicic has said ahead of World Travel market.

WTM is taking place in London on 4-6 November bringing together over 5,000 exhibitors from more than 180 countries, including Croatia.

Stanicic has told Hina that now when a Brexit deadline is shifted to 31 January 2020, it is impossible to predict implications of Britain's departure from the European Union on the trends in the travel industry worldwide.

"Definitely, all these circumstance do not help Britons to be in the right frame of mind to plan travelling abroad," Stanicic says.

However, he welcomes the European Commission's pledge that it would be possible to ensure smooth air traffic between the UK and EU member-states until October 2020.

So far this year, the number of British tourists travelling to Croatia rose by 5% to nearly 900,000 in comparison the the corresponding period in 2018. In the first ten months of this year, British visitors made 4.6 million overnight stays (up 4%).

Stanicic points out a 9% rise in passengers flown from Britain to Croatia in the first eight months of 2019. The passengers on flights between Britain and Croatia in the said period accounted for 16% of the air passenger transport in Croatian airports, as a result of a higher number of flight services in the summer schedule.

A majority of visitors from the UK arrive in Croatia within arrangements organised by tour operators Jet2 and TUI, however, more and more Britons opt for their individual visits to our country, according to Stanicic. (Hina/FaH)

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