Minister Kalmeta Satisfied With Latest Tourist Results

The Minister of the Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development Božidar Kalmeta expressed at today's session of the Government’s Committee for the coordination of activities and preparations related to the tourist season 2006, his satisfaction regarding the results achieved during the first six months.

According to the data provided by the HTZ, during that time, Croatia registered a 5% increase in tourist arrivals and a 6% increase in overnight stays.

The Minister explained that in the first two July weekends, 600 thousand tourists had entered Croatia by road. He also added that the booking figures for September and October were also quite high.

All the good results, Kalmeta stated, were mostly based on investments into the improvement of the quality of the tourist offer (accommodation and facilities), as well as the better positioning of Croatia on the world tourist market.

Other novelties include new regulations which are in preparation and which will reconcile Croatian tourism with EU tourist regulations, i.e. restaurants and bars will be allowed to stay upon until midnight in inhabited areas, while local authorities will have the possibility to prolong those working hours until 2 a.m.

Kalmeta also mentioned important steps which have been made towards the realization of golf tourism, mainly the building of large golf terrains. The first signing of such an agreement for the building of a golf project in Istria (Crveni vrh near Umag) should take place by the end of the month.

The State Secretary for Tourism Zdenko Mičić talked about the ongoing privatization process in tourism for the upcoming year 2007.