Croatia: Guaranteed Demand

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   This year the majority of world’s travel markets point out the increase in demand for Croatia, said a representative of the incoming office of PAKS Company in Croatia, Nikolai Prigolovkin. According to him, eleven charter flights per week are planned from England to Istria (last year there were five of them), while Scandinavian countries schedule nine charters instead of three. Sergey Prigolovkin, CEO of PAKS Company, added: ‘According to the end of January estimate, reservations of tours to Croatia in the German travel market increased by 35%. Our partners say that in July, August and September it will be impossible to make confirmations over commitments. Nevertheless, Dubrovnik might be the least popular Croatian resort this year due to the considerable increase in hotel rates. But this does not refer to expensive hotels which will be fully booked’.
    Furthermore, increase in price for tourpackages can be explained by the increase in price for in-country services (in Dolmatia and Dubrovnik – by 3–15%, in Istria – by 3–5%), fuel and transfers. Nevertheless, it will hardly affect the demand for the destination, experts say. ‘The demand is extending not only in Europe, but in Israel too. Therefore, travel companies which do not have quotas will hardly be able to book rooms in Croatian hotels this year’, agreed Director of Ascent Travel, Boris Burikin.
   In spite of such popularity of the destination in the world’s travel markets, Russian tour operating companies interviewed by a BANKO correspondent, are enthusiastic towards the current situation planning to increase tourist flow to the country by 15–20%, mostly by means of commitments.
    However, travel market players point out that the outcome is to be seen after the tourism exhibition in Berlin scheduled for the middle of March.