The realities of the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on tourism have sunk in for Europe’s governments as they are contemplating how best to transform the industry so that it can cope with such crises in the future. One of the main solutions that have been presented is to transform countries from seasonal destinations into locations that are well worth the trip year-round.
Such were also the conclusions of the “Can Croatian Tourism 365?” forum which was held online earlier this week and was attended by the country’s minister for tourism and sports Nikolina Brnjac.
Year-round models to combat seasonal downs
The COVID-19 pandemic proved especially disastrous for countries who heavily rely on summer tourism – such as Spain, Greece, Italy – and of course, Croatia. This prompted the relevant authorities to begin considerations of transforming their industries into ones that can better absorb the shocks of similar crises in the future. The result – an ambition of moving towards year-long tourism models.
During the conference, minister Brnjac laid out the government’s plans of supporting such a shift and explained how it can be accomplished and why it is so important. She also stressed the importance of relying on the country’s image as a comparatively safe vacationing spot, especially in the context of the ongoing pandemic.
“The future of Croatian tourism lies in all the products that have proved successful during this pandemic and provided added value for tourists, be it health tourism, eco-tourism, cyclotourism, etc. The emphasis of new tourism should be primarily on quality development which includes tourist infrastructure, new accommodation capacities of year-round tourism, diversification and differentiation of offer.
We find an opportunity for Croatian tourism in positioning the country as a safe destination, especially during the pandemic, and we need to maintain this recognizability as our permanent trademark,” she explained during the forum.
Source: TheMayor.EU
