Croatian Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli and Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism Dario Franceschini held a video meeting about measures and plans related to tourism and the current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. The ministers also discussed enabling tourism movements with the development of travel procedures, which was also discussed during the video conference of the ministers of the EU member states in charge of the tourism sector, held last week.
- Croatia and Italy are two friendly neighboring countries and therefore quality cooperation is extremely important to us in the current situation, not only because a large number of Croatians live and work in Italy and vice versa, but also because of our connection in terms of tourism and economy. The Italian market has always been one of our most important markets, and due to the current situation, the joint cooperation of all EU countries, especially tourism leaders, is more important than ever in establishing better financial frameworks for tourism within the EU and establishing standards and procedures to balance health and stabilization of Europe's tourism market. Our initiative is to introduce a common Travel Protocol at EU level with mutually harmonized regulations, with individual countries agreeing bilaterally as needed. In this context, considering the development of the situation within individual countries, it could be considered when the borders would be opened and how to make the whole process more efficient and faster - Minister Cappelli emphasized during the meeting.
Minister Franceschini stressed that all countries are considering the best possible solutions for the activation and stabilization of the tourism market, both domestic and foreign, and emphasized the importance of finding a common solution at EU level in terms of further measures that would contribute to security in the tourism, which would certainly primarily refer to hygiene regulations, etc. Both ministers agreed on strengthening the importance of tourism at the EU level as well as the financial opportunities offered for tourism. Ministers also discussed a possible upcoming meeting to discuss further action depending on proposals to be prepared at member state level in the future.
According to data from the eVisitor system, in 2019 there were almost 1.2 million arrivals and almost 5.5 million overnight stays by guests from Italy in Croatia. It is the market that made the most overnight stays after Germany, Slovenia, Austria and Poland. According to the Croatian National Tourist Board, the revenues generated by tourists from Italy in Croatia in 2019 are estimated at around one billion euros. Italian citizens mostly travel within Italy, while 15 to 20 percent of trips are made abroad.
