National parks and nature parks reopened their doors to their visitors yesterday, in accordance with the Conclusion of the Government of the Republic of Croatia on measures to launch economic and other activities and in the conditions of the declared Covid-19 epidemic, adopted on April 23rd, 2020 by which visiting national parks and nature parks is allowed.

In order to make the parks more accessible primarily to domestic visitors, ticket prices in the promotional period in most of them will be at promotional prices. Visitors are still obliged to adhere to the recommendations of the Civil Protection Headquarters and to act responsibly because this protects their own health, but also the health of others.

It is recommended to inform at the public institution that manages the protected area about working hours, ticket prices and the availability of visitor programs, before visiting a particular protected area.

At the end of April this year, 159,234 unemployed persons were registered in the records of the Croatian Employment Service (CES), which is 11 percent more than in March, and 21.5 percent more than in April 2019, the CES announced on Monday – Poslovni.hr writes.

According to their data, at the end of April there were 15,773 more unemployed persons than at the end of March, and 28,144 more than at the end of April last year.

The Croatian Chamber of Commerce recently announced that this April will "be the first (at least in recent history) in which the number of unemployed grew on a monthly basis and the first April since 2013 in which annual growth was recorded."

As Poslovni.hr writes, April is usually the month in which the number of unemployed has decreased in recent years, both on a monthly and annual basis, given the growth of seasonal employment in tourism and tourism-related activities. However, the coronavirus epidemic had the greatest negative impact on tourism, and during April this year, business and consumption took place in limited conditions for almost the entire month, most of them in quarantine, while mitigation began only at the end of the month (first phase of relaxing measures started on 27th of April).

APRIL 2020 BROUGHT 110 PERCENT MORE UNEMPLOYED PERSONS COMPARED TO APRIL 2019

Daily CES data show that the number of unemployed continues to increase at the beginning of May, but at a slower pace than in April. Thus, there are currently 159,560 unemployed people, which is 326 people more than at the end of April, and currently 8,058 free work places have been announced.

According to the CES monthly report, 25,483 people were newly registered as unemployed in April this year, which is 110.1 percent more than in April last year.

Most new entrants came directly from employment - 22,195 people or 87.1 percent of the total new entrants. Most of them came from the hospitality and tourism industry - 3,862 or 17.4 percent of newly registered, followed by wholesale and retail trade with 3,759 people (16.9 percent) and manufacturing with 3,496 people (15.8 percent) – Poslovni.hr writes.

In April, 3,068 people from inactivity, 70 from regular schooling and 150 from other business activities applied to the unemployment register, while 9,710 people left the unemployment register in April, which is 63.8 percent less than in the same month in 2019. Out of that, 5,148 persons were employed, 4,824 on the basis of employment and 324 on the basis of other business activities.

By jobs, the largest number is employed in construction - 862 people (17.9 percent of the total number of employees based on employment), followed by the manufacturing industry with 808 employees (16.7 percent), wholesale and retail trade with 760 employees (15.8 percent) and catering and tourism with 498 employees (10.3 percent).
In April, 4,562 persons were deleted from the unemployment register due to other reasons, such as leaving the labor force, non-compliance with legal provisions, deregistration from the register, etc.

By counties, the largest number of registered unemployed persons is in the Split-Dalmatia County (27,063 or 17 percent of the total number in Croatia), the City of Zagreb (19,469 or 12.2 percent), Osijek-Baranja County (17,967 or 11.3 percent), and the lowest in Lika-Senj County (2,112 or 1.3 percent).
In April, 43,143 unemployed persons, or 27.1 percent of the total number of unemployed, used cash benefits. The number of beneficiaries of cash benefits increased compared to the same month in 2019 by 73.1 percent or 18,220 people.

Michael Taylor arrived from London to Dubrovnik on March 2nd and was supposed to return to Great Britain at the end of March, but the situation with the corona virus kept him in Dubrovnik. For many years, Taylor has been coming to Dubrovnik on average twice a year, where he stays for a month in one of Dubrovnik's five-star hotels. Last year he visited Dubrovnik three times, and the last time was during the Christmas and New Year holidays. His favorite time in Dubrovnik is during the off-season, when it is quiet, without crowds, and the weather is still nice.

This tourist was visited at his temporary home in Dubrovnik, the Hilton Imperial Hotel, by the Director of the Dubrovnik Tourist Board, Ana Hrnic, who gave him a gift to keep as a memory of Dubrovnik.

Taylor said that he was very happy to be in Dubrovnik during a time like this. He feels safer than in the UK, where, he said, there are a lot of deaths from COVID-19. Taylor is in no hurry to return to his home mostly because of safety, but also because of the cleaner air, the more beautiful landscape, the friendly mood of the people of Dubrovnik. He is grateful to everyone for their help and kindness during his stay. He was first housed in the Dubrovnik Palace Hotel, where he enjoyed the view of the Reefs, then in the Excelsior Hotel where he watched the island of Lokrum from his balcony, and now stays longest at the Hilton Imperial Hotel, where he sits, reads and admires on his balcony overlooking the Lovrijenac Fortress and the Old Town.

Taylor walks daily to Gruz, visits the green market and continues to Lapad Bay. While doing so, he began to meet acquaintances with whom he always talked from a safe distance. As soon as the hair salons opened, he was among the first to have an appointment for a haircut. Yesterday he felt especially happy because the cafes are open, so he can also enjoy coffee. Now, he says, he has everything he needs!

Slovenians are very interested in visiting Croatia after the announcement of the relaxation of measures due to the good epidemiological situation in both countries, but the Slovenian government emphasizes that a bilateral agreement should first be reached between the two national public health institutes and the two police offices – Poslovni.hr reports.

As it's stated in the article, Slovenian corona crisis spokesman Jelko Kacin said at a government press conference on Monday that experts from the Croatian Institute of Public Health and the Slovenian Institute of Public Health are meeting today to reach an agreement on the possibility and the necessary protocols.

The consular department of the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is flooded with phone calls from those who want to come to Croatia as soon as possible, especially owners of real estate, boats and caravans. They are primarily inquiring about the technical details of going to Croatia and returning to Slovenia after that, given that the provision on mandatory seven-day quarantine after returning from abroad is still in force in Slovenia - said Kacin.

As Poslovni.hr writes, Kacin added that the Slovenian side is considering the possibility that those who go to Croatia over the weekend, or for a shorter period lasting a maximum of 72 hours, can be allowed to return to their home country without mandatory quarantine or self-isolation, if they adhere to prescribed epidemiological measures on both sides.

Kacin assessed Croatia's decision to allow Slovenian citizens to enter as a welcome "political" message from the Croatian side, expressing the desire for as many Slovenian tourists as possible to come to Croatia, but warned that it was not yet operational, as an agreement between the two national institutes for public health and two polices must be made.

That could happen very quickly, so it is better to wait a few days with the trip, Kacin warned.

In addition to the agreement on the level of the institutes of public health, it is necessary to reach an agreement between the two polices on the border crossing protocol, in order to avoid possible differences in the interpretation of the agreement, said Kacin.

Slovenia expects that, when an agreement is reached, not only owners of caravans, cottages, houses and ships in Croatia are welcome, but their families and members of their household too.

In the past week in the area of Police Administration of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County there were eight traffic accidents, in which five persons got heavily injured, four persons got light injuries, while there were two traffic accidents with material damage.

By carrying out traffic control measures, police officers have taken 454 repressive measures against the perpetrators of traffic offenses, out of which 211 measures taken due to speeding, 19 measures due to improper overtaking, 93 measures because of non-use of the seat belt, seven measures against drivers who were driving the vehicle under the influence of alcohol and 18 measures because of using mobile phone while driving.

With the third phase of going back to normal life in Croatia which starts on Monday 11th, one of the most visited and significant places in Dubrovnik – the Dubrovnik City Walls will start working again.

The well-known Walls of Dubrovnik closed their doors to the public almost two months ago, on March 19th, so this is great news! Since it's still not clear what will happen to the season and how many tourists will be able to arrive to Dubrovnik, we are sure that the citizens will use this opportunity to visit the City Walls, especially if they haven't done that for years.

The Croatian National Tourist Board has prepared four new videos for social networking activities on gastronomy, natural beauty, active tourism and culture, through which it continues to implement the excellently accepted new communication concept #CroatiaLongDistanceLove. Promotional activities in the coming period will take place in the four segments, and the first published video was on the subject of Croatian natural beauty.

The second video, published today, brings amazing Croatian landscapes! The video carries the title 'Croatia's cultural beauty is as diverse as it's stunning landscapes' and it's truly breathtaking. Watch it below!

Customs officers of the Service for Mobile Units Vukovar prevented the smuggling of 2,480 pieces of protective masks and 97 pieces of various colognes.

Carrying out intensified surveillance measures, the customs officers of the Service for Mobile Units Vukovar found at the Bajakovo border crossing a large amount of protective masks and colognes that the driver of a truck with Turkish license plates tried to bring into the EU customs territory, without filing a customs declaration for commercial goods.

For the committed misdemeanor, the offender was fined in the amount of 30 thousand kuna and a hundred kuna for the costs of the proceedings, while the goods that were the subject of the misdemeanor were confiscated.