Goals

The aim of this MasterClass is to share how businesses and brands catering to the Chinese tourists can increase their reach and engagement. And in turn, be the driving force in growing the arrivals in Croatia.

Croatia generates high revenues from tourism, it accounts for almost 20% of total GDP.

At the same time, this industry is extremely sensitive to external factors such as; political stability, weather, etc. How can we as a market overcome these impacts and create a long-term stable environment for tourism development?

The big problem in Croatian tourism is its seasonality and very short peak tourist season. Millions of investments in hotels, camps, apartments, restaurants are unused for most part of the year. The traditional overseas tourists’ markets that we rely on usually travel during the summer months, which is the duration of our peak tourism season.

How can we extend our peak tourist seaon to all year round?

The solution lies in the Chinese outbound tourism market – an ever-growing market where figures for outbound travel could reach up to 400 million in the next few years.

China has traditionally been receptive towards Croatia since the time of Yugoslavia, and the latest development of political relations between Croatia and China further contributes to this factor. Croatia is a land with rich offering in cultural heritage, natural beauty and local gastronomy.  Not forgetting, the abundance ofnatural beauty, and local gastronomy. Croatia is also a European wine boutique country. This list of reasons perfectly fits in with the interests of the Chinese tourists, in terms of what they are looking for when planning their next holiday destination.

The Chinese traditionally travel the most during their two major holidays; in February for Chinese New Year, and in the first week of October for National Day, also known as 'Golden Week'. These two holidays coincide perfectly with the low tourism season in our region.

Isn't it high time we focus on the world's biggest tourism market seriously?