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At a press conference on January 19th, The Director of the National Tourist Office of Croatia in Moscow, Mladen Falkoni, announced that in 2006 they hope to have 100,000 incoming tourists from Russia - that is a 20,000 increase on 2005. Moreover, he expects a 20-22% increase in the flow of Russian tourists to Croatia every year. 'There is a strong interest in Croatia in the travel market and the quality of service in our hotels is constantly improving', stated Falkoni.
However, leading players in the Russian travel market have divided opinions regarding Croatia’s ambitious plans. Some consider the growth in Russian tourist numbers to be logical; for example, Andrey Zabolotnikh, Director Deputy of Asent Travel pointed out that: 'from 2001 the annual growth has been approximately 20%, thus the increase to 100,000 is realistic'.
But Zabolotnikh believes that the target will only be achieved if Croatia copes well with the pressures of increased tourist numbers. Sadly, many experts have concerns in this area, believing that there are a lack of high-quality 4* hotels in the country - a weakness that may prevent a massive increase in tourist flow. Olga Voikina, Derector of the travel company Regulus, said: 'Practically no new hotels are being built at the moment due to Croatian development legislation - land registration and building permit procedures are quite problematic'. According to some tour operating companies, common practice in some tourist zones of Croatia, especially in Istria, is to reconstruct 2* hotels into 4* hotels - but the process is a slow one.
