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Croatian Experience
During the whole period of war in Croatia international tourism flows to the coun-
try did not stop. Although it was thought at first that the war in Croatia would be
a short-term disruption, it actually became a long-term one. Soon after the gov-
ernments of European countries issued warnings to tourists to avoid the country (in
the middle of the summer season 1991), all tour operators withdrew from Croatia.
Before the war, the main generating countries for Croatia were Germany, Italy,
Austria, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Being near the receiving mar-
ket, tourists from Austria and Italy have always preferred to travel to Croatia indi-
vidually. In the case of Germany, more than one third of tourists used to come in
organized package tours, as was mostly the case with the Dutch tourists. The
majority of British vacationers also used to travel in an organized fashion, using
the services of tour operators. But experience shows that even when tourists travel
individually, they usually contact their travel agents for some kind of information
about their intended destination and also take brochures from tour operators who
include their choice in their program. Tour operators have always had quite a sig-
nificant influence on the total generating market because, through their brochures,
they create a kind of “travel fashion,” so that even individual itineraries of tourists
are prepared according to the suggestions of tour operators. The fact that in 1992
and 1993 no foreign tour operator included Croatia in its summer program leads
to the conclusion that this situation caused enormous negative consequences for
Croatian tourism.
In 1990, Croatia registered just over 7 million foreign tourists and in 1992 only
1.3 million. From its main generating market (Germany), Croatia in 1990 regis-
tered 1.5 million tourists, while in 1992 only 10% of this volume. The conse-
quences of the absence of British tour operators were even more noticeable
because Croatia is a typical package market for their holiday-makers. So, while in
1990 Croatia was visited by some 600,000 British tourists, in 1992 this number
dropped to 9,000 individuals. Even these cannot be considered “real tourists,”
since they were mostly family members who came to visit British soldiers in UN
peacekeeping forces.
The war of aggression on Croatia never affected its most developed tourism
resorts in the Istrian region, on the northern part of the Adriatic. Therefore, the
country tried to persuade foreign tour operators to come back to the places not
affected by the war which thus were safe throughout the whole period of the crisis.
Such initiatives demand a great deal of work and investment in order to reestablish
business connections with tour operators, travel agents, and the media. They
together play a major role in persuading potential tourists to spend their holidays
in a particular country. During the whole crisis period, Croatia was present in all
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major generating markets through its national tour operator: Bemextours. Because
channels of information for the new country had not been formed, it initially per-
formed the task of the national tourist organization, promoting the country on dif-
ferent markets, and was the only place where information could be obtained. Being
the specialist for Croatia, Bemextours, compared to all other tour operators that
listed their programs, was the most severely hit by this crisis. If Bemextours had
not had the support of the Croatian government to continue its activities in
German, British, Dutch, Austrian, Italian, French, Swiss, Belgian, Czech, and
Slovakian markets, its position under these long-term circumstances of crisis
would certainly have come into question. But it was in the best interest of the
Croatian government to back this national tour operator, which had a dual role dur-
ing the period. This entailed national tourist promotion (at the beginning of the cri-
sis, this tour operator was the only connection between the main generating
markets), as well as political promotion of the new, independent country whose
new name was unknown to the majority of potential clients. By declaring its inde-
pendence, Croatia, once part of the former Yugoslavia but with a tourism tradition
of over 150 years, was perceived on the foreign market as a new receiving desti-
nation. The national tour operator fulfilled this dual role by joint actions with the
Croatian Ministry of Tourism, hoteliers, and the newly established airline com-
pany, Croatia Airlines, which offered the country’s only air connection with the
outside world (all other air companies had stopped their operations to Croatia).
The main thrust in promoting Croatian tourism in foreign markets was to be
present at the main tourism fairs in Europe, to work with tour operators and travel
agencies to reestablish their operations in Croatia, to organize press conferences
abroad, to hold permanent contacts with the foreign media, to distribute promo-
tional material to travel agencies and directly to potential clients, to organize study
trips for journalists and travel agents, to prepare accurate press releases, and to
organize individual talks and interviews with foreign journalists.
The work of Bemextours with German journalists in 1992 led to the organiza-
tion of 10 press conferences and over 400 journalists and TV crews being invited
to Croatia, which resulted in 207 published articles in newspapers, 63 radio inter-
views, and 24 TV interviews. This all had a very positive effect in promoting
Croatia on the tourism market of Europe. The commercial value of the publicity
that Bemextours achieved for Croatia in foreign markets was immense. Just one
program on Dutch TV about the safety of the region of Istria, which lasted 35 min-
utes during prime time, according to a promotional tariff, would have cost
$700,000. Not long after this publicity about safety issues, the Dutch Government
lifted its travel alert to this Croatian region. Not only did Bemextours acquaint the
foreign market with a new name for a known destination, but they also helped to
keep this destination in the minds of those who used to go to Croatia for their hol-
idays. Bemextours did not succeed in making a profit for itself with this promo-
tional campaign, since a very small number of tourists decided to buy a package
tour for a holiday in Croatia. However, the overall benefit of this promotion was
very significant because, as the data in Table 1 show, this message had a much
stronger influence on individual tourists.
At the fairs where Bemextours was present with its brochures and holiday offers
to Croatia, it attracted the interest of travel agencies, other tour operators, tourists,
and journalists. Color brochures presented 42 resorts, 130 hotels, and tourist vil-
lages in Croatia where it was completely safe to spend a holiday. This was a surprise
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