Weekly Briefing, Vol. 42, No. 2 (HR), July 2021
The Relaxation of Restrictive Measures and its Impact on the Tourist Season
Summary
In this paper, we shall present the latest measures introduced by the Civil Protection Directorate and discuss the potential results of the current tourist season. Only a few months ago, it appeared that the country is on the right track when it comes to the ratio of people who got vaccinated and everyone expected that the positive trends will continue. However, the country is stagnating with many people refusing to get a vaccine at the moment. This has serious implications on the outcome of the tourist season, with many underlining the responsibility of citizens needed for achieving at least some degree of the results from the pre-COVID-19 era.
Introduction
In the last couple of weeks, the public discourse in Croatia has once again shifted in the direction of a new COVID-19 pandemic wave that is about to reach the country’s borders in the upcoming, but yet undefined period. The fourth wave or the so-called delta variant of the virus is slowly becoming a reality, even though everyone appeared to be relaxed after the positive epidemiological results were achieved during the late spring and early summer. A month-and-a-half ago, when the number of coronavirus-infected people dropped significantly, the Government decided to lift most of the restrictive measures in order to open the national economy and attract foreign tourists.
The Relaxation of Restrictive Measures
When the Civil Protection Directorate, led by Minister of Interior, Davor Božinović, and Minister of Health, Vili Beroš, in late May announced the decision to lift several of the restrictive measures, the people thought it would be a first sign of opening up the national economy to prepare everyone for the tourist preseason. On May 28th, the Government made such a decision by allowing public gatherings with more than 100 people that could last until 11 PM, rather than having people to leave after 10 PM. On the other hand, the weddings could include more than 120 people and could carry on after 11 PM. The restaurants were allowed to serve guests in closed spaces, not only on the terraces as it was mandated in one of the earlier decisions. However, when it comes to certain specificities regarding wedding ceremonies, business events, and concerts, the three preconditions were put forward. The persons attending these gatherings were obligated to have a negative PCR test, to be vaccinated, or to present proof that they have recovered from the COVID-19[1]. During these days, the Minister of Interior highlighted the importance of people getting vaccinated and said it was the only way to get back to “old” normality[2]. At that time, the Government officials were underlining the willingness of the people to get a vaccine and claimed that they were quite successful in providing conditions to allow everyone to apply for the vaccine. Nevertheless, they continued to urge those skeptical citizens to rethink their decision not to take a vaccine for their own sake and for the sake of everyone around them. The second positive element that enabled the relaxation of restrictive measures was the warm weather which subsequently allowed restaurants and café bars to serve people in open spaces without having to risk their health or the health of their guests. Interestingly enough, the discourse around people’s willingness and responsibility to get a vaccine that was emphasized by the Civil Protection Directorate and members of the Government disappeared less than two months after an initial excitement that we have once again beaten the COVID-19 and that the rest of the summer months will go through as everyone hoped for while keeping the economic results close to what has been achieved during the pre-COVID-19 period. Of course, it was hard to expect that the outcome of the tourist season will reach the results of previous seasons, however, even at this time, most of the Government officials and people included in the business hope that the country will mark the better results when comparing the numbers of this year with those from 2020.
The Expectations from the Tourist Season
On June 30th, a new set of measures was presented that came into effect on July 1st. This set was mostly related to gatherings of people who already got an EU digital certificate, indicating their “status” when it comes to the COVID-19. For example, the most notable part of these measures was the one regarding the abovementioned gatherings of people with a digital certificate according to which there were no restrictions on such gatherings if the people participating in it have a valid digital certificate which will be examined by organizers via mobile application by scanning the QR code from the EU digital certificate. The number of people, as well as the duration of such events, will not be controlled. Furthermore, the Directorate presented the two following restrictions: a) “ban on holding all public events and gatherings attended by more than 100 people in one place, unless it is a public event or gathering attended only by persons with an EU digital covid-certificate, and the local civil protection headquarters of the local self-government gave consent”; b) “public events and gatherings and ceremonies of all kinds can last up to 24:00 hours, unless it is a public event or gathering attended only by persons with EU digital covid-certificate, and the competent civil protection headquarters of the local government gave consent”[3]. The citizens’ responsibility toward these measures was highlighted by Boris Žgomba, President of the Association of Travel Agencies of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, as one of the main factors in achieving positive results during this years’ preseason, and later in July and August, when the season should be at its peak. Although Žgomba was quite skeptical when discussing the preseason back in March saying that the country should not expect extremely good results and, thus, should be prepared for limited financial output, his prognosis was that this years’ results will be at 60% of those from 2019[4]. Only a few weeks ago, Žgomba has given his update on how the season is currently unfolding. He said: “Given recent events and larger gatherings, I am still afraid that we may not have taken the situation seriously enough, and there are concerns in the sector about the spread of new strains of the virus (…) However, this year is also different due to vaccination, on which a lot also depends this season (…) everyone expects at least a slightly better and longer season than last year”[5]. His line of thought is somewhere near to what Prime Minister Plenković has commented in mid-June. Plenković argued that if the country reaches 60 to 70% of the results compared to 2019, that we should be quite satisfied. Nevertheless, one could notice his hesitation when giving these statements, taking into account the rising numbers of COVID-19 infected people in Europe, as well as the low vaccination rates in Croatia.
Conclusion
In line with the final statements of the above paragraph, it is apparent that the expectations are slowly declining most of all due to poor numbers of people who got vaccinated. Regardless of the fact that the country is still producing positive results when it comes to the current epidemiological situation, perhaps the main worry of the Government is the low rate of vaccinated population. On every occasion, both the Government and the Civil Protection Directorate urge citizens to use the opportunity to get a vaccine, with Minister of Health Vili Beroš going so far as to blame those unwilling to have a vaccine for the potential spread of the fourth wave. The citizens, however, decided to find more peace at the seaside, using the benefits of the current situation, rather than having themselves vaccinated, thus, contributing to the overall safety of us all.
[1] Vlada Republike Hrvatske. 2021. Stožer: Ublažene mjere od petka, moguće okupljanje više od 100 ljudi https://vlada.gov.hr/vijesti/stozer-ublazene-mjere-od-petka-moguce-okupljanje-vise-od-100-ljudi/32192.
[2] N.N. 2021. Božinović: Dopustit ćemo veći broj ljudi na okupljanjima, rad restorana unutra. Vijesti.hrt.hr https://vijesti.hrt.hr/hrvatska/plenkovic-s-celnicima-nacionalnog-stozera-o-ublazavanju-mjera-1905741.
[3] Rogulj, Danijela. 2021. New Measures in Croatia from July 1: What Changes Tomorrow?. Total Croatia News https://www.total-croatia-news.com/news/54214-measures-in-croatia-from-july-1.
[4] N.N. 2021. Žgomba: Moramo biti spremni da će turistička predsezona biti bitno smanjena. Hrvatska-danas.com https://hrvatska-danas.com/2021/03/13/zgomba-moramo-biti-spremni-da-ce-turisticka-predsezona-biti-bitno-smanjena/
[5] Sučec, Nikola. 2021. Žgomba: Uspjeh sezone u Hrvatskoj i Europi najviše ovisi o pridržavanju mjera. Tportal.hr https://www.tportal.hr/biznis/clanak/zgomba-uspjeh-sezone-u-hrvatskoj-i-europi-najvise-ovisi-o-pridrzavanju-mjera-20210701.