The Croatian tourist card is an excellent sales channel. There is about 2 million euros left to spend "somewhere" in Croatia

Last week, as part of the 11th international tourism fair PLACE2GO, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel on the topic of the Croatian Tourist Card (HTK), which was attended by Aleksandar Razdorov, web project manager, Valamar Riviera dd, Romana Žižak, general manager Obzor Putovanja, Kristina Leko Kuštrak , director of the AKD IT sector and Petra Lepušić-Tunčec from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MINTS).

As we know, with the Croatian Tourist Card (HTK) it is possible to pay in all catering facilities that provide food preparation and beverage services, in the facilities they provide accommodation service and payment services of charters and travel agencies in Croatia (exclusively via POS terminal).

Although at the start HTK did not include the services of charters and travel agencies, it is commendable that after discussions with the profession, they were also included in the project, because now we have rounded the entire sector. A good example that gives hope that projects, laws and various regulations can be improved through an open constructive dialogue. 

Over 5,8 million euros have been paid so far (data for 2023)

The HTK project is alive and so far the Croatian tourist card has already been paid through 5,8 million euros. The amount that will be spent exclusively locally, i.e. in Croatia. By the way, only at the end of last year we had the first serious national campaign about HTK, so the number of stakeholders who enter the project and offer their services, companies that pay funds to HTK to their employees, will certainly expand over time. This will also increase consumption. 

As I have already emphasized, although the entire project has been followed by bad "karma", communication errors, bad "timing", i.e. the time of launch, since the start of 2020, I think it is an excellent project, but targeted campaigns and branding and time are needed to be received on the market. 

There is interest in the market for HTK

She confirmed that there is interest from domestic guests in HTK Romana Žižak from Obzor travel, who pointed out that users in the branch office and via the web themselves ask if they can use the amount with HTK and that Obzor travel is satisfied with the market's interest.

In fact, as part of the panel, I found out on my own Card users can pay additional funds to HTK and thus use the same benefits outside the basic budget paid by the company. 

Those who have the card know very well about the benefits and use them all the time, it was said on the panel and it was emphasized that the users themselves pay a certain amount and use the trips and services with a discount defined for HTK users. 

It sounds and is logical, because if we have discounts or additional benefits through HTK, why not pay a certain amount to the card and take advantage of the discount. Transferring via digital banking takes less than a minute and enables savings. 

The amount has also increased

Every employer in Croatia can pay a non-taxable amount to their employee for the purposes of the Croatian tourist card up to 400,00 euros per year, on top of all other non-taxable benefits.

This is approx. 70 euros more than before, when the total amount was 331,81 euros.

Croats second in number of overnight stays in 2023

According to the data of the eVisitor system processed on January 3, 2024, in the period January-December, the largest share of total overnight stays was achieved by the German market, followed by the markets of Croatia (12%), Slovenia and Austria.

The same data is valid for 2022 and 2023, where Croats were second in total overnight stays.

Croats are second in number of overnight stays in the last three years, which speaks volumes about the potential of the domestic market, despite all the restrictions - as well as the Croatian tourist card as a sales tool.

Statistics are, of course, only a set of certain numbers, for a deeper analysis it is necessary to have more information about the habits of the home guests, but we all know that the home guest is crucial in the pre- and post-season. View your guest profile information.  

About 2 million euros are waiting to be spent

Kristina Leko Kuštrak from AKD, she pointed out one interesting thing on the panel - about two million euros paid to HTK remained unspent. So, about one third of the money, I emphasize, which was paid to HTK and can only be spent on the domestic market for targeted tourist services (it cannot be withdrawn as cash), is waiting to be spent. 

This is a large amount for the domestic market, as well as an opportunity for tourism stakeholders to get involved in the HTK project, to take advantage of HTK through targeted promotion, addressing directly the owners of HTK.

I wrote how it is Valamar made smart move with the Croatian tourist card and opened a completely new dimension.

Databases are crucial today, and serious hotels (the first Marriott as a global leader koji has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in a new web platform) from about 5 years ago and more started to return to the basic settings that they had previously neglected, indeed, rejected. 

And those are our own databases, sales team and direct booking.

Precisely in the domain of excessive influence of various booking portals - where the tourism sector became too dependent on them, the hotel sector began to open, develop and strengthen departments for direct sales, modernized business through digitization, and hotelier websites became the main sales tools - began to gather data on guests from various sources, call centers are coming back, loyalty programs are being strengthened and with increasingly targeted communication, they are working on the promotion of direct booking through their own website (newsletter, own applications, promotions). 

Everything revolves around data, it is the main currency today. 

I believe that the next big step forward should be made in thinking about how to use this base for deeper personalized communication according to specific customer profiles. For example, if someone consumes premium wines (which we can also see from the account data, i.e. consumption inside the hotel), we can send him information about the opening of a new winery or sell a tailor tasting tour in one of the wineries (or the very winery whose wine he drank last years).  

But let's get back to the topic of how Valamar used HTK as its sales tool, but also much more than that. 

Valamar is within its program of more favorable prices, Valamar Family & Friends, entered into cooperation with business partners i suppliers which also entitles employees of these companies to up to 50% discount for private stays in Valamara hotels, camps and summer resorts throughout Croatia using the Croatian tourist card.

This is a completely new dimension and "out of the box", and as an excellent example of how to implement HTK through a new sales channel. 

It's done osto many partners Valamara as well thousands of employees who have the opportunity to take advantage of a 50% discount for a private stay in Valamar. All of them, at least those who will use the benefits of HTK, will enter the database or funnel.

The move to expand to Valamar's partners will most certainly directly encourage the expansion of the Croatian Tourist Card user base, both by encouraging companies to use it as an additional means of rewarding employees, and through greater spending. 

/ / / Valamar breaks up with direct sales: They reduced OTA channels to only 10%. 

As part of this year's edition Rentlio Rediscover 2023. a panel discussion was held The Future of Smart Hospitality - AI Leading the Way, where one of the panelists was Roberto Gobo, the director of the digitization department in Valamar, who presented some very interesting examples of digitization in the hotel industry and the information that Valamar is already using digitalization and artificial intelligence to improve business. 

The whole panel gave an excellent overview of the topic artificial intelligence in tourism, and Gobo explained through practical examples how hoteliers can and should use artificial intelligence in their business.

But on this occasion, I would like to focus on the digitization segment and my own sales team within Valamar. Thanks to this, they managed to reduce OTA channels to only 10%, which is more than impressive. 

"We have a sales call center and invest heavily in our direct channel. Our direct booking is about 62% of the total traffic, while approximately 10% of reservations come to us via OTA. To be more specific, 55% of direct income comes through our websites, and 45% comes to us through our call center. This means that our call center is sales and generates a lot of income. The largest amount of income comes through calls and emailsGobo stated. 

Targeted campaign

As with any additional benefit, it is not enough to simply introduce something and expect it to be accepted by the market by itself. It needs to be promoted and additionally communicated, and a special action - and, on top of that, personalized communication for owners of the Croatian Tourist Card - is certainly a good move because it creates differentiation on the market and a personalized message. 

As positive examples, we highlight Valamar, which worked target campaign "Autumn in Valamar with the Croatian tourist card" for HTK users , as well as the Obzor travel agency, which used the campaign slogan: "Season to be at home".

I remind you that there are about 2 million euros left on Croatian tourist cards that must be spent. If that's not an opportunity, especially for continental destinations (now you can finally discover the continent...) then I don't know what is. We know that the domestic guest is the base, especially for continental and rural tourism.

2 million euros are waiting to be spent. Somewhere in Croatia?

Invite people to visit you and establish yourself in the market, that's the first step. The tools are there, it's all up to you.

Get involved in the Croatian Tourist Card project, you don't lose anything, you can only profit. In fact, we all profit in that chain, from tourism stakeholders through expanding consumption and increasing income, companies because they have an additional tool to raise overall working conditions and retain / attract quality labor, consumers because they can travel cheaper (we know that additional consumption goes along with this) as well as the state through increasing total consumption (and everyone else in that chain, from cafes, museums to bakeries and gas stations). 

PS Although this is not a paid article, I put the link so that you don't search for yourself and definitely take a look at www.hrvatskaturistickakartica.hr. My personal recommendation is to get actively involved in the project.

Goran Rihelj, HrTurizam.hr

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