More Indian tourists in Croatia ?

01.05.06 - According to Daily Indian Newspapers New Kerala, ‘Honeymooners and other tourists from India intending to visit Croatia this summer have good news. They can get visa on arrival in the beautiful country if they hold multiple-entry visas to any European country,’ said president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), Subhash Goyal, in a statement on Saturday.

Keen to boost tourism, Croatia is mulling on providing a visa-on-arrival facility to Indian tourists holding multiple-entry visas to any European country.

During an interactive session with the IATO , Croatian Ambassador Dino Debeljuh and Croatian National Tourist Board director Niko Bulic said that a proposal to this effect had already been sent to the foreign affairs ministry of their country and the response was awaited.

Responding to Goyal’s plea to ease visa rules, the two Croatian officials said that the bulk of foreign visitors to their country at present came from European countries like Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands, France and Switzerland.

Bulic stated that Croatia was keen to expand its market to India as it had become ‘a very powerful nation economically and its relations with my country are excellent’.

Declining to give any target number of tourists being sought from India, Bulic said there was a need for tourism professionals and experts from both the countries to jointly evolve a strategy to increase the two-way traffic.

Croatia is planning to invest 500 million euros in tourism infrastructure to achieve the target of 11 million tourists by 2010 from the existing eight million