Travel advice for Croatia changed to ‘orange’ (essential travel only)
The whole of Croatia is given colour code ‘orange’. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports this on its 24/7 channel. “Only travel to Croatia if it is necessary”, the ministry says. Surprising, given the regional differences.
Croatia is a risk
European data has set the alarm bells ringing at the Dutch public health institute.
Croatia is in the top 6 of European countries with the highest number of infections per 100,000 inhabitants. Which supposedly makes the risk of Dutch holidaymakers bringing the virus back from Croatia too great.
Large differences
De NOS has gauged the reactions to the advisory and quotes holidaymaker Bart Ooijevaar. “This is a bad thing. Why are the individual regions not being looked at? In Istria there is hardly anything going on.” And more tourists feel safe, or safer, in Istria.
The Dutch news organisation confirms on the basis of the Croatian corona dashboard that there are ‘indeed large differences’. At the institute nobody turns out to be able to go into ‘the details’.
Croatia's statistics name the capital Zagreb and the port city of Split as corona hotspots. Those big cities are a fair way from the tourist region of Istria. We are talking a few hundred (Zagreb) against genuinely hundreds (Split) of kilometres.
The advice for Croatia differs between the Netherlands and Germany
Just as surprising: neighbours the Netherlands and Germany take different views where Croatia is concerned.
The Netherlands issues a negative advisory, but Germany sees no reason to do the same for now.
It makes for odd situations. Many Dutch tourists turn around and leave Croatia, while the Germans can holiday ‘responsibly’ in that same country.
Travelling in corona times
This month many countries are open to holidaymakers again. Even so, travelling in corona times may feel like a taboo. As long as an advisory is green or yellow, you can go. It then remains a personal judgement.
In the end, in the Netherlands and anywhere else, it is about behaviour. It does not matter where you are, as long as you know the local situation and the rules.
Who knows, Istria may even be a better destination at the moment. Our eastern neighbours may well know. And us? Zuhause.
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Magical ice between the mountains. Oases that are a feast for the eyes under the sun. Team dionvacation is made up of recreational skaters and sun lovers, people who savour life. We share that zest for life from the Weissensee all the way to the Catalan coast. The holiday home ‘Vida Daurada’ (the golden life) suits that lifestyle, between mountains and sea. All articles are written by our own travel editors. Vida Daurada sponsors the Sun destination section.
