Friday Column - Croatia, The Week In Review 1

Croatia Online

Today marks the end of the first week of structured content on this site. On Monday we looked at destinations in general, to give you a taste of what’s available. Tuesday’s tourism column focused on travelling to and from Croatia and highlighted the increasing availability of flights and reducing prices. On Wednesday, the Business Column reviewed the main industry sectors and yesterday, in the Lifestyle column, we had a look at the ups and downs of purchasing a property.

Clearly, its only possible to touch the surface of such large subjects but, hopefully this week’s general introductions to the various topics have given you a feel for the country as a whole and what makes it tick. Next week we’ll be covering the following subjects:

Monday – Destinations 2: Trogir
One of our favourite places and our home for two years.

Tuesday – Tourism 2: Nautical Tourism
A review of a fast growing tourism sector.

Wednesday - Business 2: Foreign Investment in Croatia
A look at who’s investing and the general business climate for foreigners

Thursday – Lifestyle 2: Pets
Should you bring your dog here and what sort of reception will they get? Also a brief look at other pets.

Friday – The Week in Review 2:
News, sport, comment and links of the week

News

1. Free Trade Zone Proposal
EU Enlargement Commissioner, Olli Rehn has caused a bit of a stir this week by proposing the creation of a unified free trade zone in the West Balkans. He felt that it might help Croatia and its neighbours work better together in preparation for entry into the EU. Unfortunately, in some quarters, the proposal was greeted by cries of horror and suspicions that the Commissioner was attempting to recreate the old Yugoslavia! It’s understandable that even over 10 years after the end of the Homeland War and the disintegration of Yugoslavia, feelings can run high, but maybe the proposal was a little insensitive. The Croatian Prime Minister, Ivo Sanader has dismissed the interpretation but countered with a suggestion that the Central European Free Trade Association should be expanded to include the Balkans.

2. Keeping The Sea Clean
I am pleased to report that February’s issue of Nautica Magazine, a leading Croatian yachting and nautical magazine, features my article on keeping the Adriatic clean. It’s a subject that my partner, John Nash, and I feel very strongly about. Although new regulations are “imminent” there are next to no pump out facilities for boats in the Croatian marinas and ports. With the rapidly increasing nautical traffic, you have to wonder how long the Adriatic will stay crystal clear without some fairly drastic action being taken. John is actively pressing the case via his company, Marina Facility Solutions (MFS), http://www.marinafacilitysolutions.com/, and trying to encourage marina owners to address the situation voluntarily. MFS represents Lee Sanitations, http://www.leesan.com/, in Croatia, who have worked with a number of European Governments to develop solutions for the industry, and have been very proactive in their support. Those of you who read this post and intend to sail Croatian waters, please help the cause by asking any marinas you intend to visit, or actually stay at, what their pump-out facilities are and hopefully the message will start to get through. The article is in Croatian but I’ll be posting a copy of the translation on my personal site (see links – About The Author) as soon as it is available.

Sport

Tennis is still the big subject this week with the first ATP level, professional men’s tennis tournament, in Zagreb, for 9 years - the PBZ Zagreb Indoors. Tim Henman is through to the quarter final but the Croatian Ivan Ljubicic beat Andy Murray in the first round which makes it a satisfying draw so far between England and Croatia. Croatia are the current holders of the Davis Cup and have just announced their team for Wednesday’s first round draw with Austria – Mario Ancic, Marian Cilic, Ivo Karlovic and Ivan Ljubicic (captain).

Websites Of The Week

The websites in our Links section are reviewed every week, as we find new sites of interest. My personal blogspot is the first link this week, so that those that want to, can find out a little more about me. The second link, the Croatian tourist board, stays for now. Have a look at it and perhaps check out some of the destinations mentioned in Monday’s column in a little more detail. The third link of the week is the Profectus website. Profectus publish Nautica magazine in Croatia (see news above) and are also responsible for the Croatia Boat Show, held every year in Split and growing exponentially in size. We’ll be referring to the show in next Tuesday’s Tourism column, which looks at the nautical tourism industry.

***

I hope you have enjoyed this week’s content and thanks to those who have left their comments or contacted me direct. I’m still trialling the site to try and ensure that the content is as balanced and informative to as many people as possible. It will be a few weeks yet before I launch it properly so it’s great to see that people are already finding it.