In cooperation with the airport in Toulouse, the Representative Office of the Croatian National Tourist Board in France organised the presentation of the Croatian tourist offer, with an emphasis on new flights from this economically strong region. The presentation was attended by some 40 representatives of the largest French tour operators and agencies, among which there were some of the major ones such as Visit Europe, Marmara TUI France, Top of Travel, Thomas Cook, and others. During the presentation, the participants were addressed by the representatives of airlines who will be introducing flights to Croatia. Therefore a new flight was announced, one from Toulouse that will fly once a week to Dubrovnik, operated by the Germania air carrier, and the low-cost company easyJet will also maintain its flight from Toulouse to Dubrovnik in the following year.
The Volotea airline company, which this year began flights to Dubrovnik and Split from Nantes, Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Marseille, will add a flight from Strasbourg to Dubrovnik to the list of French cities that will have connections to Croatia. Didier Legault, the sales manager of the Volotea company stated that he was very satisfied with the current occupancy rate of flights to Croatia, and he announced an increase in the number of seats to Croatia by more than 50% compared to 2016.
Danijela Mihalić Đurica, the Director of the French CNTB Representative Office also attended the presentation and pointed out that the new flights to Croatia are not surprising given the great interest of French tourists. As she stated, according to the number of charter flights from this region, Croatia was last year the third most popular destination after Spain and Greece. “In addition to new flights, we also included in the presentation Croatia’s tourist offer with an emphasis on the rich cultural heritage and natural diversity since the French perceive our country as an ideal one for research”, stated Mihalić Đurica, and added that the French tour operators, who have already opened sales for the 2017 season, are also satisfied.
The importance of the French market was also confirmed by the Director of the CNTB Head Office, Mr. Ratomir Ivičić, who stated that France, due to the number of its inhabitants, was a market with large potential for Croatia. “According to data of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, during the first ten months we had almost two million overnight stays from the French market, which marks a 10 percent increase. I am sure that we will maintain the high growth trends in 2017, and that even more French people will choose Croatia as their destination and vacation place”, said the Director Ivičić.
