This Summer Season, Croatia Scraps Visas for Russian Citizens Again
BalkanTravellers.com
Entry documents will also not be required from the citizens of the Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
The visa-free regime will be in place between April 1 and October 21, and citizens of those states will be allowed to spend no more than 3 months in Croatia.
The country introduced the same measure last year, with the aim of attracting more tourists amid the economic crisis. The tourism sector in 2009 registered a decrease by 11 per cent.
As BalkanTravellers.com reported in 2008, prior to the economic crisis, the entire Balkans region witnessed a significant surge of Russian tourists in recent years. Croatia saw solid growth – in 2006, the country was visited by 73,621 Russian tourists, while only for the period between January and August of 2007, their number grew almost two-fold, to 122,732, reaching around 150,000 by the year’s end.
The Russian visitors to Croatia were also reported to be transforming Croatian restaurants’ beverage and food choices. In the regions of Istria and Kvarner, which enjoy popularity among Russians, venues last year began to serve Russian dishes increasingly and offer expensive beverages, such as 50-year old rum and cognac or 400-euro champagne.
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Photogalleries
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A Perfect Shot
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Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs