The regular meeting of the county Tourist Board Assembly was held in Split on March 30, 2016. This was the perfect opportunity to find out about Easter tourism results and plans for the upcoming season in Split- Dalmatia county.
No groundbreaking revelations were heard during the meeting, and director of the Split-Dalmatia county Tourist Board Joško Stella presented the financial report on planned and achieved goals in 2015.
Denis Spadina presented a detailed cycling tourism development project for the county, and this is what Stella had to say about the project: “We have created very clear guidelines and regulations when it comes to the development of cycling tourism in our county. We currently have 2200 kilometres of cycling paths and by next year, we are planning to reach 3000 km which would bring us to the same level as Istria, even though just two years it seemed like a mission impossible. We have done a lot in a very short period of time – cycling map of Inland Dalmatia (Zagora) and island Hvar, the map of Brač will be completed soon. Cycling map of Makarska Riviera is next. We are not alone in this story, local tourist boards are financing all the necessary signalization, municipalities and cities are financing the infrastructure and maintenance. We are very happy with this cooperation.
Joško Stella is also very happy with the numbers achieved in the county during Easter holidays especially since Easter was much earlier this year. Financial results are positive so he has the right to be very optimistic regarding the upcoming season: “Total budget of our county Tourist Board is over 11 million kuna and it’s worth noting that our direct income which is generated from sojourn taxes is 9 million kuna. Split Riviera is the largest contributor in the total amount of collected taxes while 10% of the total share comes from islands Brač and Hvar. This is more than enough for our operational activities. In our county, 76% of all accommodation comes from private accommodation owners that pay flat rate taxes so it is very difficult for us to feel the increase in overnight stays in a financial sense” Stella concluded.
