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Tourists in Dubrovnik, Croatia

Croatia views digital nomads as new opportunity for tourism

Croatia views digital nomads as new opportunity for tourism

This new category of workers contributes to year-round and sustainable tourism

On Friday 3 September, the Croatian Ministry of Tourism and Sports held a conference titled “Digital Nomads – an opportunity for a new concept of tourism”. At this event, various bodies from the tourism industry discussed the importance of attracting digital nomads and how this new category of workers is beneficial for Croatia.

In a press release, the Ministry reported that current predictions estimate that as many as 1 billion people will be working from home in 2035. Subsequently, the number of digital nomads will undoubtedly rise as more and more people will begin to move abroad.

According to the Minister of Tourism and Sports Nikolina Brnjac, this group of people is essential to the sector’s success as they contribute to year-round tourism. Taking the idea further, Brnjac highlighted: “This is extremely important in the efforts to establish sustainable tourism, where a better financial result is achieved with less physical traffic.”

How has Croatia attracted digital nomads?

The director of the Croatian National Tourist Board (CNTB) Kristjan Staničić discussed Croatia’s efforts to attract remote workers, explaining what has been done over the past year. That is, CNTB and the Ministry of Tourism collaborated to launch a joint campaign, promoting Croatia as an ideal destination for digital nomads. This campaign reportedly resulted in around 200 applications for digital nomad visas.

Expanding on this, the country was also one of the first members of the EU to unveil a one-year temporary stay for remote workers. To do so, it had to make reforms and introduce digital nomads as a new category of workers. Since then, it has simplified the criteria for applications and resolved issues surrounding tax payments and health insurance.

Ultimately, digital nomads are seen as a new opportunity for the development of tourism. With this in mind, the State Secretary for European and International Affairs in the Ministry of the Interior Terezija Gras shared: “From the beginning, we recognised the great potential of this category, not only in economic terms but also in the promotion of Croatia.”

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