After several years of uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, tourism workers are eagerly awaiting the arrival of summer, and Neum's hoteliers are expecting a record season.

“The indicators we have are very good. The preseason should be better than last year, although the fourth month is not quite as full as we would have liked. The fourth month is the month of congress tourism, and since it is Ramadan, a lot of people postpone seminars and conferences for the end of the fourth and for the fifth month, so I think we will make up for everything in the fifth and sixth months”, the vice president of the Association of Hoteliers in Neum, Davor Kresic, told the FENA news agency.

“The price increase was inevitable since all our costs went up, from energy to the salaries of our employees, so we had to raise prices. However, we are still much more favourable than Croatia, probably by 30 percent or more,” he added.

For Neum hotels, 2022 was not a record year in terms of the number of overnight stays, but in terms of revenues, last year can be compared to the most successful year so far, 2019.

“The main reason why the number of overnight stays did not reach 2019 is that we still lack guests from Asian markets because before the pandemic they travelled all 12 months of the year. There is still a standstill there, but we have announcements that they could also return in slightly larger numbers in the fall,” he said.

Kresic stressed that what needs to be worked on is the improvement of the content and the extension of the season so that Neum is a more attractive destination both in the pre-season and in the post-season, as well as in the winter period.

“At the very peak of the season, in the seventh and eighth months, no matter how much capacity you have, you will sell it out and you will have congestion like every place in the Adriatic. Neum is no exception,” he said.

He also said the construction of Croatia’s Peljesac Bridge was good for Neum.

“There is less traffic, life is more normal, the interior of the country is more accessible to us, and there is no congestion at the borders. Hoteliers felt the impact to some extent, but not too much. The most affected are business entities located along the motorway itself, and now 90 percent of that traffic is diverted to the Peljesac Bridge,” he said.