Thursday, April 16, 2009

Tourists Have Already Descended on Zadar

Holy cow, has the tourist season started...or WHAT! There are what seem to be a million foreigners all over the place. What's remarkable, however, are not simply the numbers of early tourists but also their composition. Easter to May are considered the shoulders of ˝the season,˝ meaning, the prices still haven't hiked to their summer peak. Usually, we get the Polish, Czech...Hungarian tourists during these months. Then come the Germans, Austrians, Australians, Americans/Canadians & French, followed by the Italians in August. By the end of the season - again, the shoulder - you start to see Czech, Polish & Hungarian tourists again. This year, however, is COMPLETELY different. We are already overrun with Germans and Austrians...some Australians/Brits & French.

Of course, the Croatian media is eating this up. ˝See, there's no crisis in Croatia....˝ in I-told-you-so fashion.

Au contraire.

My theory is this: I think that we are going to continue with this overwhelming blitz of early tourism before the prices spike to high heaven and then tourism is going to crash and burn. Look. It's no secret that it's cheaper to go on vacation to a warm destination in the off-season....even if it's only slightly off-season. It's an 8 hour drive from Munich to Zadar...the weather's great here. Some people are already swimming (I can guarentee that it's the tourists who are swimming this early because no local would so much as dip a toe in the sea, right now). But the snow birds are thinking...Why not head down in April or May, avoid the crowds, the exorbitant prices and we STILL get a taste of the sea for our vacation.

We'll see.