Croats panic over coronavirus: Many fail to show up for planned trip to Venice

The panic over coronavirus has taken hold among Croatian travelers who were canceling their previously paid for trips to the carival in Venice and tours to Milan last weekend, the daily Jutarnji List writes.

"Yes, there are mass cancellations and it's hard to say what will happen. We were supposed to have 180 passengers on buses to Venice and Milan this weekend but 50 of them did not show up at all. People are in a panic, they are afraid of the disease and of big crowds, so we are afraid that this could affect our business a lot," a travel agency from the vicinity of Zagreb told Jutarnji List - and then the news came that the Venice carnival had been canceled.

For similar reasons, their trip to Italy was shortened yesterday for the students of the Elementary School Jure Kastelan from Omis who visited Padua, Verona and Venice for the weekend.

"We more or less made our trip to the end, canceled our only visit to the islands of Murano and Burano and returned to Croatia. All the students and other passengers were fine, and the lunch we were supposed to have in Italy we had in Croatia so no one was shortchanged," the school principal, Tereza Srdelic, whose 30 students took the trip, told Jutarnji List.

Director of the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies Tomislav Fain said that over the weekend the Association received no calls from travel agencies, nor was it able to assess the turbulence that would arise on the market, and said it was too early to say what impact the Italian case would have on domestic tourism.

"All programs from China to Croatia have been completely canceled for security reasons, but given that the proportion of these passengers in the total number of passengers is very small, we do not think it should have much impact. Arrivals from Korea and Japan have been regular so far," Fain said.

Video: Deserted streets, people wearing masks: Coronavirus arrives in Italy

(Telegraf.rs)