On Monday, LuxairTours held a press conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, to present their new flights to Zadar; Justin Striby, Vice-President of Sales at LuxairTours, introduced the Luxembourg-Zadar-Dubrovnik-Luxembourg route which is serviced by their fleet of Boeing 737 (700s and 800s).

He explained that bookings for regular services to destinations such as Tunisia and Turkey have fallen due to the uncertain political climate in those countries; as a result, LuxairTours has established a number of new destinations, including Zadar in Croatia. Statistics obtained by the tour operator indicate that 47.5% of passengers want to go to Zadar, with 52.5% to Dubrovnik; over 3,800 flights to/from the two destinations have been booked so far this year.

Flights to Croatia are being offered each Monday from 2 May to 3 October 2016, with full flight + hotel packages on offer, as well as flights only. So far this year, bookings show that the ratio is 70:30 in favour of packages.

LuxairTours offers customers a choice of 29 hotels in Zadar and 2 in Dubrovnik, from thir #VAKANZ brochure. From both detinations, LuxairTours offers a number of different excursions, some half-day and some full-day.

Ivan Novak, Managing Director of the croatian Tourism Office, presented a tourism video which showed tourists enjoying the coastline and water sports (diving, sailing and cruising), as well as the country's cultural heritage inland with magnificent countryside and towns and cities, including its agricultural industry and architecture, as well as its national parks and gardens. He stressed the daily ferry connections with the myriad of islands off its coast in the Adriatic Sea. He explained the three sections: the islands, the green inland and the the blue coastline.

The country has a population of 4.4 million people, with its capital, Zagreb, having 800,000 inhabitants. It prides itself as the 28th Member State of the European Union. In 2015 it received a total of 14.5 million tourists, a record; Germany is the largest market, with 2.2 million visitors last year. He streessed the country's fine gastronomy and excellent wines. Many cultural and open-air festivals are held throughout the country each year. Activity sports include paragliding and white-water rafting, with fishing in the rivers also popular.

For further details, see www.luxairtours.lu and www.luxair.lu.

Photod by Geoff Thompson (below, L-R): Justin Striby, VP Sales; Christian Carbonne, Head of Marketing; Jean Lasar, Press Relations