Due to the current situation around the coronavirus and the behavior of the Austrian government, boat and yacht owners whose boats are waiting for wintering in Croatia have little understanding for Austria’s current travel warning for the entire region of Croatia. SeaHelp members Andreas and Katharina Neuner, which even over a 11-meter sailing yacht in the Marina Veruda in Istria, can hardly believe it: “On the one hand, our Federal Chancellor Kurz denounces those nations that issue travel warnings for an entire country instead of a partial travel warning, as Germany does, but on the other hand he issues a travel warning for all of Croatia. It might be finally well-known that regions as for example Istrien exhibit a far smaller number of new infections as Vienna or Innsbruck “.
Open letter to Federal Chancellor Kurz
In order to express his, as we believe, justified concern, but also to emphasize it, he wrote an open letter to the Austrian government, especially to Chancellor Kurz and the responsible ministers. The SeaHelp editors decided to publish this letter once in the wording to give him an additional hearing, because he brings the matter exactly to the point.
Here the letter in the original wording:
Dear Chancellor, dear Ministers
We know that there is a critical CORONA time at the moment!
We also know that it is not easy at the moment to please all citizens. But we also know that some of your travel warnings are not justified and unfair!
We speak here for thousands of Austrians who have a property, or like us, a sailing yacht in Croatia (Istria).
Since ISTRIA is currently burdened with 9 CORONA-infected persons and this value is far below the guidelines for a travel warning, we find your decision for exaggerated and unjustified.
What did you do? For the whole of Croatia our government issued a travel warning. There it makes Germany with partial travel warnings however already much more considered, better and fairer!!!!
As we are not able to carry out urgent and necessary work and administrative procedures in Croatia, we have to expect considerable additional costs for 2020! Who will pay for this? You certainly won’t.
Since one is safest from CORONA infections during boating vacations (see SEAHELP report), we ask you, on behalf of many yacht owners, to lift the travel warning for ISTRIA.
With the expectation of an answer we remain respectfully
Andreas and Katharina Neuner
S/Y Second Life
Carry out wintering yourself
The SeaHelp editorship spoke with the complainant, who leads good arguments for its request: “My ship has to be wintered in at the moment. Of course you can leave that to local service companies, but you never know if they will do it right and we won’t get a nasty surprise next year. In addition, there are numerous administrative formalities to be taken care of and bills to be paid locally”. Who sails and owns a sailing yacht, can understand very well that one prefers to do the careful wintering oneself.
Travel warning Croatia: Where is the common sense?
The Neuner family cannot understand, however, that politics always conjures up the famous common sense, but ultimately, when it comes to the topic of “travel warning Croatia”, also includes regions with a low seven-day incidence, while Austrian cities show much higher new infections. He sees similar problems for Austrian citizens who own real estate in Croatia.
Croatian volatile welding
They all left Croatia quasi hastily, when Austria announced its travel warning at short notice. congestion up to 14 kilometers in length and waiting times at the border of more than 12 hours due to excessive controls were the consequences of this rash decision. Many yachts, boats, but also caravans and houses were only provisionally prepared in the hope of returning later. Here one should ultimately appeal to the government’s duty of care, which caused this dilemma in the first place through short-term, hardly foreseeable measures.
No risk of infection on site
By the way, it would be advisable for the politicians to get a picture of the situation on the ground themselves. Apart from the regions such as Zagreb or Split, there are hardly any tourists on site, and the locals, at least in northern Croatia, adhere meticulously to the hygiene regulations, as the SeaHelp editors have found out from their own experience. Exaggerated one could nearly already maintain, at least in the northern regions of Croatia it is missing simply at an appropriate number of persons, who would be applicable for a possible transmission of the Coronavirus.
Boat owners should write to the government
Therefore family Neuner asks also to join their letter and requests concerning to complain likewise. Here the E-Mail addresses, to which one can turn: sebastian.kurz@bka.gv.at or elisabeth.koestinger@bmlrt.gv.at.
By the way: It concerns the SeaHelp members not only around criticism, but they would like to point also solution beginnings out: If one would permit for example boat owners and owners of real estate an entry without consequences with appropriate proof over their justified request to Croatia, would be already helped many.
A fact, which is not to be rejected by the hand, if one compares the new infections in Croatia with those in Austria
