Home industry travel-and-hospitality The largest free-travel zone in the world, the Schengen area of Europe, welcomes Croatia

The largest free-travel zone in the world, the Schengen area of Europe, welcomes Croatia

Travel And Hospitality

CIO Bulletin
2023-03-27

On Sunday, Croatia entered the Schengen region, potentially boosting its tourism industry. Within the zone, flights to and from Croatia will now be considered as domestic flights.

The largest free-travel zone in the world is the Schengen region. There are now 27 members, including 22 members of the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.

Throughout the zone, a little less than 2 million people reside in one nation while working in another. In the meantime, daily border crossings in the region involve more than 3 million individuals. In December 2022, Croatia was permitted entry into the travel zone by the European Union. Yet, the choice was made at the same time as Bulgaria and Romania were urged to wait longer to enter.

To grow its tourism business, Croatia sought to become a member of the Schengen area. Twenty percent of the nation's GDP was made up of the tourist industry in 2017.

The main airport in the nation, Zagreb, has spent a million euros modernizing its terminals, adding waiting places, and installing more kiosks to register travellers from non-Schengen nations.