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Croatia travel specialist since 1923
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Croatian travel agency

 

General information

Generalturist is the leading and oldest travel agency in Croatia that, since it was founded in 1923, has been constantly enriching the tourism and travel industry with the latest trends. Generalturist is one of the leading tour operators in the region thanks to its high business standards and excellent service, the 690 000 travelers in Croatia and almost two million clients in 27 countries, as well as annual turnover of over 500 million HRK bearing witness to this.
The world's best tour operators (2400 of them) have chosen Generalturist as their European agency partner and in cooperation with Generalturist they have been creating travel packages and other business services for corporate clients.

For nearly an entire century, Generalturist has been consistent and successful as a leader in agency business: it is the main organizer of private and business travel packages, as well as the most reliable online travel services provider. As a result of its extensive business operations, a partner network has been put in place throughout the world and all over Croatia, which encompasses over 250 subagents and 15 Generalturist branch offices in Croatia alone.

The Generalturist business strategy - according to which clients, besides services, always receive added value benefits - has proven to be ideal, given the fact that the agency has effectively achieved its goal, that is, an increasing number of satisfied travelers that, season after season, have at their disposal an ever more diverse selection of services. Generalturist considers its main tasks to be maintaining its existing high business criteria, as well as enriching them with new products, including specialized travel packages and tailor-made itineraries.

As a consequence of nearly a century of experience and innovative approach to creating its tourist offer, Generalturist meets the expectations of its clients by transforming their desires and fantasies into real-life experiences. It overcomes such challenges thanks to its highly specialized employees, whose above-average qualifications are the result of the humane development of corporate culture in which, in a pleasant atmosphere of teamwork, creativity, initiative and dedication are appreciated and highly valued. With the help of its strong network of reliable domestic and foreign partners, as well as its own branch offices, as well as those belonging to subagents, Generalturist meets the needs of all clients, creating for them the most convenient, quickest and financially acceptable solutions.

Thanks to our professional approach, we are a member of the best professional associations such as IATA, ICCA, ETOA, LCC, RDA, DRV, ASTA USTOA and UHPA.

Generalturist: before & now

"What changes a man's consciousness, changes his world. That is why traveling changes people the most: it makes them happy through pleasant experiences, and enriches their lives with wisdom from all corners of the world" - Maja Pećarević, member of the Board of Managers of Generalturist

Company History

Generalturist has built its status as the leading domestic tour operator through decades of dedicated work, reliable business relationships with clients, competent approach to tourist demands, personal approach to travelers, as well as by enriching the market with superb foreign novelties.
Since 1923, when Generalturist was founded, it has gradually grown into a tour operator giant and has positioned itself at the top of Croatian tourism. At the beginning, it was known as the travel agency that first organized bus tours throughout Europe for domestic travelers, which were very popular at that time. For this reason, even at that time, it became known for its offer of "dream travel packages".
Intensive growth of the company took place in 2003, when Generalturist went into one hundred percent ownership of the Pećarević family of Zagreb, that brought the agency to the level of operation of its prestigious foreign colleagues by introducing global trends in the travel industry.
Already in the first year, the Pećarević family significantly modernized the company's operations and stimulated positive financial trends in the largest and oldest travel agency. Sales on foreign markets grew in 2004 by over 70% compared to the previous year, while Generalturist became the leading company in the sales of airline tickets in Croatia, with a market share of 30% of the total number of tickets sold. With the implementation of advanced software at all levels of business, Generalturist has taken service standards to a higher level and has brought them in line with business principles applied in the top companies in the tourism industry. Online business has been set as one of the key activities in the company development strategy. As a result, an excellent model of online purchase of travel packages has been introduced, furthermore, the website has been created and designed according to the principles of the leading global online tour operators. The internal business organization of Generalturist has also been completely re-arranged in order to function as a platform for timely adjustments to rapid changes of trends in the tourist market.

Generalturist Today, and in the Future

Thanks to its wise and humane business strategy, Generalturist holds the position of leading domestic tour operator, which has enabled the establishment of a strong and extensive sales network in Croatia and the entire region, in which the company is present on the market together with Budget Rent a Car, its sister company. For this reason, Generalturist has an annual turnover of 500 million HRK that is, thanks to its well-structured offer, equally distributed throughout the whole year, without being influenced by the season, which is normally characteristic for the tourism industry. It is no wonder that Generalturist was proclaimed the most trusted travel agency on the market in 2007.
Generalturist enriches its tourism operations with humanitarian activities. Numerous drives and donations are mostly directed towards children and young people, while sports and cultural initiatives in regional centers and especially on Dalmatian islands are supported through sponsorships. The value of Croatian products is also systematically promoted. Generalturist conceives specialized forms of tourism and creates thematic travel packages to lesser known areas of Croatia, working on the entire image of Croatia, giving its contribution to maintaining traditional domestic values.
In this way, by financing cultural projects and charity drives, the agency takes part in raising social awareness in the area of social responsibility, which further promotes the development of Croatian tourism. Enhancing the traditional tourist offer by supporting exceptional cultural and sports events - that will make Croatia an attractive and recognizable destination regionally and globally - is one of Generalturist's goals.

In line with its professional and moral values, in the future, Generalturist intends on remaining true to its principles and on following market trends, offerings its clients suitable pleasant experiences in all types of travel.

Board of Managers of Generalturist

Zoran Pećarević - Generalturist's President of the Board of Managers is notable as a manager at an international level: before taking over Generalturist, he ran several Croatian companies and their representative offices throughout the world. He is a graduate economist with a wide area of interest - particularly knowledgeable in international political relations, as well as global social and tourism aspects and future trends. For this reason, he is a member of the UHPA (Croatian Association of Travel Agencies) board.

Maja Pećarević - She is known as the first female manager to have received the prestigious professional award, that is, the title of best female entrepreneur of the year, awarded by CROMA (Croatian Association of Managers and Entrepreneurs) in 2004. This graduate economist began her career in Montmontaža and spent a good portion of her professional life as Vice President of the Board of Managers and CFO in Diners Club Adriatic, which bought Generalturist. According to an agreement from 2003, Maja Pećarević sold her share in Diners Club and became sole owner of Generalturist and Budget Rent a Car.

Petra Pećarević - This young manager, who has perfected her business skills at CBA Business School, began working in Generalturist as head of the marketing department. Her role in setting up Generalturist's fleet of boats is particularly commendable, as well as the creation of the cruises product, being one of the most popular summer products of the agency. Today, she is an advisor for the area of marketing and corporate sales.

Business Operations of Generalturist

TOURISM & TOUR OPERATOR

Upon analyzing market trends and client desires, Generalturist's tour operators, from season to season, create travel packages all over the world that meet the expectations of the most demanding globetrotters. In the same way, tourism experts create tours throughout Croatia, as a result of which the agency has an increasing number of visitors from a growing number of foreign markets. Besides through its extensive network of branch offices, all products are presented online, while the huge momentum from Generalturist Internet sales contributed to the opening of new tourist receiving markets.

TOURIST GENERATING MARKETS

Travel packages by air and bus by Croatians in Europe and all other continents make for 70% of Generalturist's turnover. By working together with 2400 first class global partners and representatives in all corners of the world, Generalturist creates new itineraries every year, thus offering its clients the opportunity to fulfill all of their travel wishes.

TOURIST RECEIVING MARKETS

By promoting Croatia as a specific destination with a unique offer, Generalturist has - at the level of destination management - achieved an increase in the number of foreign tourists in the country. The agency itself has marked an increase in the number of guests from traditional tourist receiving countries, such as Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Great Britain. However, Generalturist has opened some new tourist receiving markets, such as Japan, Iceland, Ireland, Sweden, Norway and Russia.
All guests have at their disposal individual and group, as well as thematic and seasonal travel packages. Prominent in the extensive offer are summer holiday packages, adventure programs and excursions, guided bus trips, guaranteed departures, selected hotel and private accommodation, tailor-made individual and group packages, programs for the elderly, cruises, pilgrimages and religious programs, guided sightseeing, airline ticket sales, vehicle rental and lease of accommodation capacities on behalf of foreign partners.

Sales Channels

Generalturist Branch Offices

Generalturist offers its services to clients in 15 branch offices throughout Croatia. The branch offices are created as "gateways to other countries" - both visually and essentially because they employ agents who are capable of presenting, by using various means, the wealth of destinations clients are interested in. The branch offices are staffed with highly educated personnel that, thanks to modern technology and advanced software, provide clients with answers to the most demanding questions related to travel organization.
The results of mystery shopping have shown that clients feel relaxed in Generalturist's branch offices and are eager to return, if only for a pleasant chat with agents and some new travel tips. A further analysis of the report shows that the abovementioned is accentuated by genuine hospitality and friendly approach by employees in branch offices, as well as the speed and professional manner of follow-ups to inquiries.

Generalturist Partners

There are 250 authorized Generalturist subagents in Croatia, offering products and services of Generalturist. In order for partners to be able to provide clients with requested services in a quicker and more efficient manner, Generalturist has installed special B2B online booking software in all subagent facilities. The system represents a simple manner of reserving all products from Generalturist's offer, along with a direct overview of capacity availability, as well as the administration and overview of subagent reservations. Its key functionalities are the online issuing of vouchers and all travel documents, the entire process of reservation administration with an overview of all inquiries and reservations, the possibility to search according to various parameters (personal client data, date, type of service), the possibility of online payment and reservation cancellation, as well as communication in the language of the partner (B2B pages in German, English, Italian, French and Croatian), while data is exchanged via XML technology.

Online Sales

At the end of 2004, Generalturist started developing a tourist application that supports online sales, as well as online tools that ease the purchase, allowing online credit card authorization and the automatic delivery of all travel documents to the email of the user, as well as document download within the user account.
Generalturist's offer is available in English, German, French, Italian and Hungarian, and the manner of purchase is the most efficient on the market. It consists of selecting the desired accommodation or travel package, followed by entering data on travelers, payment by entering credit card data and downloading all necessary documents (that are automatically sent by mail). With this kind of system, Generalturist is the most efficient travel agency in the segment of online purchasing in Croatia, offering guests an extraordinary flexibility when purchasing, especially last minute travel packages.
Generalturist.com offers the highest level of security during online purchases, in line with standard data encryption level, which customers can verify at any given moment by clicking the thawte certificate icon. Additional security is available for Mastercard and Visa credit card holders with the 3D secure code that each card user can request from their banks. It is a unique code that provides clients additional protection from misuse.
Generalturist is also the first to have introduced "Guest's Corner" that functions in such a way that each online reservation has "live" user support, and the guest can contact the customer call center at any moment, in order to receive information on their subject of interest. The most important part of guest's corner are customers' uncensored comments, including realistic assessments of accommodation, destinations, hosts… that has led to the creation of a community of travelers of the forum type that regularly share their travel experiences.

Affiliate Online Partners

The specially designed B2C Generalturist Affiliate "Travel click" partner program is intended for all natural and legal persons who achieve profit from the sales of Generalturist travel packages on their Internet sites. Domestic and foreign partners have at their disposal ready-made multi-language promotional tools of all products from Generalturist's offer through a simple and advanced technological system for tracking visits and sales. This affiliate program is the only one in Croatia that pays commission upon sales at the fixed amount of 25 EUR, which is the reason why there are currently 630 partners working with Generalturist in Croatia and abroad.

Generalturist Services

Summer Holidays

Its long experience in creating summer holiday packages has made Generalturist the first agency to introduce to the market not only new summer holiday trends, but also new destinations and holiday capacities. Thus, among the holiday packages on the Adriatic and Mediterranean, as part of Generalturist's offer, one can find an abundance of diverse hotels of all categories, as well as boutique-hotels, private villas, luxurious apartments and other accommodation units for all types of clients.
As for the types of holidays, Generalturist can boast of the fact that it was the first to introduce new forms of spending summer holidays: it has introduced adventure summer tourism in lighthouses, launched rural tourism as a popular way of spending summer and introduced green summer travel packages, that is, holidays on mountain peaks and by lake shores.
In addition, Generalturist has popularized summer holidays on the Mediterranean, offering its clients a rich selection of resorts in all Mediterranean destinations.

Cruises

This favorite method of travel has inspired Generalturist to offer its clients, besides Mediterranean, Caribbean or North Sea cruises, custom cruises, that is, with their own boats. Generalturist owns motorboats that, along with skipper and other services, can be rented during summer in order to cruise according to your own itineraries.

Skiing

Generalturist is, among others, known for the best organization of winter skiing travel packages. For years already, it has been offering top-notch packages throughout the entire ski season, that is, from the beginning to the end, including organization of its own ski club at the most popular destinations, as well as a ski school in various languages. The agency organizes skiing in seven countries - in the most popular ski resorts - it was the first one to include in its offer skiing on the slopes of deluxe ski resorts in St. Moritz in Switzerland and Aspen in the USA.

Far Trips

Generalturist has achieved its status as the most reliable travel agency among customers by creating travel packages to the world's most exotic destinations: Alaska, Peru, New Zealand, Tahiti… are only some of the far off destinations, which, in the organization of Generalturist, you can reach in the fastest and most simple manners. The most popular destinations introduced to the market by the agency are Mexico, China, Cuba, Japan, Seychelles and Maldives, very popular among travelers nowadays as well.

European Trips

Countries of the "Old Continent" have always intrigued Generalturist's tour operators, as a result of which they created luxurious travel packages that crisscross Europe. Thus, the agency offers city-break packages, ideal for getting to know European metropolises in a few days, followed by trips by plane and long bus trips that often include several European countries, offering clients the possibility to get to know the destinations thoroughly.

Wellness

Enjoy wellness travel packages in the best Croatian, Slovenian, Italian, French, Greek, Spanish and Asian spa resorts, which Generalturist introduced to the market as a trend in 2005. The exceptional increase in interest for this type of travel packages bears witness to the fact that Generalturist has recognized market trends and has professionally met the requests of customers.

Sports travel packages

Organized group and individual trips to sports events (football and handball championships, Olympic Games etc.) are also a travel segment that Generalturist introduced to the Croatian market. However, the agency is particularly proud of its organized trips to Formula 1 races and motorcycle world championships, being the only one offering such trips, presented in its prestigious F1 catalog.

Honeymoon Travel Packages

The most romantic travel packages from the extensive selection of Generalturist services are organized to all corners of the world, enabling the bride and groom to choose their favorite travel package type. Thus, the offer includes exciting European and world metropolises, nature trips, cruises and exotic travel packages. Generalturist is the only one on the market offering the possibility to organize weddings in exotic destinations such as Borneo, Maldives, Bali and Seychelles.

Foreign Language Courses

For young people, Generalturist has created attractive active holiday packages, including foreign language learning in all countries of the world. Thus, children aged from 12 to 18 can master all levels of the foreign language of their choice at the best universities in Great Britain, USA, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Malta, Italy or Spain. In doing so, young people can combine acquisition of knowledge with relaxation and entertainment in the company of their peers from all over the world.

Travel Packages for National and Religious Holidays

Specialized thematic travel packages have been recognized on the market as another example of Generalturist's extensive offer. Thus, the agency has for years been organizing trips for Christmas shopping and celebrations to Barcelona, Dubai and New York, New Year's Eve celebrations in capitals throughout the world and exotic destinations, as well as trips to carnivals in the most popular destinations, such as Venice and Brazil. The offer also includes trips to the most romantic countries of the world, such as France and Spain, to celebrate Valentine's Day, as well as Easter travel packages and travel packages for other religious and national holidays.

Tailor-Made Travel Packages

Specifically designed travel packages are intended for clients who request completely personalized service. The principle of organizing travel packages created according to personal wishes and affinities of clients was first introduced on the market by Generalturist in 2005, while Generalturist is nowadays the leading agency in designing such travel packages. There are numerous tailor-made travel packages, yet Generalturist's tour operators proudly stress that their number equals the numbers of travelers, however, such travel packages can broadly be divided into thematic travel packages (for instance, the wine roads of France), specific requests (sightseeing of China's deserts), as well as combined travel packages (those connecting traditional routes with non-traditional accommodation, be it in newly opened elite hotels, or according to other wishes of travelers).

Business Travel Packages

The leading Croatian companies and representatives of state institutions entrust their business travel needs to Generalturist's MICE department (Meetings, Incentives, Congresses, Events), which organizes congresses, international, regional, European and national conferences, scientific gatherings, seminars, product and service presentations, as well as management meetings. Generalturist offers corporate partners and other clients of the MICE department unforgettable and pleasant business trips to conferences, fairs, congresses and other professional gatherings in all corners of the world, by creating "tailor-made calendars" comprised of prominent events related to their line of business and by entirely organizing all elements of business trips.
The MICE department can boast of having the most extensive selection of incentive trips that motivate employees and increase their efficiency. They are designed according to the tailor-made principle in order to meet the specific interests of a particular client. Most of the teams of Croatia's leading companies have passed through various team building programs organized by Generalturist - that can take place on land or on water, in the form of rafting, paragliding, sailing, cave adventures, canoe and jeep safaris, cycling, hiking, wellness or paintball games, whose aim is to develop strategic thinking, communication skills, boost self-confidence, encourage self-initiative and create a sense of belonging to the group.
Generalturist's MICE department is unique on the agency market, also by the fact that it is the only one offering its partners the possibility of using Travel Management software, which provides automated handling of travel orders, thus covering the entire administrative process of planning a trip, from submitting and creating travel requests to payment of expenses and closing of travel orders. Travel Management software also simplifies the tracking of business trip expenses, thanks to numerous application reports and the possibility to be connected to Generalturist's computer system, which makes the process of providing and purchasing services even more efficient.

Budget Rent-a-Car Services

Generalturist is owner of the Budget Rent-a-Car franchise for Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Budget Rent-a-Car offers its services through a network of 2700 branch offices throughout the world with a total of 300 000 vehicles in 115 countries. Budget Rent-a-Car services in Croatia are available through 15 Generalturist branch offices, while the 500 vehicles, 6-months old on average, cover over 15% of Croatia's vehicle rental market. Budget Rent-a-Car was awarded the title of "World’s Best Car Rental" and "Global Supplier of the Year" in 1999.

Airline Ticket Sales

We are market leader in the sales of airline tickets. The efficiency of our service in this segment is evident through the quick and efficient purchase of tickets for all destinations. In the specialized segment of business travel packages, Generalturist, with its personal approach, takes care of the wishes and needs of each individual traveler (such as preferred seat in the airplane and special meals) and, on behalf of the client, tracks the state of each of the phases of existing FF (Frequent Flyer) programs of airline companies.

 
 
 
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