Croatia to Charge Tourists for Mountain Rescues

After years of conducting rescue missions for stranded tourists in Croatia free of charge, the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service, HGSS, plans to introduce payment for its services.

HGSS personnel work on a voluntary basis. They also use military helicopters for their rescue missions and this creates additional costs for the state.

Previously the HGSS could not charge people because neither it nor the Croatian army was legally allowed to sell services.

But a special committee has set up a pilot project under which the Croatian health insurance fund will charge for the service which will be included in travel insurance packages for tourists in Croatia, while Croatian citizens will cover the costs through their basic health insurance.

For purposes of the pilot project, the HGSS will rent civil helicopters and stop using military ones, which are much more expensive. After the pilot project, it will be decided whether to buy new helicopters or to use military ones.

The head of the HGSS, Vinko Prizmic, stressed that there was still some way to go before the scheme is fully implemented.

"Tourists who come to the country each year pay between 80 and 100 million Croatian kuna [between 10.5 and 13.2 million euro] in travel insurance. What should be defined is the product that will be offered to insurance companies, which they would then offer to their customers," Prizmis stated.

He also said that in case of gross negligence the insurance company would not cover the costs of rescue services in a similar way to how car insurance schemes do not pay out to people who have accidents while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. This would make tourists and Croatian citizens more responsible, he suggested.  

The HGSS has 400...