STA, 22 August 2020 - Contrary to expectations, Slovenians holidaying in neighbouring Croatia are not yet returning home in great numbers after the country was put on Slovenia's red list in terms of Covid-19. Waiting times on the border to enter Slovenia are thus comparable to previous years.

More massive returns are expected on Sunday and Monday, as Slovenians can return from Croatia without having to go into a 14-day quarantine until Monday midnight.

Can I transit Slovenia? Find out from the police...

Police data from border crossings with Croatia shows that it is mainly Germans and Czechs crossing into Slovenia, including at two of the main border crossings - Dragonja in the south-west and Gruškovje in the east.

Data from the Traffic Information Centre meanwhile shows that the longest waiting time to enter Slovenia is an hour and a half at Gruškovje.

Many are still also heading for Croatia, and have to wait around an hour at Dragonja, the longest waiting time.

Mirko Skuhala of border police at Gruškovje told the press today that 11,000 vehicles entered Slovenia last night, which is on a par with the same period last year.

STA, 20 August 2020 - Slovenia has put Croatia on the red list of countries from which travellers must undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine effective on Friday, but the government has also put in place a number of exemptions to make sure trade, commerce and cross-border ties with Croatia as well as other neighbouring countries run smoothly.

There will be a special exemption for owners and lessees of boats and real estate. They will be allowed to leave the country for 48 hours to sort out any errands concerning their property without having to quarantine on return. Interior Minister Aleš Hojs said this was not a blank check for such persons to travel back and forth all the time.

This exemption will apply to all neighbouring countries in the event they are placed on the red list; Croatia is currently the only red-listed neighbouring country.

There is also a new exemption for those who have a medical exam in a neighbouring country: they are allowed to return without quarantining if they get back immediately after the completed exam and present evidence thereof.

Additional exemptions have been added for all red-listed countries. Professional athletes and their staff, and members of foreign official delegations will be allowed to enter without quarantining but must present a negative Covid-19 test.

Students, those travelling for family matters and those attending funeral will be allowed to travel outside Slovenia without quarantining as well, provided they are back within 24 hours.

The government had debated red-listing only the most heavily affected regions in Croatia, which is exactly what Germany has done, but Hojs said the average across the entire country was already "deep in the red zone" so it was decided to put the entire country on the red list.

There were also ideas that people could avoid quarantine by taking a coronavirus test, but according to Hojs, epidemiologists said a 14-day quarantine was the best precautionary measure.

Since there are well over 100,000 Slovenians currently on holiday in Croatia, the government has given them until the end of Monday to return without having to quarantine. This should prevent heavy traffic on the border.

Can I transit Slovenia? Find out from the police...

Hojs said the government would monitor the situation in Croatia on a weekly basis and change the relevant decree if the epidemiological situation there improves.

In a related development, the government removed Greece from the green list, placing it on the interim, yellow list, from which most arrivals except Slovenian nationals and residents must undergo quarantine.

At the same time, conditions have been tightened for some persons who must present a negative Covid-19 test to avoid quarantine.

Only tests from certified third-country laboratories will be accepted and their suitability will be checked by the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, and the National Health Laboratory. The list of recognised third-country laboratories will be published on the website of the National Health Laboratory.

The latest statistics on coronavirus and Slovenia, and the latest police news on red, green and yellow list countries. All our stories on coronavirus and Slovenia

STA, 20 August 2020 - The 19th Tartini Festival will get under way tonight as part of more than 60 events dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the death of Piran-born Italian Baroque composer and violinist Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770).

The opening concert will be given at St George's Church in the coastal town of Piran by the Venice Baroque Orchestra and acclaimed violinist Giuliano Carmignola.

The festival's series of 13 concerts connecting Piran and Koper will then wrap up in Ljubljana on 3 December at the Slovenian Philharmonic Hall.

The concert will feature Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein, a German chamber orchestra, and its artistic director, Dutch violinist Isabelle van Keulen.

Apart from Tartini, it will feature Beethoven as part of Beethoven's Year, as well as Dvoržak, Bartok and Slovenia's contemporary composer Aldo Kumar.

To make the anniversary especially festive, some of the greatest European violinists specialising in Tartini have been invited to the festival.

Artistic director Jasna Nadles highlighted Giuliano Carmignola and Giorgio Fava from Italy, David Plantier from France and Laszlo Paulik from Hungary.

Music lovers will also get a chance to hear the sound of Tartini's violin which was made by Italian master luthier Nicolo Amati and is kept at Piran's Maritime Museum.

It will be played at the 29 August concert given by I Solisti Veneti, the festival's regular guest from Italy, which has prepared a special tribute to the composer.

Several young musicians will meanwhile play jazz arrangements of Tartini music at two concerts as part of a Tartini Junior series.

With the exception of the opening and closing concerts, all concerts will be held in the open air.

One of the highlights of Tartini 250, organised by the Piran municipality and partners throughout Tartini's Year, meanwhile took place before the festival.

On 2 August Portorož hosted the Roma Philharmonics (I Filarmonici di Roma) with acclaimed soloist Uto Ughi, who played a Tartini violin.

The concert coincided with the day 124 years ago when the Tartini monument was unveiled in Piran's square bearing the composer's name.

Tartini, the most famous Piran resident, was christened on 8 April 1692 at St George's Church, which is considered his birthday. He died in Padua on 26 February 1770.

Check out the website or Facebook page, with the full programme here, and find another great reason to visit the small but perfectly formed Slovenian coast.

STA, 12 August - Domestic guests have flooded Slovenian tourist resorts this summer, due to uncertainties about travel abroad as well as government-sponsored tourism vouchers. In many places they have saved the tourism season, but they have also been causing problems, in particular in places where foreign guests used to dominate.

Slovenian media have been abuzz in recent weeks about stories of Slovenian guests misbehaving, in particular in places that would normally be outside their price range but have become affordable due to the tourism vouchers.

Šobec, a high-end campsite not far from Bled, warned earlier this week that they had Slovenian guests unaccustomed to camping and they were not familiar with campsite etiquette.

"We doubled all security services in the camp, we have assistance from police and security guards, but still some groups of guests are causing inadmissible unrest," the camp director said.

Similar complaints have come from campsites and hotels on the coast.

In one instance about 30 guests, reportedly Roma from south Slovenia, engaged in a shouting match at a campsite in Ankaran after they refused to pay their bills.

Police in Portorož, an upscale tourist town popular among wealthy Russian and Italian guests, have had their work cut out as well.

In the last few weeks they have had to deal with a drunk woman who bit a cop after being pulled over, and a drunk man who scattered trash around the road before lying down on the road surface.

Figures released today by the Piran police station, which covers Portorož, show the number of minor offences and crimes rising by almost a third this season. In July alone the number of criminal offences rose by 13% year-on-year.

Learn more about Slovenia’s tourism vouchers

STA, 11 August 2020 - The coronavirus pandemic has caused the number of visitors in mountain huts plummet by 25%, while some huts high in the mountains have seen their visitor numbers drop by as much as 50%, as significantly fewer foreigners are hiking in Slovenia this year. However, the number of Slovenians staying at the huts has increased.

According to the Slovenian Alpine Association, huts accessible by car have actually seen their visitor numbers go up, as many Slovenians have decided to redeem their tourism vouchers there.

"Compared to previous seasons, the structure of guests has changed. While 70% of our gusts last year were foreigners, they make up only a handful this year ... with nearly 95% of our guests being Slovenians," said Jakob Zupanc of the Srednja Vas Alpine Association, which operates four easily accessible huts in the Bohinj area, north-west.

Data from the Financial Administration (FURS) shows that over 1,833 vouchers had been redeemed in mountain huts, or 1.67% of all vouchers, which have been issued to every permanent resident in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

Meanwhile, health restrictions mean that capacities are lower than usual. Under the orders of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ), a maximum of two people can sleep in the same room, with exceptions being members of the same household and people hiking together.

The tourism voucher scheme designed by the government to help tourism recover from the pandemic has drawn to the huts Slovenians who usually would not have opted for the mountains, said Dušan Prašnikar of the Alpine Association.

As of July, visitors can book their stay at some of the mountain huts on the Alpine Association's website. The system, used across the Alps, also allows easier bookings at mountain huts abroad, said Prašnikar.

Slovenia has a network of more than 10,000 kilometres of mountain paths connecting 179 mountain huts, shelters and bivouacs providing a total of 7,400 beds and the capacity to feed more than 10,000 guests at one time.

STA, 12 August 2020 - Ljubljana, whose tourism has been booming before the corona crisis, saw a 76% drop in nights spent in accommodation facilities in July compared to the same month last year. Hotels were only about 30% booked for last month, and in August this rose to 40%.

The data for 22 hotels and two hostels in the capital, of which four hotels were still closed in July and one of them opened partly in August, depending on demand, shows that in July, 28,150 nights were recorded, a significant drop from 117,000 in the same period last year, when they were all open.

Between 1 and 9 August, tourists spent 12,700 nights at the hotels and hostels, while almost 38,200 nights were generated in the same period last year.

"We mostly have foreign guests but we are happy that the number of Slovenian guests has risen significantly this year," Turizem Ljubljana told the STA, noting that 40% more Slovenian guests were recorded in July than in the same month last year, and that in the first nine days of August their number doubled.

Slovenians generated about 14% of all nights in both July and August.

The 18 or 19 hotels and two hostels that were open in August were 40% booked this month.

Turizem Ljubljana hopes that if the coronavirus situation remains unchanged or improves, the figures will rise further. A major promotion campaign is planned for the capital in Slovenia in September.

"We cannot be happy with the summer season," assistant director of Hotel Slon in the centre of Ljubljana Željko Vrhovac told the STA, noting that the occupancy rate was about 30%, which is 60 percentage points lower than in the same period in the past years.

"We've expected a faster recovery but the situation with the second wave of Covid-19 changed all that."

The share of Slovenian guests at the hotel reached about 10% in July and August, while before Covid-19, their share was less than 1%. "We attribute the rise to tourist vouchers and special packages we have prepared, and also restrictions to travelling abroad," he said.

Foreign guests mostly come from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. But these are individuals spending their holidays here, while other segments of guests such as business guests, conferences, seminars and groups have not picked up yet.

Vrhovac does not expect the situation to improve significantly until a vaccine is found.

Another Ljubljana hotel, which is slightly further away from the centre, the M Hotel, is posting an occupancy rate of 20%, which compares to 96% in the same period last year.

"Perhaps we expected a bit more Italian guests, who are quite regular visitors to Slovenia, and consequently a bit more bookings in August, but very few have come and there are no new reservations," said Gregor Erbežnik, head of sales at M Hotel.

Most of their guests are in transit, stopping on their way to Croatia. They also have some business guests. "We have virtually no Slovenian guests, despite the vouchers, which was expected, as people choose coastal and mountain destinations over Ljubljana."