The tourist season in Croatia was prosperous, with 91 per cent of 2019’s arrivals and 96 per cent of 2019’s overnight stays already attained.
According to data, 15 million tourists visited Croatia between January and August 2022, staying 86.6 million nights.
There were 4.6 million arrivals and 32 million overnight stays in August alone, a six per cent increase in arrivals and a four per cent increase in nights spent compared to the same month in 2021. Nonetheless, compared to July 2019, 92% of arrivals and 97% of overnight stays were met.
According to a recent press statement from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the number of arrivals to the country has climbed by 40%, while overnight stays have increased by 27% compared to the previous year.
“As was shown at the very beginning of the year, when already in the first quarter we achieved higher revenues from foreign tourists than in the record year of 2019, this continued and in the current part of the year we achieved almost 600 million more in the value of fiscalised invoices than in the whole of 2019,” said Minister of Tourism and Sports Nikolina Brnjac.
In addition, the director of the Croatian Tourist Board, Kristjan Stanicic, stated that the tourism season has been positive, with 96 per cent of pre-pandemic levels being reached, and in some destinations even surpassed 2019 levels when no travel restrictions were in place.
Istria had the most significant number of overnight stays with 24,7 million, followed by Split-Dalmatia and Primorje-Gorski Kotar with 16 million and 15.4 million, respectively.
Zadar County reported 12.8 million overnight stays, while Dubrovnik-Neretva County and Sibenik-Knin County recorded 6.2 million and 5.7 million overnight stays, respectively.
However, since the beginning of the year, Rovinj has registered the most overnight stays with 3.5 million, followed by Dubrovnik and Porec with 2.8 million apiece. In addition, tourists have spent around 2.6 million nights in Medulin, 2.4 million nights in Umag, and 2.4 million nights in Split since January.
Germany accounted for 19.8 million tourists, followed by Slovenia (8.8 million), Austria (6.5 million), Poland (5.7 million), the Czech Republic (5.2 million), Italy (3.7 million), Slovakia (3 million), the Netherlands (2.9 million), and Great Britain (2.8 million).
The most significant number of overnight stays was reported in private residences (33,9 million), followed by campgrounds (17,6 million nights) and hotels (17,6 million nights).