From the beginning of this year until the end of May Croatia saw more than a million tourist arrivals and achieved 3.9 million overnight stays. New data from the Croatian National Tourist Board reveals that compared to the same period from last year, which was obviously greatly affected by the pandemic, tourist arrivals in the same period grew by 42 percent.
Of the total arrivals and overnight stays, foreign tourists realized more than 516,000 arrivals and 2.5 million overnight stays.
Looking at May alone, there were 451,000 tourist arrivals and 1.9 million overnight stays in that month, an increase of 412 percent in arrivals and 256 percent in overnight stays compared to May last year. At the same time, foreign guests made more than 312,000 arrivals and more than 1.5 million overnight stays.
"The realization of tourist traffic so far shows that Croatia is positioned in many markets as a safe, quality and well-prepared destination. Currently, more than 100,000 tourists are staying in our country every day, and for the first time this year we exceeded that number on Friday, May 28th. We have now entered the month of June in which we expect further strengthening of tourist traffic, while the largest number of tourists are expected in the main summer months of July and August, for which we have very good announcements,” commented the director of the Croatian Tourist Board Kristjan Staničić.
During the first five months, most overnight stays were realized in Istria (1.2 million overnight stays), Kvarner (609,000 overnight stays), Split-Dalmatia (516,000 overnight stays) and Zadar County (398,000 overnight stays), while on the continent, together with the city of Zagreb, realized more than 712,000 overnight stays. Looking at destinations, most overnight stays during the first five months were realized in Zagreb, Rovinj, Poreč, Split, Zadar and Dubrovnik.
Most overnight stays were realized by tourists from Germany (782,000 overnight stays), Slovenia (315,000 overnight stays), Austria (180,000 overnight stays), Bosnia and Herzegovina (160,000 overnight stays), Poland (154,000 overnight stays) and the Czech Republic (117,000 overnight stays).
(The Dubrovnik Times)