Tourism in Croatia is booming, and the record results of 2019 have almost been achieved. Since the beginning of 2021, the country has registered 55.3 million overnight stays, a number that exceeds that of the whole of 2020, when it has reached 54.4 million. These data were provided by the eVisitor system, according to which, of the total overnight stays, 46.6 million are attributable to foreign tourists, while 8.7 million to national ones. Since the beginning of 2021, tourists have been 9 million, or 1.2 million more than last year.
If we “transform” these data into percentages, we see that in 2021 arrivals exceeded by 46 percent and overnight stays by 37% those of the same period last year. Compared to 2019, 61% of arrivals and 72% of overnight stays have been reached. More than one million tourists currently stay in Croatia. Most of those foreigners are Germans (297,000), Poles (81,000), Slovenes (74,000) and Italians (61,000). Most of them are currently found in Istria (283,000), the Primorsko-Goranska region (187,000) and Split-Dalmatia (184,000).
“Given the trends in the travel industry, our goal was to maintain the stability of the tourist system, preserve jobs and the recognition of Croatia as a safe tourist destination,” says Nikolina Brnjac, Minister of Tourism and Sports in Croatia. “We want to continue with these results and that is why it is important that we all continue to adhere to epidemiological measures. This creates the foundations for next year and the continued development of Croatian tourism. This year has first of all shown that safety and quality are crucial in choosing a destination, and that guests are willing to pay even more.”
In July 2021, tourists stayed on average in Croatia for 6.67 days, a significant increase compared to 2019, when the average stay was 5.53 days. In the first 16 days of August, it reached 7.05 days compared to 6.66 two years ago. As for foreign guests, the average stay went from 6.3 days in 2019 to 6.8 days this year.
In the first two weeks of August, the hospitality and tourism sector recorded a turnover of over 3.3 billion kuna against 2 billion in the same period last year. The growth in consumption can also be seen by comparing the first half of August 2021 with the same record period of 2019: this year more than 600 million more were spent than two years ago.
According to Veljko Ostojic, director of the Hrvatske Udruge Turizma, or the Croatian Tourism Association, this pandemic has accelerated the trend, already seen before, that tourists in Croatia are increasingly looking for better and high-quality facilities. “The facilities of the highest categorization are achieving excellent results this year and according to the financial performance they are approaching the record from 2019, and some will exceed the figures from 2019 with the result. This is not a passing trend, it is a direction in which we should continue to develop the tourist offer in the coming years.”
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