310,000 tourists currently vacationing in Croatia

Plitvice Lakes

ZAGREB, Aug 31 (Hina) – About 310,000 tourists are currently vacationing in Croatia, including 240,000 foreign nationals, of whom 106,000 arrived on the last weekend in August, the Croatian Tourist Board (HTZ) said on Monday.

HTZ director Kristjan Stanicic said that the results for August were very good considering the current circumstances surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

“Our further strategic and marketing activities will primarily depend on the epidemiological situation in Croatia and neighbouring countries, and the uncertainty in that regard requires flexibility and readiness for quick and constant adjustments. We can see that some of the countries in our neighbourhood are beginning to lock themselves down, which we are taking into account in planning activities for the off-peak season,” Stanicic told Hina.

Citing data from the e-Visitor system, he said that slightly more than a million overnight stays had been recorded during the weekend between August 28 and 30, adding that 319,000 overnight stays had been generated by German tourists, 109,000 by Poles and 83,000 by Slovenes.

A total of 2.6 million tourists visited Croatia in August, generating 20.7 million overnight stays, which is 64% of the result for the same month last year.

German tourists generated 5.2 million overnight stays in August, followed by Croatians (nearly 4 million), Slovenians (2.7 million), Poles (2.2 million) and Czechs (1.3 million).

Istria County recorded the largest number of tourist overnight stays – slightly over 5 million, ahead of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County (4.1 million), Split-Dalmatia County (3.9 million), Zadar County (3.7 million) and Sibenik-Knin County (1.6 million).

Stanisic noted that Croatian tourists accounted for 20% of the tourism turnover for this year so far, adding that the HTZ was planning to reduce prices of services for domestic tourists in the autumn if the epidemiological situation permitted.