Foreign cruise ships make just 16 trips to Croatia in Jan-July

Dubrovnik

ZAGREB, Sept 5 (Hina) – As a result of the global coronavirus pandemic, foreign cruise ships made as few as 16 trips to Croatia in the first seven months of 2020, which is a decline of 95.6% compared with the same period of 2019, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS). 

The 16 trips were made by seven cruise liners, whose number fell by nearly 88% compared with last year. Fifteen of the trips were made in the first quarter of the year, while one was made in July. The July trip brought 25 passengers who stayed in Croatia for six days, while in July last year 96 such trips were made with a total of 156,000 passengers.

In the first seven months of this year, the cruise ships brought slightly fewer than 3,800 passengers, which is a decline of 99.3% compared with the same period of last year when 368 trips brought 565,000 passengers.

Unlike the previous years, when cruise ships visiting the Croatian Adriatic flew the flags of more than 20 countries, this year they sailed under the flags of only five countries – Belgium, Greece, Italy, Malta and the Marshall Islands. Maltese-flagged ships maintained the lead over the years as 12 of the 16 trips this year were made under the Maltese flag.

The majority of the trips, or 75%, were made to Dubrovnik-Neretva County and the rest to Istria County.