Ambitious Plans for Increasingly Popular Croatian Island

When tourists talk Croatian islands it is usually the same suspects that keep getting mentioned – Brač, Hvar, Korčula, Krk, Rab, Lošinj, Pag…but there is one island with major plans, and considerable growth over the last two years indicates that it might not be long before the island of Vir becomes a major tourism force…

This year the island of Vir, located north of the Dalmatian city of Zadar, expects at least 10% more overnight stays that last year, when it achieved a record 1.35 million overnight stays. To keep up with the growing popularity some major investment is planned for the island over the next five years. Around 20 million euros is set to be pumped into tourism and other projects.

“The aim is that on Vir in the next five years 10 hotels, 10 mini tourist complexes (4 and 5 star), 10 camp sites, 3 marinas and 100 swimming pools are built. It is a very ambitious plan, but realistic,” Director of Vir Tourism management company Zdenko Mičić told Tportal.

Last year Vir recorded 113,500 registered tourist arrivals and 1.35 million overnight stays, which was 20.6% more arrivals and 26.4% more overnight stays than in 2013. Local tourists still dominate, with 35% of the total number of arrivals on the island locals. Hungarians, Slovenians, Germans and Slovakians are the next largest groups.