Kvarner and Istria tourism records set to be broken in 2021

Rab

ZAGREB, 3 October 2021 – Istria and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in Croatia have enjoyed excellent tourist results in 2021. 

On the Istrian peninsula, there have been millions of overnight stays, whilst in Gorski Kotar, the Green Heart of Croatia, in the first nine months of the year there have been as much as 30 percent more overnights than the record year of 2019.

Excellent results have also been recorded in Primorje, Kvarner and on the islands in the region. 

Tourism is up 9% on the island of Lošinj in September, Rab 6%, Krk 10%, and Cres 21 percent up on 2019. The most numerous guests were Germans and Austrians. 

Bookings in October, say the tourism workers, are excellent, so this year records look set to be broken in Kvarner and Istria.

“Istria is definitely the winner of the Mediterranean,” director of the Istria Tourist Board Denis Ivošević told HRT. 

The region continues to attract large number of tourists especially from Austria and Germany. 

“These tourists also choose active holidays, but also, for example, painting workshops by the sea. The goal of many tourists to find what they are looking for on the Istrian peninsula is confirmed by the fact that August and September are better than in the record year of 2019. So far, almost 23 million overnight stays have been realised.

In September 2021, there were 1.9 million tourist arrivals and 12 million overnight stays in Croatia. Compared to the results in 2019, which was a record for tourism in Croatia’s history, in September this year, 81 percent of arrivals and 94 percent of overnight stays of September 2019 was realised.

Most tourist overnight stays were in Istria (3.8 million), Split-Dalmatia (2.3 million) and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County (2.1 million), followed by Zadar County (1.5 million overnight stays), Dubrovnik-Neretva County (903,000) and Šibenik-Knin County (807,000).

The most popular destinations are Dubrovnik (108,000 arrivals), Split (88,000), Rovinj (85,000), Zagreb (82,000) and Poreč (61,000 arrivals).