Tourism in Croatia Up 22% in First 4 Months of 2017

by croatiaweek
May 3, 2017
in News

Tourism growth big at start of 2017 (photo: Ivan Bagic)

A busy start to what is expected to be a record year for tourism in Croatia’s history.

According to data from the eVisitor and eCrew (nautical) system, a total of 1.7 million tourists visited Croatia in the first four months of 2017, which is 22% more than in the same period of 2016, which was a record-breaking year.

From 1 January to 30 April 2017 tourists created 4.7 million overnight stays, which is 26% more than the same period last year.

1.3 million of those tourists were from abroad, with the most arriving from Germany (546.000), Slovenia (489.000), Austria (437.000), Italy (260.000) and Bosnia and Hercegovina (236.000).

Tourism up noticeably

“The growth of tourist traffic in the pre and post season is extremely important for increasing the competitiveness of tourism and encouraging active business over the longer period of the year, which contributes to the development of the local environment but also to the development of the entire Croatian economy. These results are a real indicator that Croatia has become more recognizable as a year-round destination and that its offer and attractive manifestations attract more and more guests from the main tourist year,” said Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli, adding that Croatia is now better connected thanks to new airline routes.

“I am exceptionally satisfied with the fact that numerous air carriers this year introduced new flight which makes Croatian destinations better connected with countries around the world, especially the Great Britain, Scandinavia, France, Spain, and Canada, which contributes to these well-accomplished results”, he said.

Rovinj in Istria (photo; CTB)

Istria was the most popular destination for tourists in the first four months of 2017, with 1.2 million overnight stays. Dubrovnik-Neretva County was next, followed by the Split-Dalmatia County and Zagreb.