The Croatian National Tourist Board has announced 6% increase in visitor arrivals for the first half of the year. June itself saw a 10% increase in arrivals and an 8% increase in overnight stays when compared to last year.

According to data from online information system in Croatia called eVisitor, which monitors turnover in commercial and non-commercial travel, the country had 6.88 million visitors from January to June this year, 6% upswing in total arrivals and 26.2 million overnight stays, an increase of 3% over the previous year. Foreign tourists counted for 5.85 million of these arrivals and 22.93 million overnight stays.

“Strengthening promotional activities in overseas markets.”

Gari Cappelli, minister of tourism in Croatia commented: “One of the main objectives for tourism management in 2019 is to increase visitors to the destination in pre-season. In the past three years, we have seen a 20% growth in tourist arrivals and 15% growth in occupancy. By continuing to strengthen our promotional activities in overseas markets, we aim to achieve greater turnover in pre and post season moving forward.”

The overall growth in tourism achieved during the first half of this year is as a result of targeted activities to promote our country as a great all-year-round destination. Increased air traffic has also had a strong impact on tourism growth, he added.

In the first six months of 2019, Istria saw the highest number of overnight stays (7.6 million), followed by Split-Dalmatia County (4.7 million) and Kvarner (4.3 million).