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Last year 11.45 million tourists visited Croatia, or 8% more than in 2010, and they generated 60.35 million bed nights, a 7% increase in relation to the previous year, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday. Foreign holidaymakers, coming from 63 countries from all continents, accounted for 86.6% of all tourist arrivals and 90.7% of bed nights. The number of foreign tourists who visited Croatia in 2011 was 9.92 million, a 9% increase over 2010, and they generated 54.75 million bed nights, up 7.4%.After declines in 2010 and 2009, the number of domestic tourists also rose last year. They recorded 1.53 million arrivals, a rise of 2.4% over 2010, and 5.6 million bed nights, up 3.3% year on year.

Croatian Tourism Minister Veljko Ostojic on Tuesday held talks with a delegation led by French Ambassador Jerome Pasquier, the Tourism Ministry said in a statement. The talks focused on France's experience with a lower VAT rate in the tourism and hospitality industry, projects designed to advertise Croatia's culture on the French market, and investment possibilities in the Croatian tourism industry. A three-month project promoting Croatian culture in France will be held in France this autumn, Ostojic said, adding that Croatia would focus more on cultural tourism and cultural heritage in the coming years.

The Karlovac County Board of Tourism and County Prefect Ivan Vucic on Monday presented three projects, including one on cross-border cooperation in developing fishing tourism, worth EUR 425,000, and nominated for funds from the IPA pre-accession programme. The cross-borer cooperation project focuses on the development of fishing tourism in Una-Sana Canton in Bosnia and Croatia's Karlovac and Lika-Senj counties. The project will be implemented by the tourist offices in Karlovac, Gospic and Bihac.