Foreign tourists to Croatia come from more than 80 countries

Foreign tourists coming to Croatia this year come from more than 80 countries around the world and from all continents and account for more than 90% of arrivals and bed nights in Croatian tourism. Even though the most numerous guests continue to come from Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Britain, Hungary and France there is a growing number of tourists coming from Scandinavian countries, Brazil, Australia, the US and elsewhere.

According to figures released by the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ), in the first seven months of this year almost 6 million foreign tourists had visited Croatia which is 4% more than last year, realising 33 million bed nights or an increase of 3.3%.

German tourists account for most bed nights with 917,700 German tourists realising 6.6 million bed nights which is on par to last year's numbers.

It is interesting that almost half of the bed nights by Germans in the first seven months or 3.2 million were realised just in July which again is very similar year on year.

Russian tourists accounted for 730,000 bed nights which is a fall of 20% compared to the first seven months of last year. This fall is mostly attributed to the introduction of a new visa regime consequent to Croatia joining the European Union in July.

The new visa regime most probably is the cause for the fall of 26% in bed nights by Ukraine guests too.

That will be the greatest blow to Croatia's tourism this year with negative numbers from around 20 countries of a total of 80 from where foreign tourists coming to Croatia come from.

Larger numbers of foreign tourists in the first seven months were recorded from Sweden and Norway with 33% more bed nights but the highest increase in numbers of overnight stays ranging from 20% to 60% are tourists from Australia, Bulgaria, Belorussia, Brazil, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Canada, China, Letonia and the US. (Hina)