Non-commercial Tourist Traffic: Tourist Arrivals up by 8% and Tourist Nights up by 5%

Weekend houses and tourist apartments in Croatia, mostly located along the Adriatic coast, hosted in the period from 15 June till 15 September around 250.969 guests and registered 3.5 million tourist night stays, which is an increase in tourist arrivals by 8 percent and in night stays by 5 percent, compared to the same period in 2005, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (DZS – Državni zavod za statistiku).

The above presented figures show statistics related to the so-called non-commercial, private tourist traffic, i.e. data on tourist arrivals and night stays realized by the owners of those houses and apartments, members of their family and friends.

Those numbers are based on data provided by the local tourist offices, where all those guests and owners have to be registered during their stay.

This non-commercial tourism registered in those three months more foreign tourist arrivals, whilst domestic tourists do prevail when it comes to night stays.

From mid June till mid September, private houses and apartments registered over 116 thousand domestic guests (plus by 4 percent over same period in 2005). They also realized almost 68 percent of the total number of night stays, i.e. over 2.4 million nights (plus by 2 percent over same period in 2005).

A larger increase in arrivals and night stays was registered in the case of foreign guests. In those three months, those non-commercial, private accommodation facilities registered the arrival of 135 thousand foreigners (plus by 10 percent over 2005) and 1.1 million foreign night stays (plus by 14 percent over 2005).

Most of those foreign guests came from Slovenia (over 371 thousand), Germany (over 148 thousand), Bosnia and Herzegovina (almost 108 thousand), Hungary, Austria, Italy and other.

The owners themselves, members of their families and their friends spent in those objects and average of 14 nights per arrival, i.e. the domestic guests stayed for an average of 21 days and the foreign guests for an average of 8 days.

In the area of non-commercial tourist traffic (June-September, 2006) the two leading counties are the County of Primorje – Gorski Kotar (60.785 arrivals and 1.2 million night stays ) and the County of Zadar (85.598 arrivals and 996 thousand night stays).

The DZS expects to receive more precise numbers by the end of 2006.