Published on : Thursday, July 11, 2019
In comparison to the same time 2018, 6.88 million more visits (6.39 percent growth) and 26.26 million more overnight stays (3.02 percent growth) were recorded in 2019.
Cappelli and Kristjan Stanicic, director of the Croatian tourist board, mentioned that they are quite happy with the outcome, particularly with the growth of arrivals from long-haul travel markets.
In the initial six months of 2019, almost 180,000 Chinese tourists visited Croatia. It is 41 percent more than in the first half of last year.
“Tourists from the long-haul travel markets account almost 20 percent of all visits and 10 percent of overnight stays. We kept a stable position in our traditional tourist markets in Europe and achieved double-digit growth on the long-haul markets such as the U.S., Canada, China, South Korea, and Australia,” Stanicic told reporters.
Also, the airport traffic increased in the first six months of this year. Pula airport in the northern Adriatic grew 16 percent, Rijeka airport 19 percent and Zadar Airport in Dalmatia 30 percent compared to the same period in 2018.
For Croatia, Germany was still the largest source of tourists. In the first half of 2019, there were 946,522 overnight stays by German visitors.
The tourism minister explained that that he anticipates successful results in the second half of the year as well, and a three percent growth of the tourism industry.
“We are not looking for a growth of 10 or 15 percent. We want to preserve the environment, have a quality offer and sustainable growth,” Cappelli explained.
Tags: Croatia