According to the latest report on Croatian tourism released by the Croatian Tourism Board, in April 2024, the total number of tourist arrivals declined by 5% YoY, while the total number of tourist nights decreased by 7% YoY. Furthermore, as compared to April 2019, the total number of arrivals is 7% lower, while the total number of nights is 6% lower.
April 2024, while still not part of the main tourism season, does play a role in Croatian tourism, mostly due to the Easter holidays. However, it should be noted that Easter landed on 31 March this year, leading to part of the arrivals/nights being recorded then. As such, it isn’t surprising that there was a drop in the number of arrivals and nights this time around.
Looking at the numbers, the total tourist arrivals amounted to 1.08m, decreasing by 5% YoY. Of this, foreign tourist arrivals amounted to 852.4k, declining by 6% YoY, while domestic tourist arrivals amounted to 223.5k, decreasing by 1% YoY. On the other hand, total tourist nights amounted to 3.11m, decreasing by 7% YoY. Of this, foreign arrivals amounted to 2.6m, declining by 8% YoY, while domestic arrivals amounted to 511.9k, decreasing by 5% YoY. As compared to April 2019, the total number of arrivals is 7% lower, driven by 13% lower foreign arrivals, while domestic arrivals increased by 24%. On the flipside, total nights decreased by 6%, with a 9% decline in foreign nights, but a 13% increase in domestic nights.
Total tourist arrivals and nights in Croatia (January 2019 – April 2024)
Source: HTZ, InterCapital Research
Given these numbers, the average stay per person amounted to 2.89 nights, declining by 2.5% YoY, but increasing by 1% compared to the average stay in 2019. Meanwhile, looking at the tourist nights by accommodation, 91% of nights were registered in commercial accommodation, 5% were non-commercial, and 4% were registered in nautical accommodation. Inside the commercial accommodation, 53% of nights were recorded in hotels, 24% in private accommodation, 14% in camps, while 9% went to other types of accommodation.
In terms of the tourist nights by country of origin, 18% of the nights were domestic nights, 14% came from Germany, 13% from Slovenia, 8% from Austria, and 7% from Poland. At the same time, the best performing counties were Istra with 821.1k of nights recorded, followed by Splitsko-dalmatinska at 502.2k, Dubrovačko-neretvanska at 452.3k, Kvarner at 432.4k, and Zadarska, at 294.9k.
Taking all of this together, the numbers overall are stable, especially if we take the effect of Easter being in March this year. While this data cannot show us how the rest of the season will go, bookings at different tourist companies are solid for now, pointing towards another good season for tourism. Of course, what will really determine the success of the summer season is the prices, especially now that many other countries in the Mediterranean are offering competitive services to Croatia. In this year, this is distinctly true, as the inflationary pressures we have witnessed in the last 3 years have put a lot of pressure on tourist budgets, especially from main emissive markets for Croatia such as Germany.
