In May 2022, the total tourist arrivals in Croatia amounted to 1.29m, representing an increase of 2.8x YoY, while tourist overnight stays amounted to 4.89m, representing an increase of 2.5x YoY.
The Croatian Tourist Board has published the latest report on the developments in the Croatian tourism industry for May 2022. According to the report, the current trends in the tourism industry are more than encouraging.
Total tourist arrivals amounted to 1.29m, which represents an increase of 2.8x YoY. Out of that number, 262.9k (or 20%) were domestic tourist arrivals representing an increase of 85% YoY. Meanwhile, the remaining 1.03m (or 80%) were foreign tourist arrivals, representing an increase of 3.2x YoY. This means that despite the current geopolitical situation in Ukraine, as well as high inflation rates across Europe, people are more than willing to travel with the complete end of COVID-19-related travel restrictions. Also, these numbers are really good as this is still considered the preseason in Croatia.
Furthermore, tourist overnight stays also increased significantly, amounting to app. 4.89m, representing an increase of 2.6x YoY. Out of those, foreign tourist arrivals constituted the vast majority, at 4.23m(or 87%), an increase of 2.8x YoY. Meanwhile, domestic tourist overnight stays amounted to app. 650.9k, an increase of 69% YoY. This also means that there is a clear positive trend when it comes to average stay per person, amounting to 3.77 nights per person, recording the 4th month in a row that this number has been increasing.
Total tourist arrivals and overnight stays in Croatia (January 2019 – May 2022)
Looking at the overnight stays by country of origin, Germany had the highest share, at 22% of total foreign nights, followed by the domestic market with 13%, Austria with 12%, UK and Slovenia, both at 7%, and Poland, at 5%. Turning our attention to the most visited counties, Istra had the most arrivals and overnight stays, at 363.5k and 1.55m, respectively, followed by Splitsko-Dalmatinska, Kvarner, and Dubrovačko-neretvantska.
In total, during the period from the beginning of 2022 until May 2022, the total foreign tourist arrivals amounted to 2.1m, an increase of 4x YoY, while the number of domestic arrivals amounted to 802.5k, an increase of 51% YoY, meaning that in total, 2.91m total arrivals were recorded. On the other hand, total overnight stays during this period amounted to 9.95m, an increase of 2.5x YoY. The vast majority of these nights (app. 8m) were foreign tourists, while app. 1.94m were domestic overnight stays.
Currently, all trends are pointing towards a really good opening to the 2022 season, despite the geopolitical and inflationary pressures. If you would like to read a more detailed overview of our expectations for the summer season, click here.
