In November 2020, Croatia observed a fall in tourist arrivals by -76.2% and a fall in tourist nights by -53.8%.

As 2020 is coming to an end it is worth looking at the latest report of the Croatian National Tourist Board for November 2020, which shows a decrease in arrivals of 76.2% and a decrease in tourist nights by 53.8%.

To be specific, Croatia noted 95.2k arrivals in November, compared to 400k in November of 2019. Of total arrivals witnessed in November, foreign tourists account for 35.5k or 37.3%. Such figures show a decrease in foreign arrivals of 86.4%, which could be attributed to the continued increase in number of Covid-19 cases throughout Europe. Such development of the pandemic led to increased restrictions and a further halt in travel as evidenced by these figures.

Moving on to tourist nights; in November Croatia observed 472.4k tourist nights compared to 1.02m in November of 2019. Such figures indicate that the average stay per person increased from 2.6 nights to 5 nights. When looking at solely foreign tourists, average stay per person amounted to 6.8 nights on average, compared to 2.5 nights. This comes as no surprise, as tourists remained longer at one place, rather than traveling to multiple destinations due to the travel restrictions imposed. Of total tourist nights realized, foreign tourists account for 242k or 51.2%. Of that, tourists from Slovenia lead the list, accounting for 7.7% of total nights.

If we were to observe the figures since the beginning of the year, so far 7.69m arrivals were recorded representing a decrease of -62.1%. Meanwhile tourist nights reached 54.1m by the end of November (-49.8% YoY).  We note that such figures have outperformed the initially announced estimates of the government, which were published during lockdown.

When observing the arrivals realized in November by counties, Kvarner leads the list with 15.57% of the total arrivals and most tourist nights, 16.5%. Turning our attention to the type of accommodation, one can observe that hotels observed a 82.4% decrease in arrivals to 53.2k, while nights realized in hotels stood at 113.2k (-79.6%).

December figures are expected to weigh-down on 2020 annual statistics as further restrictions in efforts to prevent the spread of the virus in Croatia and Croatia’s inbound tourist countries are evidenced. By looking at the latest announcement from the Tax Administration of the Republic of Croatia, being tracked for Covid-19 pandemic purposes, in the period from 30 Nov till 6 Dec 2020 the value of taxable invoices in accommodation and food services decreased by 78% YoY compared to the same week last year. If we were to compare it on a WoW basis, the value of invoices in accommodation and food services has decreased by 57% or HRK 73.4m. Stricter epidemiological measures concerning territory of whole Croatia that prohibits working of bars and restaurants and other catering facilities, excluding hotels and camps, came into force on 28 Nov 2020.