By the end of September 2022, total tourist arrivals in Croatia amounted to 2.18m, representing an increase of 16% YoY. At the same time, tourist overnight stays amounted to 13m, representing an increase of 7.3% YoY.

The Croatian Tourist Board (HTZ) has published the latest report on the number of tourist arrivals and overnight stays in Croatia. According to the report, September 2022 continues the positive growth that the tourist industry experienced during 2022, with growth recorded in both the number of tourist arrivals and overnight stays.

Overall, the tourist arrivals in September 2022 amounted to 2.18m, which is an increase of 16% YoY. Foreign tourist arrivals amounted to 1.97m, which is an increase of 17.5% YoY, while domestic tourist arrivals amounted to 210.9k, representing a decrease of 3.5% YoY. The growth in foreign tourist arrivals can be attributed to higher saving rates that they managed to achieve in 2020/2021, as well as the proximity of Croatia to its main emitive markers, i.e. the Central European market. At the same time, a slight increase in domestic tourist arrivals was noted even in the current inflationary environment, which is negatively impacting domestic disposable income.

Moving on to the tourist nights, they amounted to 13m, which is an increase of 7.3% YoY. Of this, foreign tourist nights amounted to 11.8m, representing an increase of 8.3%, while domestic tourist nights amounted to 1.2m, which is a decrease of 2.6% YoY. This also means that the average stay per person increased to 5.94 nights per person, which compared to the same period last year, is an increase of 9.2%.

Total tourist arrivals and tourist nights in Croatia (January 2019 – September 2022)

Looking at the tourist nights by country of origin in September, German tourists are far ahead of others with 32% of all tourist nights. Following them, we have the Austria, at 10%, domestic tourists at 9%, Poland and Slovenia with 7% of the total arrivals each. This data is again supportive of the fact that the Central European region is the one with the most tourist arrivals, as well as overnight stays. Meanwhile, looking at the counties by the number of overnight stays, Istra leads the way, at 545.3k, followed by Splitsko-dalmatinska, with 439.9k, Kvarner, with 327.5k, Dubrovačko-neretvanska with 254.4k, and Zadarska, at 203k.

Taking a look at the data for the period from January – September 2022, the number of foreign tourist arrivals amounted to 15.1m, which is an increase of 41% compared to the same period in 2021. Meanwhile, domestic tourist arrivals amounted to 2.1m (an increase of 11.9% YoY). Foreign tourist nights amounted to 88.3m, an increase of 28.2%, while domestic tourist nights amounted to 11.5m, an increase of 1.7% YoY.

Finally, taking a look at the data compared to 2019, in September 2022, total arrivals are at 91.7% of 2019’s level, with foreign arrivals decreasing by 10.3%, while domestic arrivals increased by 9%. On the other hand, total tourist nights are at 97% of 2019’s level, with foreign tourist nights 2.4% lower, while domestic tourist nights were 8% lower.