From January till the end of July 2022, the total tourist arrivals in Croatia equaled 10.4m, representing an increase of 62% YoY. Meanwhile, tourism overnight stays amounted to 54.4m, an increase of 46% YoY. When we compare tourist nights to record 2019, it is merely 4% below nights realized in 2019.
The Croatian Tourist Board (HTZ) has recently published its latest report on the number of arrivals and overnight stays in Croatia, as well as other tourism-related statistics. In July 2022, the trend that the industry has experienced during the entire 2022 continues, with positive growth in both the number of arrivals as well as the number of overnight stays.
In total, the tourist arrivals in July 2022 amounted to 4.62m, an increase of 22% YoY. Foreign tourists accounted for 4.23m, an increase of 26% YoY, while domestic tourists accounted for 390k, representing a decrease of 8% YoY. The increase in foreign tourists reflects the higher savings and no travel restrictions compared to 2021, while a decrease in domestic tourists can be attributed to the current inflation rates in Croatia, having an impact on the amount of disposable income of domestic tourists, thus reducing their number. Compared to the record 2019 however, the number of tourist arrivals is roughly the same, while the number of domestic arrivals is app. 10% higher. This would mean that the number of tourist arrivals is 1% higher than in 2019.
Moving on to the tourist nights, in total, they amounted to 29.6m, representing an increase of 18% YoY. Foreign tourist nights amounted to 26.4m, representing an increase of 21% YoY, while domestic tourist nights amounted to 3.2m, which is a decrease of 4% YoY. This would also mean that the current average stay per person amounted to 6.40 nights per person, which compared to the same period in July 2021, is a decrease of 3.4%. Comparing the number of overnight stays to 2019, we can see that in total, they were down 3%. Foreign overnight stays were 2% lower, while domestic overnight stays were 10% lower.
Total tourist arrivals and tourist nights in Croatia ( January 2019 – July 2022)
The decrease in overnight stays, however, is to be expected, as the current inflationary environment across Europe is also affecting the disposable incomes of arriving tourists. At the same time, tourist companies are under heavy pressure on the cost side, as energy, material, and staff costs have increased significantly in the past year, and year and a half. This would mean that even with a comparable number of arrivals, people are spending either less money on accommodation by choosing more budget-friendly options, or choosing to spend less time in a given type of accommodation, which is reflected in the lower number of overnight stays. Despite these challenges, however, the start of the summer season looks encouraging.
In fact, one of the largest tourism companies in Croatia, Valamar Riviera, has already commented on this. According to the Company, they expect accommodation revenue to be app. 20% higher than in 2019, driven by higher prices with a similar number of overnight stays.
Coming back to tourism as a whole, if we were to take a look at the tourist nights by country of origin, German tourists lead the way, with 18%, followed by Slovenia with 13%, domestic tourists with 11%, Czechia and Poland with 8% each, respectively, and Austria, with 7%. Overall, these countries accounted for 65% of the total tourist nights in Croatia, meaning that once again, the Central European market is the most predominant emitive market for Croatian tourism. Moving on to the counties by the number of overnight stays, Istra leads the way, with 7.92m, followed by Splitsko-dalmatinska with 5.7m, Kvarner with 5.3m, and Zadarska, with 4.86m.
Finally, taking a look at the period January – July 2022, the number of foreign tourist arrivals amounted to 8.88m, an increase of 72.4% compared to the same period last year, while domestic tourist arrivals amounted to 1.53m, an increase of 19.5% YoY. At the same time, foreign tourist nights amounted to 47.9m, an increase of 54% YoY, while domestic tourist nights amounted to 6.58m, an increase of 8% YoY. In total, arrivals in the period amounted to 10.4m, an increase of 61.9% YoY, while tourist nights amounted to 54.5m, an increase of 46.5% YoY. When we compare tourist nights to the record 2019, it is merely 4% below the 2019 result.
