In October 2020, Croatia observed a fall in tourist arrivals by -81.45% and a fall in tourist nights by -68.77%.

The bulk of Croatian 2020 tourist season is behind us which you can recap on here. However, it is still worth looking at the latest report of the Croatian National Tourist Board for October 2020, which shows a decrease in arrivals of 81.45% and a decrease in tourist nights by 68.77%.

To be specific, Croatia noted 207.7k arrivals in October, compared to 1.12m in October of 2019. Of total arrivals witnessed in October, foreign tourists account for 106.6k or 51%. Such figures show a decrease in foreign arrivals of 88.6%, 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.

For example Slovenia, which traditionally finds its place in top markets from which tourists arrive, has for the first time since WW2 imposed a restriction on movement at night. In other words, Slovenian’s were not allowed to leave their homes from 9 pm until 6 am (with some exceptions). In addition, in October, passing from one province to another was prohibited (unless given an acceptable reason). Such development affected the number of tourist arriving from Slovenia, which stood at only 16k (-78%).

Moving on to tourist nights; in October Croatia observed 1.19m tourist nights compared to 3.8m in October of 2019. Such figures indicate that the average stay per person increased from 3.4 nights to 5.7 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 690k or 58%. Of that, tourists from Germany lead the list, accounting for 14.7% of total nights.

If we were to observe the figures since the beginning of the year, so far 7.6m arrivals were recorded representing a decrease of -61.9%. Meanwhile tourist nights reached 53.62m by the end of October (-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 October by counties, Istria leads the list with 21.35% of the total arrivals. Meanwhile, Zadarska county leads the list of most tourist nights (24%). Turning our attention to the type of accommodation, one can observe that hotels observed a 86.4% decrease in arrivals to 101.6k, while nights realized in hotels stood at 244.3k (-87.1%).

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 24 Feb till 8 Nov 2020 the value of taxable invoices decreased by 17.18% YoY.

A higher frequency data is compiled by Croatian Tax Administration, a department of the Ministry of Finance, who stated that the value of taxable invoices dropped by 17.18% YoY (or HRK 25.43bn) in the period from 24 February till 8 November. Meanwhile total taxable invoices in the mentioned period amounted to HRK 122.57bn.

Drop in taxable invoices in wholesale and retail trade in the same period was only at 8.88% (or HRK 8.43bn) while drop in accommodation and food services was at 53.9% (or HRK 10.95bn).

The value of taxable invoices in the 1st week of November 2020, continued to drop in single digits (like the week prior). To be specific in the 1st  week of November taxable invoices decreased by 8.32% YoY to HRK 3.03bn. Drop in taxable invoices in the wholesale and retail trade was relatively low at -3.67% YoY, while drop in accommodation and food services was at -29.51% YoY.

If we were to compare it on a WoW basis, the value of invoices has increased by 2.12% or HRK 62.94m.