In June 2020, Croatia observed a fall in tourist arrivals by -70.99% and a fall in tourist nights by -67.78%.

According to the Croatian National Tourist Board, in June 2020, Croatia observed 915,596 tourist arrivals, representing a decline of -70.99% YoY (3.16m arrivals in June 2019). Note that such figures are in line with our expectations. Of that, foreign tourists accounted for 79%. Meanwhile, tourist nights amounted to 4.86m, which is a decrease of -67.78% YoY. Foreign tourists accounted for 80% of the total tourist nights realized.

Such figures show a positive trend regarding a slowdown in decline in tourist arrivals and night released compared to the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak. It is worth noting that arrivals in June account for roughly 15% of total arrivals.  

As a reminder, in April, due to the lockdown, Croatia has witnessed extremely low figures when it comes to foreign arrivals. To put things into perspective, in April Croatia observed 2,349 arrivals compared to 2.87m in the same month last year. Meanwhile in May, Croatia observed a fall in tourist arrivals by -94.8% and a fall in tourist nights by -90.7%.

Tourists from Slovenia recorded the most tourist arrivals, accounting for 22.6% of all arrivals. Tourists from Germany and Austria follow, accounting for 22.2% and 7.8%, respectively. Meanwhile, most of the tourist nights were also observed by tourist from Germany, representing 31.6% of foreign nights (25.26% of total nights realized).

When observing the arrivals realized by counties, Istria leads the list with 30% of the total arrivals. The counties of Kvarner and Zadar follow, accounting for 23% and 13.6% of total arrivals, respectively. Looking at tourist nights, Istria county comes first with 29.3%, followed by Kvarner with 23.6%.

When looking at the nights realized by the type of accommodation, one can observe that private accommodation leads the list with accounting for 32.4% of total nights. Camps follow with 24.8% of nights realized in them. Note that hotels recorded 175,506 arrivals (-83.3% YoY) and 536,804 nights (-85.5% YoY). It is also worth noting that the nights realized in hotels account for 11.04% of total nights realized, which represents a decrease of 13.57 p.p. Such a decrease does not come as a surprise, given that many hotels were not yet open in June and that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand shifted more towards private accommodation.

In the first 5 months GWPs declined by 2.5% YoY. GWPs in non-life insurances grew 3% YoY, while life insurance decreased by 16% YoY.

Croatian Insurance Bureau published the GWP development in May 2020. Since the beginning of the year, GWP’s observed a slight decline of 2.6% compared to the same period last year. The total amount of GWPs collected reached HRK 4.84bn (includes insurers located in Croatia and insurers operating in Croatia but based in another EU country). The aforementioned decrease came solely on the back of the life segment which observed a strong decline of 16% YoY to HRK 1.20bn.  Such a decrease could arguably be attributed to the maturing of policies which were underwritten coupled with lower savings through life insurance and early termination of these policies. Meanwhile, non-life segment which traditionally accounts for the biggest portion of total GWPs, recorded a solid increase of 3% YoY.

When observing GWPs by structure since the beginning of the year insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles (which accounts for 21.8% of GWPs) recorded an increase of 5.5% YoY. Next, vehicle insurance (casco policy) which accounts for 11.7% of total GWPs recorded an increase of 1.5%. Health insurance observed also a solid YTD performance of +2.68%. Credit insurance observed a sharp decrease of 21.8% (or HRK 33.16m). This does not come as a surprise given the expected lower loan issuance activity in Croatia as a result of Covid-19 outbreak.

Croatia’s largest insurer, Croatia Osiguranje accounted for 27.4% of the market, showing a 2.1 p.p. YoY decrease.

GWPs by Insurance Segment (Jan – May 2020) (%)

In June 2020, the Company recorded a decrease in sales of 5% YoY.

Sopharma published an announcement on the Sofia Stock Exchange stating that for June 2020 the Company recorded a decrease in sales of 5%  YoY, including a 78% decrease in domestic sales and 59% increase in export sales.

In H1 of 2020 the revenues from sales of production increased by 1% YoY, including a 19% decrease of sales for the domestic market and 13% increase in export sales.