There are more and more Scandinavians, Brazilians, Australians, Americans…

Foreign tourists have come to Croatia this year from more than 80 countries around the world from all continents, continuing to achieve increases of over 90 percent of total arrivals and overnight stays in Croatian tourism. Although Germans, Slovenians, Austrians, Czechs, Poles, Italians, Dutch, Slovaks, Britons, Hungarians, and French remain traditionally the most numerous, there is a growing number of Scandinavians, Brazilians, Australians, Americans, and others.

In the first seven months of this year, nearly 6 million foreign tourists visited Croatia, according to initial data from the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ), which is 4 percent more than last year, and with 33 million overnight stays, there is an increase of 3.3 percent.

The most overnight stays, 6.6 million, were achieved by 917.7 thousand German tourists, who thus maintained their first place, but at last year’s traffic level.

Interestingly, Germans accounted for half of the seven-month overnight stays, or 3.2 million, achieved only in July, which is also similar to the same month last year, but more importantly for Croatian tourism, considering that tourists from three German provinces only started their vacations in the last week of July.

Slovenian tourists numbered 731.6 thousand, or 1.1 percent less, achieving 4.3 million overnight stays in seven months, similar to last year, placing them in second place, ahead of Austrians, who increased by 0.2 percent to 560.9 thousand, achieving 3 million overnight stays or 1.5 percent more.

Fourth are 390.4 thousand Czechs with 2.6 million overnight stays, showing increases of 1.3 percent in arrivals and 1.8 percent in overnight stays, while Poles have ‘burst’ into fifth place, representing a significant surprise, but also the strongest traditional market with an increase in arrivals of as much as 19 percent, to 333.2 thousand, and overnight stays of 22.3 percent, to 2.1 million.

Italians lost their third place last year; this year they are in sixth with 1.6 million overnight stays achieved by 385.3 thousand of them, which are decreases of about 5 percent, and considering the crisis in their country, this is a good result for Croatian tourism.

Seventh are the Dutch, extremely important for the camping segment, with 1.5 million overnight stays in the first seven months of this year and an increase of 3.2 percent, while Slovaks are eighth with 1.2 million overnight stays or 1.5 percent more.

Although in only ninth place, tourists from the United Kingdom (Britons) with just over a million overnight stays are up by as much as 25.5 percent, and an interesting increase in overnight stays of 5 percent, after several years of stagnation, this year recorded Hungarians in tenth place with 915.1 thousand overnight stays.

With 802.7 thousand overnight stays or an increase of 4 percent, the French are close behind, as are the Russians with around 730 thousand overnight stays, which, however, is a drop of 20 percent compared to last year’s seven months from that market, most closely associated with the new visa regime introduced in Croatia this year following its entry into the EU.

This ‘regime’ has most likely also led to a drop in overnight stays of 26 percent for tourists from Ukraine and an even greater drop of 36 percent from Turkey, as Croatian tourism had recorded significant and large increases in arrivals and overnight stays from these countries, as well as from Russia, in recent years.

These are also the most important and largest declines this year in Croatian tourism by foreign markets, with overall declines in overnight stays recorded from about 20 countries out of more than 80 from which foreign tourists are coming to Croatia this year.

Among foreigners with significant and large increases this year in the first seven months, Swedes and Norwegians stand out with 33 percent more overnight stays, while among those with relatively few overnight stays in absolute numbers (from 20,000 to about 200,000), Australians, Bulgarians, Belarusians, Brazilians, Estonians, Finns, Greeks, Irish, Canadians, Chinese, Latvians, and guests from the USA stand out with large increases of 20 to even 60 percent.