The number of tourist overnight stays in 28 European Union countries reached a new record last year, and Croatia is among the countries with the highest growth in overnight stays and the largest share of foreign guests.
Last year, in 28 EU countries, according to available data from Eurostat, a record 2.8 billion tourist overnight stays were recorded, 3.2 percent more than the previous year. Their number has been continuously increasing since 2009, primarily supported by a higher number of overnight stays by foreign guests, as highlighted in a report from the European statistical office on Tuesday.
Spain confirmed its position as the country with the highest number of tourist overnight stays in 2015, totaling 421 million or 4.3 percent more than the previous year. France follows with 413 million, 2.8 percent more than in 2014, and Italy with 385 million or 1.8 percent more than the previous year. Germany ranked fourth with 379 million overnight stays, 3.3 percent more than in 2014.
According to Eurostat, Croatia recorded a total of 71.3 million overnight stays in 2015, of which 65.7 million were by foreign guests and the remaining 5.6 million by domestic guests. The total number of overnight stays increased by 7.9 percent compared to the previous year, placing Croatia among the countries with the most significant increase in tourist overnight stays compared to 2014. According to available data from Eurostat, Romania recorded the most significant jump in the total number of tourist overnight stays, by 15.9 percent. Double-digit growth rates of 11.5 and 10.3 percent were also recorded by Slovakia and the Czech Republic. These three countries were the only ones to record a stronger increase in the number of overnight stays in 2015 than Croatia.
