In Croatian seaports in 2017, there were 338,603 ship arrivals recorded, 2 percent more than in the same period a year earlier, with increases in both passenger and cargo traffic, according to data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS).
The number of passengers increased last year by 5 percent, to 32.5 million, while cargo traffic jumped by 12.1 percent, to 20.8 million tons.
In the fourth quarter of last year, 60,019 ships entered Croatian seaports, 0.8 percent less than in the same period the previous year, the number of passengers increased by 0.7 percent, to 4.05 million, while cargo traffic rose by 1.3 percent, to 5.3 million tons.
>>> Croatian Roads and Split Airport received state approval for new borrowings
At the same time, domestic passenger traffic in the fourth quarter increased by 1.4 percent year-on-year, to 3.8 million, while international traffic fell by 8.1 percent, to 250,060.
The number of passengers increased last year by 5 percent, cargo traffic jumped by 12.1 percent, and the number of arrivals increased by 2 percent.
The highest passenger traffic from October to December was recorded at the port of Split, with 659.7 thousand, which is 1.5 percent more compared to the same period last year. In second place is the port of Zadar with 397.7 thousand, which is 3.8 percent less than in the same period last year, while in third place is the port of Preko on the island of Ugljan with 338.5 thousand passengers and a decline of 0.7 percent year-on-year.
Of the total number of passengers in seaports, six percent or 239 thousand were disembarked from cruise ships and visited, among others, the ports of Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, and to a lesser extent Korčula, Hvar, and Šibenik, and compared to the same period in 2016, there were 4.3 percent fewer of these passengers, according to the DZS report.
The number of passengers on ferries and passenger ships in the fourth quarter of last year amounted to 3.8 million, which is an increase of 1.0 percent compared to the same period a year earlier.
>>> Uljanik shipping received state guarantee
The ports of Omišalj and Bakar accounted for 56 percent of the total cargo traffic in seaports in the fourth quarter, but compared to the previous year, they recorded a slight decline, Omišalj by 1.3 percent, to 2.1 million tons, and Bakar by 2.6 percent, to 863.6 thousand tons. The port in Ploče, however, achieved a growth of 6.5 percent with 762.7 thousand tons, while the port of Rijeka recorded an increase of 8.7 percent, to 653 thousand tons.
Thus, the total cargo traffic at the level of Croatia in the last quarter of last year increased by 1.3 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2016. At the same time, the growth of liquid cargo traffic, which accounts for 57 percent of total traffic, increased by 1.4 percent, the growth of tons of cargo in containers was 31.9 percent, and the movement of units with their own power was 28.9 percent, according to the DZS.
