In August, the population of Nin and Medulin increases fivefold, Rovinj and Lošinj threefold

In Medulin and Nin, the population increases five and a half times in August due to the arrival of a large number of tourists, which is the largest increase among all tourist centers in Croatia. Expressed in percentages, the population of Medulin, which as a municipality counts about 6,000 people, increases by 469%, while Nin, which usually has less than 3,000 inhabitants, grows by 447% in August.

In comparison, an 11% increase in population is expected in Split in August, which is relatively small due to the large number of residents in the city of Split, calculated by HGK.

In July, the increase remains significant, although slightly less than in August – by 431%, or over 5 times in Nin and almost identically in Medulin, by 421%.

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The calculation also shows that the expected range of population increase in August 2018, based on tourist arrivals and overnight stays in the counties of coastal Croatia, ranges from 40% in Split-Dalmatia to 129% in Istria. A slightly smaller growth is expected in July, from 39% in Split-Dalmatia to 119% in Istria.

Calendar-wise, the highest number of overnight stays in commercial accommodation facilities during the year occurs in July and August: about 29% in July and about 33% in August. In 2017, as many as 49.2 million overnight stays, or about 95% of the total number of overnight stays in those two months, were recorded in six coastal counties, in this order: Istria County 15.2 million total overnight stays, Split-Dalmatia 10.6 million, Primorje-Gorski Kotar 9.3 million, Zadar County 6.5 million, Dubrovnik-Neretva 3.8 million, and Šibenik-Knin 3.8 million.

Considering that over 60% of all tourist overnight stays in the year occur in July and August, and that 91% of tourist overnight stays occur in the six mentioned counties, one can speak of territorial concentration and temporal limitation of Croatian tourism. This becomes even more evident when comparing the number of achieved tourist overnight stays in the best (August) and worst (January) months of the year: the ratio is about 60:1. For comparison, the next country in the EU by the height of this ratio is Greece, with approximately 20:1.

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The mentioned estimates of high population growth during the tourist season (which is temporally extremely limited to two months) emphasize the need for overcapacity in infrastructure in tourist destinations, ensuring seasonal supply in retail, and adapting the entire tourist offer to the increased number of residents. The actual increase in the population during the tourist season in the mentioned tourist destinations is even greater, as the estimates are based on arrivals and overnight stays of domestic and foreign tourists exclusively in commercial accommodation facilities, concludes HGK.