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HTZ: In hotels, 25.3 percent more overnight stays in the first five months than last year

For leading hotel companies in Croatia, the tourist season is progressing as expected according to all announcements and the situation on the ground, with good traffic and strong demand, and it is anticipated that it will overall be better than last year, commented Veljko Ostojić, director of the Croatian Tourism Association (HUT), for Hina.

– According to all indicators and results achieved so far, this year’s tourist season is expected to be better than last year in terms of tourist traffic and revenue. The state of reservations for the main part of the season is good, especially in hotels and camps – Ostojić states.

Currently, at least regarding large hotel companies, all facilities are open, and he also mentions that the open positions for seasonal workers are mostly filled and that there should not be major challenges in that regard.

He considers it positive that the later submitted requests for the import of workers are being resolved quickly and that hoteliers expect the remaining needs to be filled soon.

When asked what is expected during the summer peak season, whether there might be booking delays, and whether ‘last minute’ bookings will be more pronounced than last year, he notes that given the overall structure of accommodation capacities in Croatia and the intense growth in the number of beds in family and non-commercial accommodation in recent years, it may happen that some of these capacities remain unfilled during certain periods of the season.

– The trend that the pandemic has only further highlighted is confirmed on the ground this year – facilities that are being invested in are experiencing high demand, which opens up space for price increases, while those that are not being invested in face increasing challenges with filling and maintaining prices – emphasizes the director of HUT.

According to data from the Croatian Tourist Board (HTZ) from the eVisitor system, hotels recorded 5.3 million overnight stays or 25.3 percent more than in the same period last year. This also accounts for about 47 percent of total overnight stays in commercial accommodation for the five months.

A similar trend was observed in May when hotels accounted for 40 percent of total commercial overnight stays, or nearly 2.3 million overnight stays, which is 25.3 percent more than in May of last year.

The latest data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) on the prices of service activities of service providers in the first quarter show that prices in the accommodation and food preparation and serving sector increased by 19.1 percent compared to the same quarter last year.

Accommodation prices increased by 19.5 percent, while food and beverage preparation and serving prices rose by 19 percent.

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