Wine roads, bike routes, numerous events and a rich gastronomical offer, coupled with the immediate vicinity of the City of Zagreb and the opening of several new hotels have transformed Zagreb County into a year-round destination. A 34 percent increase in tourism confirms that fact.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 24th of July, 2018, according to eVisitor's system data, Zagreb County recorded a massive 48,007 tourist arrivals during the first six months of 2018, which is 34 percent more than in the same period back in 2017. The number of overnight stays made by tourists also increased by an impressive 23 percent, from 64,599 to 79,477.
Of the total number of overnight stays in the wider Zagreb County area, 57,304 overnight stays were realised by foreign tourists, while domestic tourists made up 22,173 overnights. Of the total number of arrivals, 35,106 guests were foreigners and the remaining 12,991 were domestic guests. In the first half of 2018, guests from Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria and the Netherlands visited Zagreb County, with the largest number of arrivals coming from far outside of Europe, more specifically from the Far East, from countries such as Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan.
"Wine roads, bike routes, gastronomy, numerous events, the immediate vicinity of the City of Zagreb, as well as the opening of new hotels have transformed Zagreb County into a year-long destination," said Zagreb County's Stjepan Kožić adding that numerous other areas of tourism have been being intensively developed in the county.
"The opening of the Designer Outlet Croatia complex in Rugvica, along with the already existing IKEA, opened up a new kind of tourism, so called ''shopping tourism'', because numerous buses which have been going to Austria until now are now coming to Zagreb County,'' stated Kožić, before noting that Zagreb County stands good chances of being branded as a health tourism destination.
In Ivanić-Grad in Zagreb County, lies the Naftalan Special Hospital, which is the only one in Europe to treat its patients with healing oils, the only other of its kind lies in Azerbaijan.
"There's a 50 million kuna investment that will enrich the hospital, the benefits of its treatment have been recognised by patients from across Europe," said Kožić, adding that the completion of those works is expected in the spring of 2019.
