January the 12th, 2023 - Croatian winter tourism 2022 traffic has managed to reach an impressive 96% of what was realised back during the same period in the pre-pandemic (and record) year of 2019. While 2022 might be in the past, the Croatian winter tourism period is yet to end.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, eVisitor, Croatia's much-praised system for registering guests has returned the aforementioned encouraging data, and from December the 23rd, 2022 to January the 8th, 2023, there were 19 percent more tourist overnight stays realised in the country than there were last winter. On top of that, there were 28 percent more arrivals, and the strongest traffic was again recorded in Zagreb, whose Advent almost returned to the state it was in before the global coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 earthquake.
Almost 600,000 overnight stays were realised across Croatia, and in Zagreb alone, 92 percent of the overnight stays realised before the pandemic and the earthquake, or 31 percent compared to last winter, were realised. The number of overnight stays realised by foreigners had also grown by 35 percent.
Although this year hoteliers were doubtful that they would work over the New Year due to high energy costs, at the end of 2022, 394 hotels remained open across Croatia, which is still 49 less than were open back at the end of 2019. The sunny weather so far in January has also contributed to the biggest jump in visits in the first days of the new year.
"We've entered 2023 with better results than we did back at the beginning of 2019. At the moment, we're recording 32 percent more overnight stays, which includes a 10 percent increase in the continental part of the country, and this is an excellent indicator of continued growth in demand for Croatia and our further positioning as a year-round destination with a diversified, high-value offer.
According to the latest research by the European Travel Commission, Croatia is one of the most sought-after travel destinations in this part of the year, and we want to maintain that status. In our development and promotional activities, we emphasise the offers we have available throughout the year and the fact that by entering the Schengen area and the Eurozone, Croatia is an even easier to reach and safer destination," said Nikolina Brnjac, Minister of Tourism and Sport.
During the Christmas and New Year period, the most overnight stays were realised in Istria (133 thousand), in Kvarner (123 thousand) and in Zagreb (97 thousand).
Looking at the destinations individually when it comes to the Croatian winter tourism 2022 results, during the period of Christmas and New Year break, Zagreb has been recording the most overnight stays with the aforementioned figure of 97 thousand overnight stays, Opatija comes in second with more than 42 thousand, followed by Split with almost 36 thousand overnight stays. Then follows Dubrovnik with almost 35 thousand overnight stays, Rovinj with more than 31 thousand and Porec with almost 28 thousand overnight stays.
In addition to domestic guests who are responsible for the most overnight stays realised in the aforementioned winter period, more than 190,000 were foreign guests. The most overnight stays among foreign tourists were realised by Austrians, Slovenians, Germans and Italians. In Zagreb, the most overnight stays were from people visiting from elsewhere in Croatia, followed by those from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Serbia and Austria.
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