April the 12th, 2023 - Croatian Easter tourism, or more precisely tourism throughout the country so far this month, has been excellent and by far outdone the numbers which were recorded back during the pre-pandemic, record year of 2019.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, although Easter fell earlier this year than last year and earlier than the one back during the record-breaking year of 2019, according to some figures, Croatian Easter tourism attracted more guests compared to last year. This is a more than promising sign for the upcoming summer season.
According to e-Visitor data, in the current part of April, more specifically up until Easter Monday in Croatia, there were around 300,000 arrivals and more than 940,000 overnight stays recorded, which, when compared to the same period of April last year, represents growth of 55% in arrivals and 73% in overnight stays. When compared to the figures recorded back in April 2019, the aforementioned represents growth of 27% in arrivals and a very encouraging 54% in overnight stays.
At the same time, the most overnight stays were realised in Istria, Kvarner and in Split-Dalmatia County, and in terms of destinations - Dubrovnik, Porec, Rovinj, Zagreb and Split all did very well indeed. The top markets in terms of overnight stays are all European ones - Germany, Austria, Croatia, Italy, the United Kingdom and Slovenia.
The company Awaze, which includes three leading domestic agencies for renting luxury accommodation (Croatia Luxury Rent, My Istria and Istria Home), reported that during the Easter holidays there was a 7% increase in the number of visitors compared to their record Croatian Easter tourism year of 2022. At the same time, current sales results indicate that the total number of sold reservations stands at 32% more than compared to the first quarter of last year.
"This is excellent, although, of course, earnings and profits are more important to us than physical arrivals, and that's why we have to focus on quality and thus earn the maximum with a sustainable number of guests, while at the same time using our physical resources as little as possible,'' commented Veljko Ostojic, the director of the Croatian Tourism Association.
