June the 7th, 2023 – The main Croatian tourist season hasn’t even begun yet, and despite the weather being very much up and down – the numbers are all looking very promising so far.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, while the height of the Croatian tourist season is yet to come, the incoming data only reinforces the growing prospects for the sector and the accompanying consumption. The most recent figures from the Tax Administration on the fiscalised turnover of applicable enterprises are also on a good track.
The accommodation sector
In the accommodation sector, for example, bills worth 171 million euros were paid with cards and/or cash last month, while less than 117 million were reported last May. Approximately the same percentage growth, about 46 percent, was recorded in this activity in the first five months of 2023 as well; 403 million euros compared to last year’s 275 million euros. While this is of course positive, it should be made clear that the growth in traffic is largely the result of higher prices in 2023.
The hospitality sector
The same applies to the hospitality sector. Cafes, restaurants and other catering and hospitality facilities which deal in the provision of food and beverage preparation/serving reported more than 290 million euros in turnover last month. Compared to last May (224 million), this is almost 30 percent more, with the number of bills increasing by less than 5 percent.
If we look at the period since the beginning of the year, this year, at the end of May, restaurant owners had already reached just about one billion euros in fiscalised turnover (999 million euros, to be more precise). This is 31 percent more than at the same time back in 2022, and the much higher recorded turnover was realised on the 8.4 percent more bills which were issued.
Taxi services are a good indicator
A positive early Croatian tourist season can also be discerned in the fiscalised traffic of taxi services, which exceeded 12.3 million euros in May, compared to, for example, 9.1 million euros in April or 8.5 million reported in March this year.
By an encouraging 27 percent, more precisely from 39.3 to 50 million euros, May’s traffic increased compared to April in the Transportation and storage category as well. Compared to last May, there’s been a 31 percent increase, and the number of bills issued has been 16 percent higher. The cumulative five-month result also shows somewhat stronger annual growth in that industry, by 36 percent, to more than 180 million euros.
May looked good for just about everyone
At the level of all applicable activities, last month’s consumption measured by fiscalised turnover alone reached a total of 3.28 billion euros, or 13 percent more than the month before, with 11.4 percent more bills having been issued.
Price hikes
By the way, according to a quick assessment by state statisticians, consumer prices in May rose by an average of 0.5 percent on a monthly basis. The annual inflation rate fell below 8 percent, but the drop in energy prices (by 3%), while for example the category of food, beverages and tobacco is still at double-digit annual growth (13.5%), and services and non-food industrial products are more expensive than a year ago by an average of 8 percent
Price hikes and the retail sector
The five-month fiscalised turnover of 2023 has exceeded 13.3 billion euros and is higher than last year by about 2.2 billion or 20 percent. A fifth higher turnover was achieved with 2.6 percent more bills having been issued. Approximately half of the total turnover (6.36 billion euros) passed through fiscal cash registers in the retail sector.
