February the 9th, 2024 – For better or worse, the number of cruisers in Croatia increased last year. Here’s where the most visited destinations were for these gigantic vessels.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, in 2023, foreign cruisers in Croatia achieved a 2.2 percent increase in terms of realised trips. There were also 37.1 percent more passengers on them than there were back in 2022, according to a report from the State Bureau of Statistics.
Out of a total of 646 round trips realised by foreign cruisers in Croatia, most of them were (rather unsurprisingly) made down in in Dubrovnik-Neretva County (48.1 percent), followed by Split-Dalmatia County (26.9 percent), which accounts for a total of 75.0 percent of all of the trips made by cruisers in Croatia last year. The remaining 25.0 percent of trips were realised in the following counties: Zadar (11.8 percent), Istria (4.7 percent), Šibenik-Knin (4.5 percent), and Primorje-Gorski Kotar (4.0 percent).
The Port of Dubrovnik has had a love/hate relationship with environmentally damaging cruise ships for many years now, but it still saw the highest number of visits made by foreign cruise ships (475 visits). Dubrovnik was followed by the ports of Split (300 visits), Zadar (160 visits), Hvar (110 visits), Korčula (101 visits), Šibenik (89 visits) and Rovinj ( 63 visits).
Due to the increase in the number of trips made by foreign cruise ships over the last four months in 2023, the number of trips on an annual level increased compared to 2022. In addition, in 2023, foreign cruisers in Croatia typically stayed longer in these waters. That increase in time spent was 11.3 percent longer compared to 2022, according to local portal Dubrovački list.
By comparing the data of 2023 and the pre-pandemic, record year of 2019, the consequences of the global coronavirus pandemic on cruises made by foreign ships in the Croatian Adriatic are still visible. As such, in 2023, compared to 2019, the number of trips made by foreign cruise ships had decreased by 11.0 percent, and the number of passengers on these ships had also decreased by 22.5 percent. On the other hand, the number of days of stay of foreign cruisers in Croatia increased by 0 .5 percent.
