According to Eurostat, Croatia is the fourth most popular destination for citizens of the European Union.
The Canary Islands with 94 million overnight stays a year are the most popular tourist destination for the citizens of the European Union. They are followed by the French province of Île-de-France, which includes Paris, with 76.8 million overnight stays. The third most popular destination is the Spanish region of Catalonia with 75.5 million overnights, while the fourth place belongs to the Croatian coast with 68.1 million overnight stays realised in 2015, notes European statistics agency Eurostat, reports Večernji List on 9 July 2017.
The Croatian part of the Adriatic coast is ranked ahead of the Balearic Islands in Spain, the Italian region of Veneto, which includes Venice, the Spanish province of Andalusia, the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Rhone-Alps, London and its surroundings, the Italian region of Tuscany…
But, what does this comparison really mean? Should we be flattered that, for example, the French Riviera is behind Croatia, or should we be worried that a single region of a country has more overnight stays than almost all of Croatian tourism?
“Firstly, this analysis compares areas which really cannot be compared. How can you compare the Adriatic coast’s summer resorts and, say, Paris,” asks analyst Sanja Čizmar from the HDC consultancy. “Even the comparison with the Canary Islands is not really fair, since there the tourist high season lasts for almost the whole year, thanks to a favourable climate. But, if we leave that aside for a moment, it is positive that we are in such a high position. Also, Europe is a major market, and it is better to be mentioned alongside with the most successful European tourist destinations. Especially since we are very close to Catalonia, with which we can indeed be compared, and which is globally recognised as a strong tourist region.”
In the member states of the European Union, citizens of the European Union are responsible for as much as 90% of overnight stays. Among other destinations for EU tourists, according to the number of overnight stays, the most popular in 2015 were the United States and Turkey. Almost 14 percent of all overnight stays outside of the EU were realised in the United States and some 10 percent in Turkey. This year, the rankings will certainly look a bit different, because the interest of tourists in visiting Turkey has subsided substantially.
