We’ve all seen and experienced the crowds during the summer, but just what effect are such large numbers of people having on consumption?
As Jadranka Dozan/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 14th of August, 2018, with better preparation for seasonal trade supplies, spending estimates make it easier to adjust the overall tourist offer to an increased number of people in the country, according to a statement from the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK).
When it comes to the food and drink segment (referring to food and drink consumed outside of tourist accommodation facilities) spending this August in Istria could be at least 373 percent higher than it is during the off-season period.
In other words, the increase in the number of ”residents” in that area, due to arrivals and overnight stays realised by foreign tourists, generates a natural increase in the consumption of food and drink, an increase estimated to be at almost five times higher (4.73 times) in comparison to the off-season.
This is indicated by the latest estimates which analysts from HGK conduct each year for six coastal counties during the very height of the tourist season, in which about a third of overnight stays in commercial accommodation facilities are realised.
These HGK calculations are based on the findings of the Institute for Tourism on the structure of the average tourist consumption, and, in contrast, the data on the average consumption of food and drink of the resident population during the year, i.e, outside of the main tourist season in summer.
According to the findings of the Institute, last summer, tourists spent around 79 euro per day on average, about half of that amount in accommodation, and 13 euro or about 96 kuna on food and drinks outside of the accommodation facility. As estimates indicate that the average domestic consumer allocates approximately 45 kuna per day to food and drink, the results indicate tourist spending and consumption in this segment is about 2.1 times higher.
Using this ratio, the HGK analysis suggests that in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, the increase in food and drink consumption in August was about 217 percent more (or more than three times higher), in Zadar County about 240 percent more, Sibenik-Knin County by around 228 percent more, Dubrovnik-Neretva County by 215 percent more, and in Split-Dalmatia by 185 percent more, i.e, less than three times higher. In some coastal destinations, the increase in consumption of food and beverages is far, far greater than that.
For example, in Medulin in Istria, consumption is estimated to be 12 times more on average in comparison to the off-season, an increase of about 11.5 is the average for Baška Voda and Nin, and it’s about 9.5 times more in Rogoznica. In Mali Lošinj, Pag, Primošten and Rovinj, it is between seven and eight times higher. Such figures naturally call for adjustments and adaptations in regard to supplies.
“The expected increase in consumption in the food and drink segment in August, which is more than ten times higher in several tourist areas, is a reflection of the high concentration of overnight stays during that month, and the associated seasonal increase in demand,” says HGK’s Zvonimir Savić. HGK thinks that such calculations and estimates of food and drink consumption potential could help, for example, retail chains in their respective preparations for the tourist season.
Click here for the original article by Jadranka Dozan for Poslovni Dnevnik
