However, tourist numbers for March were underwhelming.
In the first three months of this year, Croatia recorded 742,000 tourists, or almost 6 percent more than in the same period last year. The tourists registered slightly more than 1.9 million overnight stays, which is an increase of almost 3 percent, according to the preliminary data from the eVisitor system, reports 24sata.hr on April 8, 2017.
According to the data from the Main Office of the Croatian National Tourist Board, in the first three months of this year Croatia was visited by 464,600 foreign tourists, or 1.4 percent more than last year, who achieved 1.2 million overnight stays, which was a slight decrease of 1.1 percent.
Slightly better results in the first three months of this year were achieved by domestic tourists with 277,000 arrivals, which is almost 14 percent more than in the same period last year, while 693,000 overnight stays was an increase of almost 10 percent.
However, the initial data from the eVisitor system show that in March this year there was a decline in the number of tourists and overnight stays compared to the last year’s March, which included the Easter holidays. Considering that Easter falls in April this year, weaker tourism results for March were somewhat expected.
In March, Croatia had 345,700 tourist arrivals, or 2.3 percent less, and 854,000 overnight stays, about 10 percent less than in March last year.
These somewhat underwhelming results were contributed by foreign tourists, whose numbers declined by 8.3 percent to 233,200, and they also had 16.6 percent fewer overnight stays. On the other hand, the number of domestic tourists increased by 13 percent to 112,400, while their 273,200 overnight stays represented an increase by 7 percent compared to March last year.
“Due to the Easter holidays falling in April this year, and the related travels and school holidays, and following the announcements and bookings from domestic and international markets, we expect that this year’s April will be about 10 percent better than last year’s, with even larger increase during the Easter holidays,” said the Main Office of the Croatian National Tourist Board.
