January the 7th, 2025 – Croatian tourism growth in the sense of watching numbers rise can’t be the sole target moving forward in 2025. Kristjan Staničić, the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) director dives deeper.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Kristjan Staničić writes, 2024 was full of challenges in the travel industry, but it’s safe to say that Croatia successfully managed to maintain an excellent position in the Mediterranean and on the wider tourism market in general.
According to the country’s eVisitor system, in the first ten months of 2024, 20.5 million arrivals and 106.6 million overnight stays were recorded across Croatia. That’s 3% more arrivals and 1% more overnight stays realised compared to the same period back in 2023.
In other words, 616,000 more arrivals for Croatian tourism were recorded, mostly in the pre- and post-season. The fact is that various internal and external circumstances, such as inflation and geopolitical situations, affect the tourism prospects of all destinations.
Croatia and as such Croatian tourism are far from immune to such issues, but the country’s priorities need to remain focused on protecting the resource base and looking towards greener tomorrow. In addition to that, the aim needs to be better coexistence between visitors to the country and the local population, and an even stronger development of sustainable and quality Croatian tourism for 2025.
Through the new Strategic Marketing and Operational Plan of Croatian Tourism, new and ambitious goals have been set for Croatian tourism marketing in 2025. The main goal is for Croatia to be recognised as a sustainable high-value destination by 2027 and beyond.
Croatian tourism should be seen as being able to offer a very wide range of authentic and quality experiences to different segments of tourist demand. The powers that be in Croatian tourism in 2025 and onwards will focus even more strongly on highlighting segments of high-value tourist offer, looking at tourists from the premium demand group.
For Croatian tourism in 2025 and beyond, it’s high time things moved away from simply counting tourist numbers. The mere growth of tourist traffic in itself must not be the only goal. In this sense, HTZ has revealed that its activities will be directed towards the quality of the offer, the territorial dispersion of tourist traffic with an emphasis on the continental part of the country, and the strengthening of both the pre- and post-season.
Croatian tourism should be wanting to attract guests with greater purchasing power, i.e. guests who are looking for special experiences. That’s especially the case when we know that further growth in traffic during the peak season is simply not an option.
For Croatian tourism in 2025, a very intense and challenging 365 days lies in front of us. With that being said, it’s abundantly clear that Croatia boasts all the assets that can ensure long-term attractiveness and year-round business in tourism. It’s now up to the country to use these assets wisely and in a proper and timely manner.
