July the 11th, 2025 – It is expected that the Croatian tourist season for 2025 is likely to replicate that of last year, as numbers of arrivals and overnight stays rise.
As Ana Roksandic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the tourism results for the first half of the year for Croatia show growth in all types of accommodation. In the first six months of this year, five percent more tourists arrived than last year, totalling 7.6 million, a total of 4.3 percent more overnight stays were also registered.
The majority of Croatia’s guests (89.3 percent of them) opted for commercial accommodation, while non-commercial accommodation, such as rentals and holiday homes for private use, was chosen by around 158,000 tourists. That figure is representative of 5.2 percent more than in the same period in 2024, according to data from the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ). Household facilities (which recorded 8.6 million overnight stays) registered around one million fewer overnight stays than hotels (which recorded 9.5 million overnight stays), and campsites ranked third in terms of popularity. It’s therefore likely that we can expect a similar Croatian tourist season in 2025 as we saw last summer.
“Holiday homes always open up around the Easter period and operate until October, but there were some holes there, too. They occurred more because of the large number of accommodation units that can’t all be filled at the same speed. Private accommodation units are well-filled, especially those that have been operating for a long time and tend to see previous guests returning. In the end, that’s the entire point of family accommodation – that guests choose to come back,” said Barbara Marković, president of the Croatian Association of Family Accommodation (HUOS).
Croatia’s popularity is not falling among domestic guests either. Every third resident of this country will spend two to three weeks on holiday, mainly in destinations elsewhere in the country. They’ll also spend an average of 1,330 euros, according to a study undertaken by the MojPosao/MyJob portal.
When asked what she expects from the Croatian tourist season for private accommodation for 2025, Marković stated: “We’ll very likely be on track with last year’s figures because technically we can’t handle increases anymore. It’s no longer possible to grow by around 20 percent.”
Following a concerning May, June picked up and was a real hit for holidays across Croatia this year. There were 3.3 million tourists registered in all accommodation units, which is an 11 percent increase compared to last June. Veljko Ostojić, director of the Croatian Tourism Association (HUT), is also more than satisfied with the pre-season, emphasising that despite negative talk about high prices, Croatia remains a very desirable tourist destination.
“We can see that hotels are the most sought after accommodation type, which is proof of the need for our continuous investment in quality and an effective pricing policy. In terms of revenue, I generally expect growth of three to five percent from the Croatian tourist season in 2025 compared to last year’s results,” said Ostojić.
Prices across the hospitality industry and in the retail sector remain a serious concern, and Marković claims that guests can expect prices similar to last year in private accommodation. Despite the good indicators, there are still problems. “Our biggest tourism challenge is the existing capacity structure. In the future, we need incentives for the construction and/or reconstruction of hotel and camp facilities. The issue of the labour force, which will remain problematic for the next few years, is also a challenge,” Ostojić concluded.
