October the 13th, 2025 – The number of Croatian tourists keen to explore their own country is on the up, but where are the likes of loyal foreign visitors like the Czechs in comparison?
As Morski writes, the current tourist year, which has been changing its “face” practically from month to month, was largely marked by Croatian tourists exploring their own country. Despite general price increases and significantly higher prices on the Adriatic coast than, say, before the coronavirus pandemic, the number of Croatian tourists is steadily growing, in some cases outdoing faithful groups of visiting foreigners.
croatian tourists are keen to explore their own country
Just last month, Croatian tourists visiting various destinations nationwide surpassed all previous tourist results they had amassed. After eight months of 2025, during which there were almost 2.4 million trips made by Croatian tourists within the country, which is seven percent more than in the same period last year, Croats achieved a double-digit plus in September.
Among the 2.5 million tourists who chose Croatia for a holiday during September, almost 270,000 were from Croatia. That’s a significant 12 percent increase compared to September last year. Looking at overnight stays, the growth seen during the past month amounts to about one percent, and in eight months, it’s slightly more than three percent. There can be no doubt that Croatian tourists have greatly contributed to the stabilisation of this year’s summer season, which was marked by minuses from some of the most important emitting markets. Even during the summer’s peak, there were some slight minuses compared to July and August 2024.
19.7 million tourists in the first 9 months of 2025
However, all nine months of 2025 ended with slightly more than 19.7 million guests, two percent more than last year, while a plus of one percent was recorded with 103.8 million overnight stays. The entire Adriatic region hosted 17.5 million visitors, and the City of Zagreb and the rest of the country each received a million guests. Traditionally, Istria County was chosen by the most visitors, 4.8 million of them in total, Split-Dalmatia County was in second place with around 3.8 million guests, and the Kvarner region ranked third with three million arrivals from the beginning of the year to the end of September, reports Večernji list.
a surprising dip for private accommodation this year…
The tourist “harvest” is not equally successful for everyone in Croatiam even when looking at the type of accommodation. Hotels, with slightly more than 6.6 million guests and 23 million overnight stays realised, exceeded last year’s figures by around two percent. The same applies to campsites, which registered approximately 3.3 million tourists and recorded 20.7 million overnight stays during the first nine months of this year. However, private accommodation has only partially achieved such results. Over the past nine months, family accommodation in Croatia has been chosen by around 200,000 more tourists than hotels, which also represents an increase of around two percent compared to last year. In terms of overnight stays, however, the number has fallen behind last year by 10,000. Otherwise, private accommodation traditionally holds the first place in Croatian tourism, both in terms of the number of guests and the number of overnight stays recorded, and this year the segment registered almost 38.5 million overnight stays in the first nine months.
a german decrease, but the numbers are still great
Germans have traditionally been the most numerous guests in Croatia despite a slight decrease compared to last year, which was not offset by the above-average figures recorded last September. This year, there were around 2.9 million German guests in Croatia across all nine months thus far, which is around 30,000 less than last year. In terms of overnight stays, however, the gap is almost negligible, around 70,000 compared to the total number of 21.1 million overnight stays realised by German guests.
