April the 26th, 2023 – When it comes to where Croats travel abroad, it tends to be to other European countries, and in all honesty – Croatian citizens don’t really travel outside of the country that much when compared to other Europeans. Let’s see where they do like to go.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, last year, foreign income from tourism exceeded that of the record pre-pandemic year of 2019, and expenditures for foreign trips also increased significantly. How much and where did Croats travel last year, and what is the balance of the exchange of tourist services?
The Croatian National Bank (CNB/HNB) has published the statistics on the exchange of tourist services in 2022, as reported by tportal. The data confirms the full recovery of tourist trips after several pandemic-dominated years. Revenues from foreign tourists reached a massive 13.1 billion euros, which is 44 percent more than in 2021 and 24 percent more than the record tourism year of 2019.
A strong recovery was also recorded in tourism consumption by Croats travelling abroad. Last year, Croats spent 1.39 billion euros on tourist trips outside of the Republic of Croatia, which is 47.9 percent more than was spent back in 2021. However, the spending of Croatian tourists abroad still didn’t reach the record from 2019, when 1.57 billion euros were spent.
Compared to other European nations, Croats don’t really tend to travel to foreign destinations. According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) from back in 2021, out of 6.3 million private multi-day trips, as many as 85.4 percent or 5.4 million were realised within Croatia itself, and only 981 thousand (15.5 percent) were realised abroad.
At the same time, it should be emphasised that during foreign trips, visits to relatives and friends prevail, and only a small part refers to the classic type of tourist trips, which include rest, leisure, tours and visits to various types of foreign events.
The main foreign destinations testify to the tourist habits of the inhabitants of this country and where Croats travel abroad. Croats visit countries in the surrounding area the most, with trips to neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina leading the way, where almost a third of tourist spending abroad was realised for various purposes. Among the top five destinations are neighbouring Slovenia and Serbia, as well as Germany. If we’re heading outside of Europe, then we can also include the USA, where a lot of the Croatian diaspora and new Croatian emigrants now live.
The European country that most attracts Croats with its tourist attractions is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Portugal has also recorded the greatest growth in arrivals and spending by Croatian tourists over more recent years. It’s interesting to note that the tourist meccas of Italy and France are not among the leading tourist destinations for travellers from Croatia. Croats spent only 13.9 million euros on tourist trips to Italy, and even less, 13.4 million euros, on visits to France.
On the other hand, Croatia is a real superpower in terms of attracting foreign tourists, and that isn’t really a shock to anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for decades now. German tourists alone spent 3.52 billion euros in Croatia last year, which is almost three times more than Croats spent in total on all of their foreign trips.
In addition to the Germans, more than one billion euros were spent in Croatia last year by tourists from Slovenia, Austria and Italy, countries for which Croatia is traditionally a favourite tourist destination.
Foreign revenues from all leading Croatian broadcasting markets also exceeded revenues from the pre-pandemic year of 2019. At the same time, the markets of Great Britain (154.1 percent) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (50.7 percent) recorded the greatest relative growth compared to last year.
When looking at the relationship of tourist exchange with individual countries, only with Bosnia and Herzegovina does Croatia have a somewhat balanced exchange, while with all other tourism partners, huge surpluses have been recorded.
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