September the 21st, 2026 – The number of foreign tourists in Croatia has actually fallen, with much more growth seen elsewhere across the Mediterranean.
Croatia recorded only 0.5 percent more tourist overnight stays in the first six months of this year than in the same period last year, according to the latest comparable Eurostat data. Index reports that this is one of the weakest results among Mediterranean tourist countries and the lowest growth among those that finished the first half of the year in positive territory. Looking at tourist accommodation in Croatia from January to the end of June this year, just under 26 million overnight stays were recorded, about 120 thousand more than a year earlier. Index reports that by comparison, at the level of the entire European Union, the number of overnight stays across Croatia rose by 1.7 percent.
albania, malta and slovenia grew several times faster
Among Mediterranean competitors Portugal had growth of 0.9 percent, Greece 1.4 percent, Spain 1.5 percent, Montenegro also 1.5 percent, and Italy 3.1 percent. Significantly stronger results were achieved by Slovenia, with growth of 5.7 percent, Albania with 9.1 percent and Malta with 9.9 percent. Two countries from that group were in negative territory: Bulgaria with a fall of 1.7 percent and Cyprus with a fall of 7.7 percent. As such, Croatia was at the bottom among the Mediterranean countries that achieved growth.
fewer overnight stays from foreign visitors
Even more interesting is the structure of the Croatian result. The number of overnight stays by domestic guests in the first six months rose by as much as 7.7 percent, while foreign tourists recorded 0.6 percent fewer overnight stays than last year. In neighbouring Italy, overnight stays by foreign tourists simultaneously rose by 4.4 percent, in Slovenia by 6.9 percent, in Malta by 11.7 percent, in Albania by 8.7 percent, and in Greece and Spain by 1.7 and 1.4 percent respectively. Domestic guests thus practically pulled the Croatian first-half result out of the red.
DZS data also shows just how quickly the situation changed during the pre-season. After the first five months Croatia had as much as 8.6 percent more commercial overnight stays than last year. But in June the number of overnight stays fell by 6.1 percent, and overnight stays by foreign tourists by as much as 7.5 percent. This brought the cumulative growth by the end of June down to only 0.5 percent.
july and august improved things, but the overall growth is still small
July brought a recovery. DZS recorded 25.3 million commercial overnight stays, 1.2 percent more than in July last year. In the first seven months growth was thereby raised to 0.8 percent, while overnight stays by foreign guests were only 0.2 percent above last year’s. Data for August also doesn’t show a major acceleration. According to the eVisitor system, which has a broader coverage than Eurostat’s commercial accommodation statistics, Croatia had 17.5 million arrivals and 90.5 million overnight stays in the first eight months. Both arrivals and overnight stays rose by around one percent. On the Adriatic alone the growth in overnight stays was 0.5 percent.
In August itself, 31.4 million overnight stays were recorded, only 0.5 percent more than last year. HTZ data also show differences among types of accommodation. In commercial accommodation by the end of August 78.6 million overnight stays were recorded, about 0.5 percent more than last year. Hotels had around 20 million overnight stays and growth of 2.7 percent, while almost 34 million overnight stays in household facilities were approximately at last year’s level.
croatia still clings onto july and august
The figures are particularly interesting in the context of the multi-year goal of extending the Croatian tourist season beyond July and August. Eurostat published that Croatia is the most seasonal tourist country in the entire EU. As much as 54.5 percent of all Croatian tourist overnight stays in 2025 were recorded only during July and August. The EU average was 31.1 percent, in Greece 41.6 percent, and in Bulgaria 43.4 percent. The difference between the main season and the rest of the year in Croatia is also the largest: last August as many as 41 times more overnight stays were recorded than in January. This means that Croatia, despite years of announcements about strengthening the pre-season and post-season, still depends significantly more than its competitors on two summer months.
europe is growing faster, and tourists are paying more and more attention to value for money
The broader European trend also shows that the weaker Croatian growth cannot be explained only by a general slowdown in tourist demand. The European Travel Commission in its July report states that international tourist arrivals in Europe this year grew by around five percent, and the number of overnight stays by 4.8 percent. At the same time it warns that travellers, due to weaker consumer confidence, are increasingly choosing destinations according to the price-quality ratio and are showing greater interest in travel outside the main season.
Price competitiveness was precisely one of the main topics of Croatian tourism before and during this season. Tourism Minister Tonči Glavina already at the beginning of the year warned that guests on the key German market are extremely sensitive to the price-quality ratio. The overnight stays statistics themselves, however, do not show why Croatia is growing more slowly than its competitors, so it cannot be concluded from those figures that prices are the only or main cause.
higher invoice values
On the other hand, physical traffic is not the only measure of the tourist season. The Ministry of Tourism states that in the first eight months €7.41 billion was fiscalised, 17.6 percent more than in the same period last year, while the number of invoices rose by 5.7 percent. According to the latest published HNB data for the first quarter, revenues from foreign tourists amounted to €945.2 million, 9.2 percent more than one year earlier.
