January 4, 2024 – Last year, the Osijek-Baranja county had more than 125,000 guests, with almost 270,000 overnight stays. Local guests continue to lead the way.
As Glas Slavonije writes, Croatian visitors accounted for 77,000 arrivals, spending 142,000 nights in some of the accommodation facilities in Slavonia-Baranja. As far as foreign guests are concerned, the majority were Germans. They are followed by guests from Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Austria, Italy, the United States of America… As far as age groups are concerned, all seem to love Slavonia and Baranja equally, “from 7 to 77”, as there is something for everyone. However, the majority were between the ages of 41 and 50.
What makes tourism entrepreneurs in Baranja happy is the fact that the number of arrivals and overnight stays has increased in the area of the county. Compared to 2022, there are about 15 percent more overnight stays and arrivals, and more and more foreigners are starting to recognize the region. The eVisitor system recorded a growth of 20 and 23 percent, respectively. As far as Baranja is concerned, all three tourist boards (Baranja, Bilje – Kopački rit Municipality, and Draž Municipality) are included in the TOP 10 receptive county destinations.
“A few months ago, we assumed the record year 2022 would be exceeded, which in the end turned out to be a more or less correct”, Matej Perkušić, director of Baranja tourist board, is satisfied, stressing that the number of arrivals is at last year’s level, but the number of overnight stays is slightly more than 6 percent higher. Most tourists certainly come to the area of the Municipality of Kneževi Vinogradi, which is the holder of several tourist awards. Both the municipality and the local tourism workers.
“Along with agriculture, tourism is our main economic branch”, Vedran Kramarić, the head of the Municipality of Kneževi Vinogradi, often points out, reminding of the latest “tourism” investment, the Interpretation Center in Karanac. This ethnic village, with more than 150 beds in about 70 accommodation units (with announcements of new ones), surely deserves such a facility.
More arrivals, with a slightly lower number of overnight stays than in 2022, were recorded last year by the TZ of the Municipality of Bilje – Kopački rit.
As Senata Majić, the director of the Bilje – Kopački rit tourist board pointed out, last year there were approximately 8,200 arrivals, or about 15,000 overnight stays, of which local guests had a slight advantage. Statistically speaking, the highest increase in arrivals and overnight stays was recorded in the Municipality of Draž, which has more and more accommodation capacity.
“In contrast to the year before last, when there were 665 visitors and approximately 2,000 overnight stays, last year there were about 20 percent more, and the number of overnight stays was 11 percent higher”, says Filip Golubov, director of the Municipality of Draž tourist board.
