The popularity of Croatia only continues to grow among US travelers.
The Croatian National Tourist Board presented the Croatian tourist offer at the New York Times Travel Show, which is held in New York from January 25-27. More than 560 exhibitors are participating in the event, including 170 representatives of national tourism organizations from all over the world and more than 30,000 potential travelers and representatives of the tourism sector, reports Dalmacija Danas on January 27, 2019.
Croatian Tourist Board director Kristjan Staničić could even be found at Croatia’s stand, which exhibited the offers presented by the Tourist Board of the City of Zagreb and Zadar, and Split-Dalmatia and Dubrovnik-Neretva County.
“Croatia is among the top five emerging destinations in the US market, which confirms the strong growth of tourist traffic from the United States in recent years. The information we receive from our partners points to another excellent tourist year. Specifically, some projections indicate growth in the US market at a rate of 15 to 20 percent this year,” said Staničić, adding that more than 580,000 arrivals and 1.6 million overnight stays came last year alone, which is up 22% in arrivals and 18% in overnight stays compared to the previous year.
During his visit to New York, Staničić met with Terry Dale, president of the Association of American Tour Operators USTOA, and other partners and agencies such as Virtuoso, and Signature Travel Network. The fair was also visited by the Croatian consul in New York, Lidija Babić.
A favorable economic situation in the United States is just one of the factors that contributed to the growth of travel from the US to Croatia. The presentation of Croatia’s offer in the catalogs of all key tourist entities, the general popularity of Croatia on the American market, which is confirmed by the prestigious Travvy awards, as well as many media releases such as those by The New York Times Magazine, who included Zadar on their list of 52 sites to be visited in 2019, also contributed. We mustn’t forget that the positive trends will continue once American Airlines launches their new route, which will operate from June to October between Philadelphia and Dubrovnik.
“The Affluent Traveler Collection (ATC) results show that Croatia, along with Iceland, South Africa, Japan, and Italy, is on the list of the most sought after destinations in 2019. Studies among USTOA members, however, indicate that Croatia, along with Iceland, Cambodia, Colombia, Vietnam, Portugal, Bhutan, Bolivia, Burma, and Ethiopia is on the list of the fastest growing destinations. Croatia even has a place in Virtuosa’s offer, which has prepared nine must-do experiences in 2019, one of which is about Croatia, who is in the selected company of New Zealand, Spain, the Maldives, and others,” said the director of the representative office HTZ in New York Ina Rodin.
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