More good news for Croatian tourism, this time from Istria.
The last few weekends in July showed that the tourist season in Istria will be very successful. According to the Istria County Tourist Board, this was one of the best months of July in its history. In Istria, there were 12 percent more guests than last year, or slightly less than 844,000. They have made eight per cent more overnight stays, or 6.4 million, reports Poslovni.hr on August 7, 2015.
From the beginning of the year up to July 31, there were 1.9 million tourists, which is nine percent more than in 2014, and 11.9 million overnight stays, an increase of six percent compared to last year.
“The figures for the first seven months show us that the preparations for the tourist season were very efficient. The preseason results were very good. The July was by far the best in the history of Istria, with a record number of arrivals and overnight stays. Last year we had a decline in number of tourists of six percent in July. Now we have a “surplus” of 165,000 arrivals and 720,000 overnight stays in the first seven months. If August and September were to be as successful, we would expect that this year we could exceed 23 million overnight stays”, said the director of the Istria County Tourist Board Denis Ivošević, who expects a good August and the first 20 days of September.
He is particularly pleased with the results from the four major tourist markets: Germany, Austria, Italy and Slovenia. The number of Austrians has increased by nine percent, Italians by 11 percent, Germans by 10 percent and Slovenes by 4 percent.
“Other markets have also seen an increase. We have invested a lot in marketing in the Czech Republic, Hungary, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Poland. Interestingly, Ukraine has grown this year by ten percent, while the Russians have decreased by 30 percent. The Dutch are on about the same level as last year”, said Ivošević.
All the major tourist centres have recorded a significant increase in overnight stays in July: Labin and Medulin by three percent, Poreč by eight, Pula by seven, Rovinj by five and Umag by as much as 12 percent.
Ivošević added that it is not clear whether such a successful tourist season is a consequence of the situation in Mediterranean destinations such as Greece or Egypt, but believes that Italy and Spain will be the main beneficiaries.
