Despite the fact that this year continues to drag the same obstacles as the previous one in terms of the pandemic and its negative effect on the tourism sector, the ongoing vaccination and the recent decrease in infections seem to show that positive changes are about to appear soon not only for Istrian tourism.
The numbers of tourists who visited Istria to spend the first days of May, among which are Slovenian and German citizens, seem to be satisfactory for the tourism board and Istrian tourism.
According to tportal.hr, Slovenian and Croatian citizens are in the lead among the visitors, followed by citizens of Serbia and Germany, the director of the Istrian County Tourist Board Denis Ivošević told Glas Istre, commenting on the tourist results achieved in Istria over the past weekend, which saved May Day tourist figures.
Namely, as far as the structure of guests is concerned, out of a total of 47,500, Slovenians are expected to lead, with 12,600 arriving in Istria. They are followed by domestic guests, 10,000 of them, while there were almost equally 6,500 Serbs and Germans.
‘‘Approximately one-third of all May Day tourists stayed in hotels this weekend, another third of guests opted for camping, while the remaining third stayed in private accommodation, including non-commercial (homeowners or holiday homeowners)’’, continues Ivošević and adds that the most visited Istrian destinations were, as expected, Rovinj and Poreč.
‘‘These figures were expected, we knew that we would not be able to achieve greater tourist arrivals since at this time we cannot count on our most important markets, namely Germany, Austria, and Italy. In any case, taking into account that Slovenes have finally started coming to us and that Serbs have coincided with Easter with the May Day holiday, we can be satisfied’’, Ivošević claims, noting that we still cannot use the potential of a favorable epidemiological situation in Istria.
The Croatian National Tourist Board reports that, according to the eVisitor system, which shows tourist traffic realized in commercial and non-commercial facilities and nautical charter (eCrew system), in Croatia during the first weekend in May, ie from Friday, April 30 to Monday, May 3; there were 41,400 arrivals and more than 157,000 overnight stays. Out of that, foreign tourists made almost 23,000 arrivals and 112,000 overnight stays.
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