July the 26th, 2025 – Zadar tourism has continued to record very positive trends as we’re now deep in the height of the summer tourist season.
As HRT writes, the most recently held session of the Tourism Development Management Council, which took place on the island of Hvar, brought together key stakeholders in Croatian tourism. That included representatives of Zadar County, Deputy County Prefect Robertino Dujela and Head of the Administrative Department for Economy and Tourism, Ante Sjauš.
In his address, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković emphasised the exceptional contribution of tourism to the Croatian economy and GDP growth. He highlighted the truly excellent results at the national level: 9.65 million arrivals and 42 million overnight stays have been achieved so far in 2025. That represents a 2% increase compared to the same period last year, with a special emphasis on the growth of overnight stays realised nationwide by domestic guests.
Turning more specifically to GDP growth, the Prime Minister addressed the need to increase the share of hotel capacity and encourage further reforms to raise the quality of Croatian tourism as a whole.
Deputy County Prefect Robertino Dujela reported on Zadar County’s tourism results, revealing positive trends and that over a million tourists have visited the expansive Dalmatian county so far, achieving 6.2 million overnight stays thus far in 2025.
Although this is a very small increase (of less than 1%) compared to last year, Zadar County has confirmed itself as a desirable and price-competitive destination in the face of high prices in tourism. It is particularly positive that arrivals and overnight stays realised by domestic tourists in the wider Zadar area have increased by 4% in the first six months of this year.
Dujela also pointed out that by the end of June, slightly more than 30% of the total annual turnover had been achieved and that July and August are expected to bring sustainable results, close to last year’s records.
Dujela also mentioned the arrival of 105 cruise ships in the ports under the management of the Zadar Port Authority, bringing the area an expected 275,000 passengers. Although Zadar tourism has been recording a slight decline in nautical (charter), there are plenty of positive trends to celebrate. Important emitting markets such as Germany (+3%), Slovenia (+6%), Austria (+8%), the Czech Republic (+5%) and Slovakia (+10%) are all firmly recording increases in overnight stays. That has continued to be the case throughout the first half of this year, which confirms the effectiveness of various foreign tourism campaigns.
Dujelo also appealed to landlords who own properties they rent out to tourists across Zadar County to properly register their guests in order to gain real insight into traffic. The desire here is also to avoid the problem of the “grey” market in as much as possible. Despite much more stringent rules than in the past and with the celebrated eVisitor system, at least a quarter of private rentals are still not declaring what they need to be by law.
The achieved results show that Zadar County and its tourism is strongly continuing throughout the year with positive trends, further confirming its position as one of the most desirable destinations on the entire Adriatic.
