With borders reopening across Europe, Croatia is reporting encouraging growth in visitor numbers.
According to the country's eVisitor system, which records tourism registration data, over the past weekend and for the first time this year, more than 500,000 tourists were reported to be staying in Croatian destinations. Of these, more than 430,000 are foreign tourists. At the moment, most foreign guests are from the markets of Germany, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary.
The largest numbers have been recorded from those markets where the country's tourism board has carried out the most intensive promotional activities aimed at positioning the country as an interesting and safe tourist destination.
"The achieved results prove that we succeeded in that because Croatia is one of the few tourist destinations in the Mediterranean where tourist traffic is currently being realised. We expect guests from distant non-European markets, but also from the UK, France or Scandinavia with increased number of direct lines from mid-July onwards, which will positively impact the overall numbers, especially the results for destinations in central and southern Dalmatia?, said the Croatia National Tourism Board's managing director Kristjan Stani?i?, emphasising that responsible behaviour and adherence to all prescribed epidemiological measures are still important.
In the period from July 1-10, 600 thousand arrivals were recorded in Croatia (46% of the results achieved during the same period last year) and 4.4 million overnight stays (53% of the results achieved during the same period last year). Looking at overnight stays recorded in the same period by counties, most of them were recorded in Istria (1.2 million), Primorsko-Goranska County (975,000) and Zadar County (819,000). Followed by Split-Dalmatia County with 706,000 overnight stays, ?ibenik-Knin County with 321,000, Dubrovnik-Neretva County with 188,000 and Lika-Senj County with 167,000.
Croatia's new COVID-19 safety rules are now being implemented. It includes mandatory face masks for healthcare employees and visitors to healthcare institutions, public transport drivers, staff and passengers, employees and customers in shops and supermarkets, hospitality employees who are in regular contact with guests and/or participate in serving or preparing food and beverage and any other individuals specifically instructed to do so by the Croatian Institute of Public Health.
