Non-working Sundays have left a negative mark on the tourist season in Croatia, and not only in terms of tourists being frustrated at the lack of options, but also businesses that are losing money.

According to data from the Ministry of Finance in the nine Sundays in July and August of this year there were a massive 20 percent fewer receipts issued compared to the same period from last year.

The report also states that the difference in the registered amount is significantly smaller, as expected. In other words, compared to the main part of the tourist season last year, slightly over five percent less was collected, mainly due to inflation and a significant increase in food and beverage prices, which consumed the majority of the difference. So twenty percent fewer receipts but only five percent less cash collected.

Last year, during a total of nine working Sundays, 24.2 million individual receipts were collected, with a total value of 343.4 million Kuna. This season, when Sunday is a non-working day, there were 19.8 million receipts with a total value of 325.1 million Kuna.

The new introduction on non-working Sundays this year is proving to be very costly, both in terms of finance for businesses and in VAT collected by the government. And probably most importantly in terms of the sour taste tourists are left with when they realise they can’t go shopping, eat out and even struggle to buy a loaf of bread.

Tourism Suffers as Croatia's Sunday Shutdown Stifles Growth - read more here