In July, all Adriatic counties saw fewer tourists than in the same month last year, except for the Dubrovnik-Neretva County, where there was a slight increase. Meanwhile, the number of overnight stays in most counties was almost the same as last year or only slightly higher, according to data from the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ).
In total, the Adriatic counties had 3.4% fewer tourists in July, or about 155,000 fewer compared to July last year, according to HTZ data.
Foreign tourists especially appreciate this, even though Croatia is the most expensive in Europe: 'It changes the way people spend their holidays.'
In each of those counties, the decline in tourist arrivals ranged from about 3% to about 6%. For example, Istria County saw about 43,000 fewer tourists in July this year compared to last year, Primorje-Gorski Kotar (Kvarner) about 36,000 fewer, Split-Dalmatia County about 26,000 fewer, and Zadar County about 20,000 fewer, and so on.
Dubrovnik-Neretva County was the only one to see an increase in tourist arrivals in July, with a modest 0.6% increase, or about 2,600 more tourists than in July 2023.
In that county, as well as in Istria and Split-Dalmatia, there were also slightly more overnight stays in July 2024 than in July 2023, with increases ranging from 0.1% to 1.5%, while in other Adriatic counties, overnight stays decreased by about 1% to about 3%.
Overall, there were about 0.5% fewer overnight stays across the Adriatic in July, which is about 163,000 fewer.
In the continental part of the country, the city of Zagreb stands out with total tourist arrivals and overnight stays slightly lower than the total traffic in all other continental counties combined. It was also one of the few counties to see an increase in tourist arrivals in July, up 1.3%, or about 15,500 more tourists. However, overnight stays in Zagreb were down by 3.4%, or about 9,000 fewer than in July last year.
Among the other continental counties, five had fewer tourists, and eight had more tourists in July, but overall they were down by 1.1%, or about 2,000 fewer tourists than in July last year.
Among them, Karlovac County was the only one in July 2024 to attract slightly more than 100,000 tourists, but that was about 4% fewer than in July the previous year. Virovitica-Podravina and Vukovar-Srijem counties saw the highest increases in both arrivals and overnight stays, with growths above 20%.
Overnight stays increased by about 20% in Sisak-Moslavina County in July this year, by 14% in Zagreb County, and by 13% in Bjelovar-Bilogora County."