Sunday, 09 February 2025

Challenges facing Croatian tourism industry in 2019

Written by  Jan 23, 2019

Tourism in Croatia is an exceptionally important industry which accounts for around 20 percent of the country’s GDP and is also one of the biggest employers. Last year was another record breaking year for the tourism industry with 19.7 million tourist arrivals and 106 million overnight stays. But whilst these figures may sound impressive the growth compared to 2017 was less impressive, a 6.5 percent increase in tourist numbers and 4 percent increase in overnight stays.

One of the main reasons for this slight slowdown in growth is undoubtedly the rise of competition in other markets. Turkey, Greece and North Africa have all had serious problems over the past few years which, in one way or another, have led to a massive drop in travellers. However, these countries have been working hard to once again attract guests, mainly through price discounts, and are once again drawing larger numbers and consequently adding competition to the Croatia coastline.

The effect of tourism in Croatia cannot be underestimated. Not only does every fifth Kuna earned come from tourism but is also generates tax revenues and at the same time is an excellent sales channel for home-grown products such as wine, olive oil and souvenirs. And at the same time the tourism sector attracts large foreign investments. Around 317,000 people are employed in the tourism industry.

The Ministry of Tourism has announced that in 2019 direct investments in the tourism sector will amount to 1.5 billion Euros, an increase from 2018 when investments totalled 940 million Euros. In 2019 private investors will stump up around 625 million Euros in tourism whilst local government bodies will invest around 425 million.

The vast majority of the new investment this year will go towards new accommodation units, from camp sites to five-star hotels. At the beginning of the year Croatia had 1,168 hotels with a total of 172,000 beds. There are 496 campsites, 350 hostels and 117,000 private apartments.

By far the biggest challenge facing is the chronic lack of workers. In 2018 the cracks in the labour market were papered over with foreign workers. And with the government still struggling to hold back the tide of young Croatians leaving for better prospects in Germany, Ireland and Sweden they will once again look to attract foreigners to fill the gaps. In fact, in 2019 the government has increased the number of visas available to foreigners seven-fold to around 60,000.

Croatian tourism is expected to see a slight rise, of between 4 and 6 percent in 2019 according to experts. However, there could also be a falloff in British tourists as the chaos around Brexit continues to effect confidence in the value of the pound as well as possible new travel requirements.

The Voice of Dubrovnik

THE VOICE OF DUBROVNIK


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