Zagreb expects 2018 to be the best tourist season in recent history, based on bookings from both foreign and domestic markets, as well as visitor numbers in the first few months of this year, head of Zagreb tourist board, Martina Bienenfeld, said on Tuesday.

“This year’s early results indicate that 2018 might surpass last year and set new record highs. With the recently held Festival of Lights in Zagreb, the ‘real’ tourist season has started, although considering great results we can safely say it had started on January 1 due to the Snow Queen (ski race) and the European handball championship (hosted in Croatia),” Bienenfeld told HINA news agency.

From January 1 until March 15 this year Zagreb received almost 153,000 visitors, or 17 percent up from the same period in 2017, while numbers of overnight stays grew 24 percent to 315,000.

“We have excellent indicators from foreign markets for the upcoming season, and we expect increased numbers of visitors from Germany, Russia, India, United States and France, but also from Slovenia, Austria, and Hungary, markets which already had a 50 percent increase in visitor numbers,” Bienenfeld said.

Thanks to various events and festivals, Zagreb is expected to surpass last year’s 1.3 million tourist arrivals and 2.3 overnight stays, which were 17 and 15 percent up from 2016 respectively.