In the first seven months of 2018, 11.1 million tourists visited Croatia, generating 56.3 million overnight stays, up 6 percent on the year, the National Tourist Board said on Monday.

Foreigners accounted for 9.8 million arrivals and 49.8 million overnight stays, up 6 percent. Germans, Slovenians, Austrians, Poles and the Czech generated the most nights. Domestic tourists accounted for 7 percent more arrivals and 6 percent more overnight stays than in the first seven months of 2017.

“We are creating an image of a quality year-round destination, and this year’s results show that. We are increasing the demand from new markets such as China, Japan and South Korea, and we are happy to report a more than 50 percent increase in traffic from those markets compared to two years ago. Our wish is to boost tourist traffic outside summer months, which will result in increased profits and longer term employment opportunities,” Tourism Minister Gari Capelli said.

Of the coastal counties, Istria registered the most nights (15.6 million), followed by Split-Dalmatia (10.5 million) and the northern Kvarner region (10 million).

Continental Croatia, without Zagreb, registered 597,000 arrivals (+9 percent) and 1.2 million nights (+7 percent).

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