Croatia is seeing "a noticeable decline" in tourist arrivals from China in the first week of February, attributed to outgoing travel restrictions imposed by Chinese authorities to contain the coronavirus outbreak, the national tourist board HTZ told state agency Hina on Thursday.

Some 4,400 Chinese tourists have visited Croatia since the beginning of 2020, and they generated 7,600 overnight stays. Compared with the same period in 2019, these are increases of 49 percent and 19 percent, head of HTZ, Kristjan Stanicic, said.

“This growth has been planned, and comes as a result of our activities aimed at promoting more arrivals from China. However, we have recorded a decline in tourist turnover from that market in February, as a result of strict measures taken by the Chinese government and certain travel restrictions for the whole of February,” Stanicic said, adding that HTZ headquarters is in close contact with its Chinese office in Shanghai.

Stanicic added that he hopes the Chinese authorities would succeed in stabilising the situation as soon as possible, so that travel demand from the Far East market would recover.

As for possible impact on Croatia’s tourist industry and revenues, Stanicic said he did not expect any major effects, as Chinese tourists most often tend to visit Croatia in the run-up to the summer tourist season, from mid-March onwards.