Good signals for the new tourist season are coming from almost all markets and international travel shows held so far this year, and at the start of 2023, Croatia's tourist trade outperformed the results achieved in the same period of the pre-pandemic 2019, the HTZ and the tourism ministry report.

Feedback from fairs and our internal meetings with HTZ representatives around the world show that booking is better than last year, that is, the current state of reservations is excellent, the HTZ (Croatian National Tourist Board) said on Thursday.

They also state that data from the eVisitor system confirm positive trends this year, in which so far there have been 778,500 travellers and more than 2.1 million overnight stays in Croatia, which is 25% more tourists and 16% more overnights than in the same period in 2022.

And compared to the same time in the record 2019, this is an increase of one percent in tourist arrivals and 11% in overnights.

The most overnight stays so far this year have been achieved by domestic tourists, followed by those from Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Austria and Italy, and the destinations with the most overnights recorded are Zagreb, Split, Rovinj, Dubrovnik and Opatija.

Entering the Schengen Area and the euro area certainly brings more traffic, and we expect this to be seen in the extension of the season, especially from the nearest markets such as Austria, Slovenia and others, whose tourists can now come to Croatia more easily and quickly, we also believe in more weekend trips, said HTZ director Kristjan Stanicic.

For 2023, the plan is to reach 2019, to which he adds that considering everything, they could exceed that year in tourism, but that it is still not easy to predict.

“The first major wave of tourists is usually expected for Easter, which this year is at the beginning of April, and this will partly be a signal for the continuation of the pre-season,” says Stanicic.

The Minister of Tourism and Sports, Nikolina Brnjac, points out that tourist demand is very high throughout Europe, especially for Mediterranean countries, including Croatia, for which she says “interest and bookings are fantastic” and that it has a certain advantage of proximity as car destination.

“With good preparation of the sector, government aid measures and promotion, we believe that we can have a successful tourist year”, says the minister.