A total of 2.6 million tourists stayed in Croatia in the first half of 2021, generating 11.8 overnight stays, which is an increase of about 54 percent compared with the same period of 2020, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports said on Thursday, citing the data from the eVisitor and eCrew registration systems.

The bulk of overnight stays, or 9.1 million, were generated by foreign tourists and 2.7 million by domestic tourists. Among the foreign tourists, the most overnight stays were generated by Germans, Slovenians, Austrians, Poles and Czechs.

The ministry did not provide comparative figures for the first half of 2020.

Istria County registered the largest number of overnight stays (3.6 million), ahead of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County (2.2. million), Split-Dalmatia County (1.8 million) and Zadar County (1.6 million). The remaining two coastal counties each registered fewer than a million overnight stays, with Šibenik-Knin County reporting 732,000 overnight stays and Dubrovnik-Neretva County 624,000.

The most popular destination was Rovinj with 681,000 overnight stays, followed by Zagreb (427,000) and Poreč (418,000).

In June alone, Croatia registered 1.5 million tourists and 7.9 million overnight stays, which are increases of 62% and 61% respectively compared with June 2020. Some 425,000 tourists are currently staying in Croatia, about 100,000 more than last year.

“The recognition of Croatia as a safe destination, which is why tourists choose our country, gives us a chance to improve our financial results, continue development of the tourism industry and accelerate the economic recovery,” Minister Nikolina Brnjac said.

National Tourism Board Director Kristjan Staničić said that the results for the first half of the year showed that Croatia remained “among the safest and most desirable Mediterranean destinations.”