The volume of passengers at Croatian seaports in Q2 2022 reached nearly 8.5 million, up 55.7 percent on the year, state agency Hina said on Thursday citing publicly available data released by the state statistics bureau.

In the period from April to the end of June of 2022, the number of passengers on ferries and passenger ships amounted to 8.2 million, which was 50.8 percent more than in the same period of 2021. The increase in the number of passengers was recorded at all major ports as well as in international maritime traffic.

“Furthermore, 32.5 percent more passenger cars and 127.7 percent more buses traveled via ferries year-on-year.”

Out of the total number of passengers in Croatia’s seaports in Q2 2022, some 255,000 disembarked from cruise ships to visit the ports of Dubrovnik, Split, and Zadar. The Port of Split was the busiest, catering for 1.2 million passengers, up 67.4 percent. The Port of Dubrovnik ranks second with 701.200 passengers, or up by 259.2 percent.

Croatia’s seaports catered for 7.1 million tons of maritime cargo, or 14.5 percent up year-on-year. There was a 42.1 percent increase in handling of dry bulk that made up 33 percent of the total volume of maritime cargo in Croatia’s ports. However, liquid bulk, with a 40-percent share, saw an 11.7 percent drop.

Five major ports for handling maritime cargo are the southern Port of Ploce, the northern Port of Rijeka, followed by Bakar and Split.

In the first half of this year, compared to the same period of 2021, the total number of ships arrived in seaports jumped 13.4 percent, the total number of passengers by 45.9 percent, and the total traffic of goods by 9.7 percent.