In 2022 Croatian continental counties were visited by far more tourists than in 2021, a total of 2.2 million, and they generated 4.5 million overnight stays. Although these figures account for only 8% and 4.3% of all arrivals and overnight stays, the seven inland counties had more overnights than in 2019.

This is evidenced by data from the eVisitor system and the Croatian Tourism Board (HTZ), showing that in 2022 there were slightly more than 18.8 million tourists in Croatia, who generated 104.7 million overnight stays, which is 96% of the total number of overnight stays from the record-breaking pre-pandemic 2019.

Zagreb accounts for 50% of continental tourism turnover

In 2022, as in previous years, the highest tourism turnover among all continental counties was reported in the City of Zagreb, which saw close to 1.1 million visitors who generated slightly more than 2.2 million overnight stays, accounting for 50% of all continental counties’ results in 2022. Compared to 2019, the capital city reached around 84% of the results reported that year.

The other half of the tourism turnover – 1.1 million arrivals and 2.3 million overnight stays – was reported by the other continental counties, whose overnight stays accounted for 94% of their 2019 figures. Among the top five, with the largest number of overnight stays, along with the City of Zagreb, are Karlovac, Krapina-Zagorje, Osijek-Baranja and Zagreb counties.

Karlovac County was visited by 293,300 tourists in 2022, and they generated close to 560,000 overnight stays, which is 87% of the 2019 figure, while Krapina-Zagorje County’s 368,700 overnight stays account for 99% of the 2019 results, with 175,700 tourists having generated those overnight stays.

In 2022 Osijek-Baranja County had slightly more than 112,000 tourists and 240,100 overnight stays, 2.6% more than in 2019, similar as Zagreb County, where the number of overnight stays was 233,500, an increase of 2% from 2019, while the number of tourists was at 126,500.

Most significant increase in Varaždin County, largest in Požega-Slavonia County

Along with those two counties, five more continental counties saw increases in the number of overnight stays as against 2019, with the most significant increase having been reported by Varaždin County, of 10%, to 206,300 overnight stays.

The largest increase, of as much as 41% compared to 2019, was reported by Požega-Slavonia County, with almost 65,000 overnight stays.

Continental counties with fewer overnights than individual Adriatic counties

A comparison of coastal and continental counties shows that in 2022 all of continental counties again had far fewer overnight stays than individual coastal counties, among which Istria County alone reported the largest number of overnight stays, 29.5 million, exceeding its 2019 figures by 2%.

The other Adriatic counties reported results that were all above 90% of the 2019 figures, except for Dubrovnik-Neretva County, whose 8 million overnight stays in 2022 were at 87% of the 2019 figures.

Istria County is followed by Split-Dalmatia County, with 19.5 million overnight stays or 95% of the 2019 figures, the same as Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, which reported 18.3 million overnight stays.