Although business results posted by local hotel industry in 2022 were good price hikes and rising operating costs made them "more cautious in forecasts for 2023," state news platform Hina cited the head of the national tourism association HUT, Veljko Ostojic, as saying on Tuesday.

Ostojic was speaking at a trade event of the hotel industry in Zagreb.

“This results of the 2022 tourist season have reached the record season of 2019 in terms of physical indicators in the hotel industry, and this makes hoteliers happy,” he said, adding that also “Croatia is a favorite destination globally.”

Hina did not explain what “physical indicators” are, but Ostojic was probably referring to numbers of visitors and bed nights recorded. Approximately 104 million bed nights have been registered in 2022 to date, which is 4 percent down from 2019, the last year before the pandemic.

Ostojic warned that in 2022 expenses of hotel companies grew at a a faster pace than their revenues. “These trends will make our business plans for 2023 more difficult,” he added. He defined five challenges hotels should brace for in 2023: the chronic shortage of labor, the issue of tourism-purposed land, protection of the coastal belt, energy, and price hikes.

The head of another state-run tourism organization, the national tourist board HTZ, Kristjan Stanicic, said that in 2023 “positive trends would continue” and that Croatia is likely to see a 5 percent rise in overnight stays compared to 2022.