In terms of tourism statistics, Karlovac County was one of the best continental counties in 2022, with 560,000 overnight stays, of which hotels logged over 100,000 for the first time.

According to e-Visitor data, last year 293,474 guests visited this Croatian county and made 559,442 overnight stays.

County Prefect Martina Furdek Hajdin has told Hina that the rise in overnight stays is faster than the rise in the number of visitors in comparison to 2021, which is in accordance with the strategic objective of the local authorities to make tourists stay longer. In 2022, arrivals increased by 72,661, while overnight stays increased by 149,180 compared to to 2021.

Some sports and cultural events such as WRC Croatia and Quatro River Rally as well as local traditional and folklore festivals such as Strudl Fest, Beer Days and Festival of Fairytales in the town of Ogulin contribute to an increase in the tourism statistics.

Prefect Furdek Hajdin points out Plitvice Lakes as the most important tourist attraction. Although the largest part of the Park lies in the nearby Lika-Senj County, the town of Rakovica, which belongs to Karlovac County and borders with the park, accounts for 48% of all arrivals and overnight stays in the county.

Apart from Plitvice, Rastoke, known for the Slunjcica River, which flows into the Korana River in that town, is a very popular destination.

Considering types of accommodation, providers of private accommodation registered 208,000 overnight stays, camping sites 152,000 and hotels 102,000, the head of the Karlovac County tourist board, Zeljko Fanjek, has told Hina.

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 e-Visitor system and the Croatian Tourist 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 leader in continental tourism turnover, Karlovac County ranks 2nd

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 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.In the top five with the City of Zagreb in terms of the largest number of overnight stays are Karlovac, Krapina-Zagorje, Osijek-Baranja and Zagreb counties.