Croatia recorded 3.7 million tourist arrivals and 25 million overnight stays in July, the Ministry of Tourism and Sport said on Sunday.

Of the 25 million overnight stays, 21.6 million were generated by foreign tourists and 3.3 million by domestic visitors.

Compared with July 2020, the number of arrivals rose by 47 percent and that of overnight stays by 33 percent.

Compared with the record results of the pre-pandemic 2019, the arrivals in July this year were at 80 percent of those registered in the same month two years ago, while the overnight stays were at 81 percent.

The largest number of overnight stays (6.7 million) was recorded in Istria County, followed by Split-Dalmatia County and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County (both 4.7 million).

Rovinj was the most popular destination, with 909,000 overnight stays, ahead of Vir with 856,000 and Porec with 734,000 overnight stays.

The largest number of overnight stays was generated by German tourists (4.4 million), followed by Slovenians (3.7m), Poles (2.4m), Czechs (2m) and Austrians (1.9m). The most overnight stays were reported by household facilities, campsites and hotels.

The Minister of Tourism and Sport, Nikolina Brnjac, said that the results so far show that Croatia can be a safe and successful tourist destination, adding that the results for July give reason for optimism.

“The trends are very good and there are excellent announcements for August and the off-peak season. The results achieved in the last week of July were at 90 percent of those registered in the record 2019,” Brnjac said.

She noted that the results from some markets, such as Poland and the Czech Republic, were better than in July 2019.

“This gives us cause to be optimistic, while at the same time cautious and responsible as well. We are abiding by the epidemiological measures and maintaining the status of the safest destination in the Mediterranean,” Brnjac said.

Kristjan Stanicic, Director of the Croatian Tourism Board, said: “Compared with the record 2019, we currently stand at about 63 percent of the result achieved that year, and announcements for August and September are also very good. Further results will mostly depend on ourselves and the epidemiological situation in the country.”