More than 82,000 Italian tourists are currently holidaying in Croatia, representing the third largest group of foreign visitors after Germans and Slovenians, the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) said on Friday, adding that the largest influx of Italian guests is expected this weekend.

There is a lot of interest in Croatia ahead of the public holiday of Ferragosto in Italy, with Italians picking Croatia, Greece, Spain and France as the most desirable foreign destinations, the HTZ representative in Italy, Viviana Vukelic, said in a press release.

“The demand for bus, ferry and airline travel to Croatia has increased, especially now in August when most Italians go on vacation,” said Vukelic.

HTZ presented data from the eVisitor system showing that Italians account for 136,000 arrivals and 634,000 overnight stays so far in August. Compared with last year, that is a growth of 73% in arrivals and 68% in overnight stays.

So far this year Italians have generated 538,000 arrivals and 2.2 million overnight stays, which is a growth in arrivals of 140% and in overnight stays of 104% year on year. Italians rank sixth among the top markets in terms of arrivals and seventh in terms of overnight stays so far in 2022, according to HTZ.