There were almost 80 million tourist nights this year to 28 September, or 77.7% of those recorded at the same time in 2019, including 11.7 million nights this month alone, or 94% of those in September 2019, the Croatian Tourism Association (HUT) said on Wednesday.

This year to 28 September there were 12.5 million arrivals, or 67% of those in the corresponding period in 2019, including 1.8 million in September, 82% of those in September 2019.

Foreign tourists accounted for 89.5% of all arrivals and 90.2% of all overnights.

Better than Mediterranean competition

These results and those of other Mediterranean countries show that, in comparison with the record year 2019, this year Croatia had the best season in the Mediterranean, HUT said.

Spain registered five million foreign tourists in August, up 172% from August 2020 but 48.6% of the numbers from August 2019.

In July and the first half of August, Greece registered two million foreign tourists, and its tourist industry hopes that this year’s results will be at 60% of the 2019 turnover, HUT said.

German overnights surpass 2019

There are more than 170,000 tourists in Croatia at the moment, including 60,000 Germans, HUT said, adding that Germans generated the most overnights this year at over 20 million, more than in 2019.

Slovenians were second with 8.6 million overnights, followed by Poles with 6.5 million (+8% on 2019), Austrians with over six million, and the Czech with over five million overnights.

As for destinations, HUT said Mali Losinj was at 85% of the 2019 turnover, including 10% better results in September alone. The Mali Losinj Tourist Board said tourists also spent more than in 2019.