"This year's tourism results in Croatia's northwestern Krapina-Zagorje County in some aspects exceed the results of the record-breaking year 2019," state news agency Hina reported on Monday, citing a news conference held in the town of Krapina.

“In the period from the beginning of this year to 21 August, the northern Zagorje region was visited by 116,867 tourists, a 21.6 percent increase from the same period of 2021 and a 1.05 percent increase compared to 2019. Those visitors generated 247,844 overnight stays, which is 29.37 percent more than in the same period of 2021 and a 1.25 percent increase from the same period of 2019,” said the head of the county tourism board, Sanja Skrinjar.

In this period there were 74.67 percent more foreign visitors than in 2021 and 3.44 percent more than in 2019, while the number of domestic guests was 3.81 percent higher than in 2021 and was at 99.25 percent of the 2019 figures, she said.

The traditionally most numerous foreign visitors are Slovenians, followed by Poles and Czechs, Skrinjar said, noting that the number of Dutch arrivals was 212.89 percent up from 2019 at 6,530 and that the interest in Zagorje in northern European markets had been growing.

Krapina-Zagorje County head Zeljko Kolar said the tourism results were proof that Zagorje was the leading continental destination in Croatia.