Croatia records steady tourist flow in July despite COVID-19 outbreak

More than 2 million tourists visited Croatia in July, which was 54 percent of the arrivals of the same period last year, Croatian National Tourist Board announced on Monday.

There were also 14.7 million tourist overnight stays, about 59 percent of last year’s result. July and August are peak tourist months in Croatia when millions of visitors spend their holidays on the Adriatic coast.

According to the Croatian National Tourist Board, out of the total number of arrivals, 1.8 million were foreign tourists (51 percent of last year’s result), who made 12.5 million overnight stays (56 percent of last year’s result).

The turnover of domestic tourists was at 90 percent of last year’s traffic.

Kristjan Stanicic, director of the Croatian National Tourist Board, said in a press release that intensive campaigns are being conducted to show the near markets that Croatia is a safe tourist destination.

“These are, given the circumstances, excellent indicators, and a good announcement for August in which we expect the continuation of positive trends. This is confirmed by the number of about 700,000 tourists who are currently vacationing in Croatia,” said Stanicic.

Croatia’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism, which accounts for about 20 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

According to the European Commission, Croatia is among the three most-affected countries in the European Union by the coronavirus crisis. The Commission predicts in the Summer 2020 Economic Forecast that Croatia’s GDP will drop by 10.8 percent in 2020, and then grow 7.5 percent in 2021.

Croatia opened its borders in May for citizens of some European countries.

The government has said that the country could not stand another lockdown and that people should get used to living in the new circumstances. They urge people to act responsibly and keep a physical distance.