Croatia’s tourism sector sees signs of recovery

Croatia recorded over 1 million foreign and domestic tourist arrivals in the first nine days of August despite the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, which is 70 percent of last year’s result in the same period, the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) announced on Monday.

A total of 7.2 million overnight stays were reported during this period, which is an extremely good and almost unexpected result.

According to a HTZ press release, most tourist arrivals, about 225,000, came from Germany, an increase of 6 percent compared to the same period last year. It was followed by the domestic market with 178,000 arrivals, an increase of 18 percent year-on-year, the Slovenian market with 133,000 arrivals, up by 10 percent, and Poland with 109,000 arrivals, up by 16 percent.

“With the increase in the number of airlines, tourist traffic in the southern parts of Dalmatia, including Dubrovnik, has intensified,”

said Kristijan Stanicic, director of the Croatian Tourist Board, in the statement.

He called on citizens to act responsibly when it comes to epidemiological measures, as the continuation of the tourist season in Croatia depends on it.

The promising trend was also recorded in July, when 2.44 million tourist arrivals and 18.6 million overnight stays were recorded, which was 60 percent of last year’s result.

Croatia detected 45 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours as of Monday afternoon, while 585 cases remain active, according to Croatian Institute of Public Health. The country has recorded a total of 5,649 cases since late February.

Source: Xinhua