Although 5.3 percent less tourists visited Croatia in September this year than in the same month last year, the nautical charter stands out as a rare segment of the domestic tourist offer, which recorded a growth of 4.1 percent last month compared to the same month in 2023.
According to the data of the Croatian Tourist Board from the e-Visitor system, with a drop in the number of tourists in September, 3.2 percent fewer overnight stays were achieved, but the results at the level of nine months are on the rise – there were a total of 3 percent or 19.3 million more tourists than in the first nine months of last year, while overnight stays were 102.6 million or 0.4 percent more.
There were 2.2 million foreign tourists in September, or 5.6 percent less than in September last year, and they had 3.5 percent less overnight stays, or almost 12 million.
Somewhat smaller minuses were recorded with domestic tourists, of whom 236.6 thousand or 3.4 percent less were registered in September, and 1.2 million or 0.5 percent less overnight stays than last September.
According to the types of accommodation, the most commercial overnight stays in September this year, 39 percent of the total, were in facilities in households (or family accommodation), followed by 29 percent in hotels, 23 percent in camps, and 9 percent in other types of accommodation.
At the same time, there were fewer overnight stays in almost all types of commercial accommodation (hotels, campsites, households…) by 3.6 percent than in September of last year, and the same percentage of decline was recorded with reported overnight stays in non-commercial accommodation.
HTZ data show that in the first nine months of 2024, foreign tourists accounted for 87 percent of total tourist arrivals, or 16.8 million, which is 2.2 percent more than in the same period in 2023.
In total overnight stays, foreigners made up a higher percentage, 88.2 percent, with 90.5 million overnight stays, which is a slight increase by 0.2 percent compared to the year before.
From the beginning of 2024 to the end of September, there were 2.4 million or 6.4 percent more domestic tourists than in the same period last year, thus with 12.1 million overnight stays, they experienced growth by 1.3 percent.
In the first nine months, tourists mostly spent the night in commercial accommodation facilities, where about 87 percent of the total overnight stays or 89 million were realized, which is about 1 percent more than last year in the same period.
Among commercial facilities, tourists spent the most nights in household facilities – there were 38.4 million overnight stays, or 0.2 percent more than in the previous nine months, but almost as much as in hotels and campsites combined.
Namely, 22.4 million overnight stays were realized in hotels, and 20.2 million in campsites, which means that hotels are in a plus of almost 3 percent compared to the first nine months of last year, and campsites are in the minus of 1.2 percent.
On the other hand, about 10 percent of the total overnight stays were realized in non-commercial accommodation, but also 3.1 percent less than last year with 10.4 million reported overnight stays. In the nautical sector, there were slightly fewer overnight stays in nine months than last year, by 1.5 percent or 3.3 million, which means that this segment has a share of 3 percent in the total number of overnight stays.
