Croatia: arrivals soar in last five years

Author: Leonie Tait

Date published: 25 Oct 2006

In five years Croatia has changed from being a high-risk country to reputedly one of World's safest tourist destinations. Tourist arrivals grew by nearly a half between 2000-2005, setting the country firmly on its way to recovering the numbers recorded before the Balkan conflict.

Germans, Italians and Slovenes account for about half of all tourists visiting Croatia and the number of tourists from these nations are on the rise, according to a new report from Euromonitor International – “Travel and Tourism in Croatia”.

The number of tourists traveling to Croatia from these countries increased significantly between 2000-2005, especially the Germans with 53% growth. However, due to economic problems at home, Germans now have a tendency towards shorter holidays and are inclined to spend less on additional services while abroad. This, together with the negative growth in arrivals from the Czech Republic, Croatia's fifth most popular inbound country, may lead the Croatian tourist industry to revise the rates it charges to its highest-performing inbound guests.

Growth inbound countries

According to the report, the biggest surprise was the phenomenal growth in arrivals from France, which grew by almost 670% between 2000-2005. Croatia now features increasingly in brochures of French tour operators which meant that there was a big increase in organised arrivals, predominantly early and late in the holiday season. The popular French portal voyages-sncf.com, for example, also promotes Croatia for around €400 per person per week. However, there was also a significant increase in French individual arrivals in the main season - a trend which was most prominent in the Dubrovnik district.

Looking at the top ten countries, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands were the next most dynamic in terms of arrivals, growing by 185% and 129% between 2000-2005, respectively, according to Euromonitor International. In the late 1980s Croatia was very popular with the British and although arrivals in recent years are still nowhere near those levels, the dynamic growth indicates that they may be catching up. British travel agents and tour operators position Croatia favourably and about a half of all tourists from the UK buy packaged holidays. For the Dutch as well, Croatia is an old favourite, and numbers are now fast approaching pre-war levels.

Highest spenders

Daily tourism spend per capita in Croatia, including accommodation, food, drink and entertainment, more than doubled in US dollar terms between 2001 and 2005 to reach US$94. UK visitors were consistently the highest spenders with an estimated US$147 per head daily expenditure, according to Euromonitor's research.

French visitors stole second place from the Italians, spending about US$145 a day, pushing Italian visitors down to the third place with a daily spend of about US$71 dollars. The Germans, more cost-conscious in 2005, have also fallen behind the Dutch, who were spending about US$57 dollars per day.

Tourists on the more exclusive Dubrovnik Riviera spend about twice as much on average than visitors elsewhere.

Capital city visitor trends

In 2005, Zagreb welcomed some 550,000 visitors – a 20% increase on 2004. This was a better performance than in the previous years when recorded annual increases were between 12-15%. Among the factors contributing to this acceleration of growth were September's World Corporation Games and the World SKAL (International Association of Travel and Tourism Professionals) Congress held in October of that year. Together, the events brought about 7,000 visitors.

Zagreb continues its pre-war tradition of being predominantly a business tourism destination, although leisure tourism is on the rise and the Croatian capital is now featured in the “City Breaks” section of many foreign travel agents' brochures. Most foreign visitors traditionally came from Germany and Italy, although in 2005 there was an increase in arrivals from France, following the trend for the whole of Croatia.

Visits to Zagreb have been boosted by the entry of low cost airlines such as Germanwings, Norwegian Airshuttle and Scandinavian Airlines' Snowflake. The two Scandinavian budget companies fly to Zagreb only in the high season, but Germanwings has a year-round service, bringing tourists and businessmen alike to the Croatian capital.

But this dynamic growth trend will have to be stepped up further if the capital is to catch up with its pre-war tourism figures (nearly 800,000 guests in 1990). While stepping up the promotion of its cultural and historic interest, the capital is also lining up an increasing number of conference events, so business travellers will continue to be the main driving force of its tourism in the years to come.

ENDS

More information on the Travel and Tourism in Croatia report