Record 18.5 Million Tourists Visit Croatia in 2017

Brač

A total of 18.5 million tourists visited Croatia in 2017, the most ever in a single year in the nation’s history, Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli told a press conference in Zagreb today.

The record number of tourists to visit Croatia in 2017 was 13% more than the year previous. The 18.5 million tourists generated 102 million overnight stays, which was 12% more than in 2016.

Revenues were also up on 2016, with around 11 billion euros forecast to be generated from tourism in 2017.

The most-visited region in Croatia by tourists from January – December 2017 was Istria (28 million overnights), followed by the Split-Dalmatia County (19 million overnights) and Kvarner (18.6 million).

Istria (Photo: Ivo Biocina/CTB)

Next was Zadar County (13.7 million), followed by Dubrovnik-Neretva (8.5 million), Sibenik-Knin (7.1 million), Lika-Senj (3.2 million) and Zagreb (2.3 million).

Once again in 2017, it was the Germans who created the most overnight stays in Croatia (20.7 million), followed by Slovenes (10.1 million), Austrians (7.6 million) Poles (6.3 million) and Czechs (5.4 million).

Dubrovnik (photo credit: Bracodbk under CC)

Outside of Europe, the most overnights were created by Americans (1.4 million), followed by Australians (667,000), South Koreans (533,000), Canadians (415,000) and Chinese (237,000).

The most popular destinations for overnight stays were Dubrovnik, Rovinj, Poreč, Medulin, and Umag.