Croatia eyes 11.3 bln euro revenue from foreign tourists in 2022 – PM

“The central bank has estimated that our tourism revenue will be 800 million euro higher compared to 2019, the revenue from foreign tourists was around 10.5 billion euro back then, and this year it is expected to be 11.3 billion euro,” Plenkovic told a weekly cabinet meeting on Thursday, as seen in a video recording on the government web site.

In the first quarter, revenue from tourism rose 2.0% compared to the record-high 2019.

Currently, there are 1.06 million tourists in Croatia, as most are from Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Poland and Austria.

Since the beginning of the year, some 13.1 million tourists visited the Adriatic country, up by 45% on the year respectively and equivalent to 90% of the numbers registered in the record-high 2019, Plenkovic added.

Tourism is a key industry for the Croatian economy.

Tourism revenue contributed 18.3% of Croatia's GDP in 2018 and 21% in 2019, before its share declined to 8.9% and 15.8% in 2020 and 2021, due to the negative impact of the pandemic on demand for tourist services, the Institute of Economics Zagreb (EIZ) has said.

($=0.995 euro)