Croatia records historic high 20 mln tourist visits in single year

"This historic result, this challenging tourist year in which we exceeded for the first time 20 million tourist arrivals, prove and confirm the high quality of the synergy between the public and private sector without which such results would not be possible," tourism minister Gari Cappelli said in a statement.

"The Croatian tourism has experienced a real boom in the past several years, a big number of new high-class accommodation facilities have been opened with new offers being created, turning tourism into a real generator of economic growth," Cappelli said.

Some 20.014 million tourist visits have been recorded in Croatia since the beginning of the year until November 8, up 5% on the year, the tourism ministry said, citing data by the country's eVisitor system.

Tourists spent more than 107 million overnights during the period, up 2% on the year.

Most overnights were spent by tourists from Germany, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic and Great Britain. Outside Europe, most overnights were made by travellers from the US, Australia, Canada, South Korea and China.

The most popular destinations in terms of overnight stays were Dubrovnik, Rovinj, Porec, Split, and Medulin.

The total number of tourist visits in Croatia increased by 7.1% to 18.6 million last year, the country's statistics office said in February. Foreign tourist arrivals to Croatia increased to 16.6 million in 2018, up 6.7%. Overnights spent by foreign and domestic tourists grew by 4% to 89.6 million in 2018.

Tourism is a key driver for the economy of the Adriatic state of some 4.1 million people, contributing some 20% of Croatia's GDP.