November 8 (SeeNews) - Foreign tourist arrivals to Croatia increased 7.4% year-on-year to 1,826,904 in September, while the number of overnights rose 3.0% to 9,462,531, according to data released by the country's statistical office on Wednesday.
Foreign visitors accounted for 95.6% of all overnight stays in September, the data indicated.
Tourism is a key industry for Croatia, generating around a fifth of the country's gross domestic product.
The number of domestic tourists decreased 5.8% on the year to 151,809 in September, taking the total number of tourists to 1,978,713, up 6.2% on the year.
The number of overnights spent by domestic tourists fell 6.5% on the year to 437,299 in September. The total number of tourist overnights increased to 9,899,830, up 2.6% year-on-year.
Croatia's biggest feeder markets in September were Germany with a share of 32%, Austria with 10.0%, the United Kingdom and Poland with 7% each, the Czech Republic with 6% and Slovenia with 5%.
In September, the county of Istria recorded the largest number of tourist nights, as much as 3.1 million, which is 31% of total realised nights.
In 2016, tourist arrivals to Croatia increased by 8.7%, while the number of overnights rose by 9.0%, reaching 78.05 million.