September 10 (SeeNews) - Foreign tourist arrivals to Croatia rose by 5% on the year to 14.7 million in the first eight months of 2018, the tourism ministry said on Tuesday.
Overnight stays by foreign tourists increased by 1% year-on-year to 79.1 million in January-August, the ministry said in a statement, citing data collected by the country's eVisitor system.
The overall number of foreign and domestic tourists rose 5% to 16.5 million, while the overall number of overnights increased by 2% to 90.1 million in the eight-month period.
The results are in line with expectations and plans, tourism minister Gari Cappelli said in the statement.
He added that according to data from the country's tax authority, the hospitality sector, including accommodation and restaurant services, reported an 8% increase in its revenue to 20.6 billion kuna ($3.1 billion/2.8 billion euro) in the year-to-date period.
Cappelli said that the ministry expects the number of tourists in September and October to be at last year's level, with a possible rise in visits from the US, China, South Korea, Russia and France.
In the period from January to August, most overnight stays were recorded in Istria, 24.3 million, followed by the Split-Dalmatia county with 16.9 million overnights and Kvarner Bay with 16.2 million overnights, the statement said.
The Zadar County recorded 12.9 million overnight stays, the Dubrovnik-Neretva County 7.2 million overnights, Sibenik-Knin 6.2 million overnights, the Lika-Senj County 3.0 million overnights and Zagreb 1.7 million overnight stays.
During the first eight months, most overnight stays were made by tourists from Germany (17 million overnights), Slovenia (9.5 million overnights), Austria (6.3 million overnights), Poland (5.4 million overnights) and the Czech Republic (4.7 million overnight stays).
(1 euro= 7.39312 kuna)