LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), April 24 (SeeNews) – The number of foreign tourists who visited Slovenia in March fell 78% year-on-year as a result of the coronavirus outbreak which prompted governments in Europe and beyond to close borders in an attempt to prevent its spread, the state statistical office said on Friday, citing provisional data.
A total of 47,000 international visitors came to Slovenia in March, the statistical office said in a statement.
Overnight stays by foreign tourists fell 71% year-on-year to 146,000 in March.
Visits by domestic tourists dropped by 69% to 38,000, taking the total number of tourists in March to 86,000, down by an annual 74.8%.
Overnight stays by domestic tourists totalled 125,000 in March, down 62% on the year, taking the overall number of tourist overnights in the review period to 271,000, down 67.2% compared to March 2019.
The markets from which most foreign tourists to Slovenia came in March were Austria (12%), Croatia (10%), Germany (9%), Italy (8%) and Serbia (7%).
Some 83,000, or 31% of all overnight stays in March, were spent in spa resorts, followed by mountain resorts with a 22% share.
In January-March, tourist arrivals decreased by an annual 27.6% to 667,000, while overnight stays dropped 23.1% to some 1.9 million.
In 2019, tourist arrivals to Slovenia increased 6.3% to 4.7 million, while overnight stays added 1.8% to 11.4 million.