May 18 (SeeNews) - The number of foreign tourist arrivals to Slovenia rose by 18.3% year-on-year to 3,586,038 in 2017, the state statistical office said on Friday, citing final data.
Domestic tourists totalled 1,362,042 in the review period, up 6.0% on the year, taking the total number of tourists to 4,948,080 in 2017, up 14.6%, the statistical office said in a statement.
Overnight stays by international visitors grew 16.8% year-on-year in January-December, reaching 8,572,217.
Domestic tourists spent 4,019,345 nights in Slovenia in 2017, up 4.7% on the year. The overall number of tourist overnights in the review period increased to 12,591,562, up 12.6% on 2016.
Key European markets, from which the most overnight stays of foreign tourists in Slovenia were recorded, were Italy (14% of all foreign overnight stays), Germany (12%), Austria (11%), the Netherlands and Croatia (5% each), the United Kingdom and Hungary (4% each).
Tourists from non-European countries contributed 13% of all foreign overnight stays in 2017. Compared to 2016, there were 37% more overnight stays of tourists from China, 31% more from the Republic of Korea, 23% more from Australia, 26% more from Canada, 21% more from the United States and 11% more from Japan. On the other hand, overnight stays of tourists from Israel decreased by 17%.
In 2017, the highest number of overnight stays of all tourists was recorded in Slovenia's mountain resorts, almost 3,418,000 (27% of all overnight stays) or 19% more than in 2016.
On average, in 2017 domestic tourists spent in tourist accommodation facilities three nights and foreign tourists 2.4 nights. Tourists stayed the longest in health (spa) resorts (3.5 nights), followed by seaside resorts (3.2 nights), mountain resorts (2.4 nights) and Ljubljana (1.8 nights).