June 14 (SeeNews) - Croatia's tourism and travel industry contributed 37.02 billion kuna ($5.6 billion/5.0 billion euro) directly to the country's economy in 2016, equivalent to 10.7% of its gross domestic product (GDP), the World Travel&Tourism Council (WTTC) said on Wednesday.
The direct GDP contribution of the country's tourism and travel industry is forecast to rise by 7.5% in 2017, and by a further 4.1% annually from 2017-2027, to 59.5 billion kuna or 14.0% of the total GDP in 2027, the WTTC said in its Travel&Tourism Economic Impact 2017 report.
The total contribution of Travel & Tourism to Croatia's GDP was 85.2 billion kuna, 24.7% of GDP in 2016. It is forecast to rise further by 6.7% in 2017.
The total contribution of Travel & Tourism includes its wider impacts, i.e. the indirect and induced impacts, on the economy, the WTTC explained.
Travel and tourism investment in Croatia in 2016 was 7.4 billion kuna, as the WTTC expects it should rise by 2.5% in 2017.
Leisure travel spending - inbound and domestic - in Croatia totalled 73.1 billion kuna last year and is expected to grow by 8.5% in 2016. Business travel spending in the Adriatic country totalled 6.2 billion kuna in 2016 and is seen up by 6.4% in 2017.
Croatia's travel and tourism sector supported 138,000 jobs directly in 2016 and this is forecast to rise by 5.0% in 2017.
The WTTC expects the country to attract 14.4 million international tourist arrivals in 2017. By 2027, international tourist arrivals are forecast to total 26.03 million.
(1 euro=7.40235 kuna)