Foreign tourist arrivals in Croatia rose 28% on the year to 247,959 in March, with overnights up 35.8% to 622,611, the country’s statistics office said.
A total of 73.2% overnight stays were realised by foreign tourists in March, data from the Croatian statistics agency showed on Friday.
Tourism is a key industry for Croatia, accounting for around a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product.
The number of domestics tourists in March increased 6% on the year to 99,377, bringing the total number of tourist to 347,336, up 20.8% on the year.
The number of domestic overnights edged up 4% on the year to 228,015 in the review period, taking the total number of tourist overnights to 850,626, an increase of 25.5% year-on-year.
Croatia’s biggest feeder markets in March were Germany with 19.8%, Austria with 14.4%, Italy 9.4%, Slovenia 8.7%, United Kingdom 4.7% and the Republic of Korea 4.3%.
In March, the highest number of overnight stays, 591,077 or 69.5%, were realised in hotels.
In January-March, tourist arrivals in Croatia increased 17.3% while overnights rose 18.9% to 1,675,558, of which 64.9% were spent by foreigners.
In 2015, tourist arrivals in Zagreb city and on Croatia’s Adriatic coast rose 8.3% to 14.2 million in 2015, while overnights increased 6.8% to 78.6 million.