DESPITE everything, Croatia is having a good tourism season this year, and we are doing our best to ensure its continuation, including constant communication with partners on foreign markets on a safe stay and the epidemiological situation, Tourism Minister Nikolina Brnjac said on Thursday.

"Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, forecasts for this tourism year indicated a fall in tourism turnover of up to 70%, nevertheless, better results have been recorded and by mid-August 52% of last year's bed nights were generated, noting that for three months, March, April and May and even the start of June, there was no turnover at all," said the minister.

She added that in July, 62% of bed nights were generated compared to July 2019 and 69% to date in August.

Since the start of the year, 6.2 million visitors  were recorded in Croatia and 41.6 million bed nights. Currently there are about 700,000 holidaymakers in Croatia and in addition to local guests the majority of tourists are from Germany (177K), Slovenia (80K), Poland (73K), Czech Republic (54K) and Italy (32K), she said.

675,000 tourists in Croatia per day on average since reopening of borders

Since Croatia opened its border there has been 675,000 tourists in Croatia per day on average with the maximum number in one day of 850,000 being recorded in the first week of August.

The best results have been achieved by family-run farms and holiday houses, achieving 80% of last year's turnover, followed by nautical tourism with a turnover of 70% y-o-y and boat charter generating a turnover of 60% on the year as they provide accommodation with the possibility of keeping a distance.

"A record number of mega yachts have sailed into Croatia this year, about 200, and thanks to being well prepared and adapting, hotels and camps have achieved excellent results particularly now in August generating 55% of last year's turnover, and current capacity utilisation is about 70 to 80 percent," Brnjac explained.

She reiterated that she was in constant contact with the relevant bodies abroad and was monitoring trends in countries from where tourists are coming from.

"I believe that our international partners will recognise our measures and activities and take them into account before making any decisions, while Croatia will continue to do everything so that those international institutions have precise information based on which they will decide which countries to include on lists of safe destinations" she said.