During the first week of July, the Croatian National Tourist Board participated in the virtual conference with European Partnerships in Tourism, where it held the largest number of meetings among all participants. The virtual conference is funded by the European Commission and includes virtual B2B fairs, webinars, e-learning and matchmaking events. Almost at the same time, the Great Britain re-introduced the flights to Croatia, the French media widely advertised Croatia as a desirable and safe tourist destination, and from the first day of July, planes of low-cost airlines finally took off for Zadar. After three difficult months, tourism has finally started to wake up. Although tourist traffic in Croatia is still between a modest 20 and 25 percent in comparison to the last year, it seems that more favorable tourist winds are finally beginning to blow.
Comparing the day-to-day statistics, the 5,270 tourists who visited Zadar on July 2 (which was 14.6 thousand on the same day last year) are actually a very good 36 percent of last year's figures. Most of the accommodation has been realized in household facilities (42 percent) and hotels (32 percent), while campsites, non-commercial accommodation and other catering accommodation with an additional 26 percent of turnover statistically filled the overall figures. Clearly, all these data are far from last year's record numbers of tourist traffic in Zadar, but given the pandemic circumstances in March, April and May and the fact that tourism is just beginning to happen, they are far better than, for example, in some other Croatian destinations, as well as European destinations for that matter.
Zadar is in sixth place in terms of tourist arrivals in the Republic of Croatia from the beginning of the year to the end of June (43 thousand arrivals), leaving behind Poreč, Mali Lošinj, Umag, Medulin, Novalja or Pula, ie. destinations that have regularly been among the top ten. When it comes to overnight stays of domestic and foreign guests for the same six-month period, Zadar with 150 thousand overnight stays holds the ninth position in Croatia ahead of Split, Opatija, Crikvenica and other destinations.
The fact that most European countries see Croatia as a safe destination is encouraging and even better numbers can be expected during July and August. For Zadar, the re-establishment of air traffic is especially important. Thus, compared to last year's figures for tourist traffic in Zadar, June's 30 percent share in overnight stays and 25 percent in arrivals, in circumstances when most European countries have not yet opened their borders, in reality does not seem so worrisome at the moment as it looked not so long ago.
During June, most tourist overnight stays in Zadar were realized by Croats with a share of 30 percent. After domestic guests the most numerous visitors were Germans with a share of 22 percent, followed by Austrians with 13 percent, Slovenes with 11 percent, Czechs with 5 percent, Hungarians with 3 percent, while guests from Poland, Slovakia and Italy each had a 2 percent share. In total, domestic tourists realized a little more than 22 thousand overnight stays, while foreign guests had about 51 thousand overnight stays. When it comes to the organization of tourist arrivals, as many as 79 percent of guests came individually, while 21 percent of tourists arrived in Zadar through travel agencies.
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