A total of 1.8 million tourists stayed in commercial accommodation in Croatia in September 2021, generating 10.2 million bed nights, which are increases of 261 percent and 226 percent from September 2020, state agency Hina said on Tuesday, citing figures from the state statistics bureau DZS.

In September 2021, Croatia saw nearly four times as many tourist arrivals and three times as many bed nights, or 1.3 million tourists more and 7.1 million bed nights more than twelve months ago, during the lockdown-affected year of 2020. However, compared to September 2019, the number of visitors this year was 18.9 percent down, while the number of bed nights generated was 1.7 percent down.

Foreign visitors accounted for 1.56 million arrivals and 9.6 million bed nights, which are respective increases of 341 percent and 235 percent year-on-year. Compared to 2019, the 2021 figures were down by 21.5 percent and 2.6 percent respectively.

Year-on-year, domestic tourists increased in number by 46 percent to 195,000 and they generated 586,200 bed nights, up by 43 percent. They also generated increases compared with the pre-pandemic year 2019, of 10.9 percent and 16.1 percent respectively. Foreign visitors mostly stayed in rented rooms, holiday apartments, or houses and campsites, while domestic tourists mostly chose hotels, as well as rented rooms, holiday apartments and houses.

Over the first nine months of 2021 some 11.7 million tourists stayed in various types of commercial accommodation, an increase of 75.2 percent compared with the same period in 2020, and they generated 67 million bed nights, up by 68.4 percent. Compared with the January-September period of 2019, the year before the pandemic, the number of tourists in commercial accommodation was 34.1 down and the number of bed nights was down by 22.7 percent.