January the 22nd, 2026 – Foreign guests spent more in Croatia than they did before the coronavirus pandemic in the first half of 2025 alone according to the latest data, but does the bigger picture reveal some cracks?
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Edita Vlahovic Zuvela writes, tourism accounts for about a fifth of Croatia’s GDP and will naturally remain an exceptionally strong growth engine this year. Although the numbers on arrivals and revenues suggest exceptional success, experts keep on warning of deep-seated problems that are holding back development, from the unstoppable “apartmentisation” and a lack of hotel accommodation to low non-boarding consumption.
“However, through indirect effects, tourism contributes to the growth of activity and employment in other sectors such as trade, transport, construction, furniture production, and production of means of transport,” say Goran Buturac and Ivana Rašić from the Institute of Economics, Zagreb (EIZ), who have analysed trends in the tourism sector in more recent years.
guests spent more than they did before the pandemic during the first half of 2025
They point out that foreign exchange revenues from tourism are also continuing to grow well. “They were 5.9 percent higher in the first two quarters of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, while they were 55.8 percent higher compared to the same period in pre-pandemic year of 2019,” revealed the EIZG analysts, who expect that given the year-on-year growth in terms of foreign tourist arrivals and overnight stays in the first nine months of 2025, total international tourism revenues for 2025 will exceed the level of revenues achieved back in 2024.
In the first nine months of last year, Croatia recorded an extremely impressive 18.7 million tourist arrivals, who achieved 89.4 million overnight stays, according to the latest available data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Compared to that same period back in 2024, the number of tourist arrivals increased by 2.3 percent, and the number of overnight stays by 1.2 percent. The growth in the number of arrivals and overnight stays was more pronounced among Croatian tourists from across the country compared to foreign tourists.
“This can be attributed to the relatively small base of Croatian tourists, as well as to increased competitive pressure coming from other international tourist destinations,” explained Buturac and Rašić.
croatia’s “apartmentisation” problem
One of the biggest structural problems for Croatian tourism remains the dominance of private accommodation. Less than ten percent of capacity is accounted for by hotels in the entire country, while private apartments springing up like mushrooms after the rain account for as much as 90 percent. Hotels (1,626 of them) generated three billion in total revenue back in 2024, while the total revenue of the ten leading companies in this sector in 2024 amounted to 1.4 billion euros and was 8.7 percent higher than the previous year. These figures were determined by EIZ analysts who delved into the operations of hotel companies throughout 2024, since the data for 2025 is still being waited on.
All 10 leading Croatian hotel companies ended the year with a secure and positive business result, and cumulatively, they generated a profit of 193.8 million euros.
The highest gross profit for 2024 of 59.9 million euros was achieved by the well known Plava Laguna, followed by Maistra with a gross profit of 40.1 million euros. Valamar Riviera followed with a gross profit of 31 million euros. In the first nine months of last year, Plava Laguna’s total revenue amounted to around 237.8 million euros, which is around 5.2 percent more than in the same period in 2024, according to the company’s financial report.
Profit before tax (gross profit) in the same period amounted to 82.1 million euros, which is at the level of the previous year. By the end of September this year, Maistra had generated 310 million euros in revenue, which is seven percent more than in the same period last year, while EBITDA amounted to 125 million euros, ten percent more than in the same period last year, also illustrated by the data of the tourism company itself.
changes in guest structure need to be looked into more deeply
“The unavailability of certain capacities in some campsites took place during the first half of 2025, this was primarily due to investment works and it limited the growth in volume in the observed period. At the same time, the average price of accommodation increased by six percent compared to the same period last year,” commented CEO Tomislav Popović.
Valamar Riviera’s operating income over the first nine months of 2025 amounted to a huge 430.9 million euros, an increase of 10.5 percent year-on-year. EBITDA amounted to 165.2 million euros, which is 11.8 percent more than in the same period in 2024, with an increase in the EBITDA margin by 0.5 percent.
Valamar is currently aiming for a fundamental shareholder value of 1 billion euros (or 9 euros per share) and a dividend yield of four percent by the end of 2026. The plan is to achieve an EBITDA of 150 million euros for the 2026 business year. For hotel companies, the fact that tourists prefer to choose resorts and similar facilities is also a bigger issue – in the first nine months of 2025, 50.2 percent of overnight stays were realised in resorts and private accommodation, while in the same period in 2024, this share stood at 46.4 percent. Hotel accommodation accounted for 26 percent of overnight stays, and campsites accounted for 23.8 percent of the total number of overnight stays realised in commercial accommodation.
Although there has been a noticeable trend of growth in overnight stays realised by Croatian guests in more recent years, foreign visitors are of course still dominant. Of the total number of overnight stays realised from January to September 2025, foreign guests accounted for a massive 91 percent, with guests from across Croatia accounting for a mere 9 percent. Croatian guests achieved a year-on-year increase in arrivals of 8.6 percent and overnight stays of 6.1 percent in the first nine months of 2025. At the same time, arrivals of foreign guests increased by 1.4 percent, and overnight stays by 0.7 percent.
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