January the 16th, 2026 – Zagreb has enjoyed a record tourism year throughout 2025, with the award winning Advent Zagreb festivities bringing in impressive crowds.
As Sinisa Malus/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, according to data from the Zagreb Tourist Board (TZGZ), during the Advent and New Year events in Zagreb, 163,763 arrivals and 310,361 overnight stays were recorded. That figure represents an increase of three percent in arrivals and two percent in terms of overnight stays, compared to the same period back in 2024.
In addition to domestic guests from across the rest of Croatia, the largest number of arrivals in Zagreb was achieved by visitors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Germany, Italy and Austria. Looking at overnight stays, the top five foreign guests came from Germany, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria and Slovenia.
record tourism numbers for zagreb in 2025, with advent boosting it all
The Director of the Zagreb Tourist Board, Martina Bienenfeld, expressed her sincere satisfaction with these results, which represented a record tourism year in both cases for Zagreb in 2025.
“These indicators were significantly boosted by the targeted promotional activities of the Zagreb Tourist Board, which resulted in more than 4.7 million online views in November and December alone, further strengthening Zagreb’s visibility in key emitting markets. At the same time, looking at the situation on a year-on-year basis, in 2025, Zagreb recorded a three percent increase in overnight stays and one percent in arrivals, which amounts to a total of 2,772,434 overnight stays and 1,446,080 arrivals. That positioned the City of Zagreb in first place in terms of the number of arrivals in Croatia again in 2025. In the context of international promotion, additional value to the achieved results is given by the exceptional success of our promotional film “Zagreb – All Inclusive”.
In fact, in 2025, the film was included among the five best tourist promotional films in the world in the City Promotion category, according to the selection of CIFFT – the International Association of Tourist Film Festivals. I’d sincerely like to thank and congratulate the entire tourism industry for the excellent tourism results, and especially for the success achieved during Advent Zagreb, which, like the entire tourism year for Zagreb in 2025, was marked by record numbers,” stated Bienenfeld.
Following the Advent spending, in cooperation with the Institute for Tourism, the Zagreb Tourist Board developed an “Estimate of Total Consumption Generated by Advent Zagreb in the 2024/2025 Season.” According to the research results, the economic impact of Advent Zagreb in the 2016/2017 season was approximately 52 to 58 million euros, while for the 2024/2025 season it is from 96.3 million euros to 127.2 million euros. This is new consumption that is a direct result of the Advent Zagreb offer, i.e. consumption that wouldn’t have been achieved without this now traditional and popular event.
advent zagreb has spread across croatia, with the christmas period taking tourism by storm
Damir Krešić, Director of the Institute for Tourism, stated that Advent Zagreb has emerged as one of the most recognisable and successful tourism products in Croatia over the past decade or so, with extremely strong economic and social effects across the board.
“Its significance has long gone beyond the city itself and has a visible impact on the development of tourism outside the main tourist season at the national level. Spurred by the success of Advent Zagreb, Advent events have spread to other parts of Croatia in recent years – thus developing a new type of tourist offer, in which Advent is no longer just an accompanying event, but an independent motive for coming to the country entirely.
It is particularly important to point out that for many smaller towns and cities, Christmas events have enabled the development of tourist offer during the winter, an otherwise off-season period, when tourist demand was always usually minimal or almost non-existent in many areas. Zagreb’s festive celebrations clearly showcase just how a properly designed, well-managed and authentic tourist product can generate strong economic and social benefits, especially when it is based on the quality of the content, local identity and active involvement of the local community,” explained Krešić.
Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Tourism, Neven Ivandić, added that the City of Zagreb is a good example of a tourist destination in which the number of overnight stays doesn’t fully reflect the real economic significance of tourism.
zagreb has a very strong contribution to the entire country
“Although Zagreb has a relatively smaller share of total tourist overnight stays at the national level, its contribution to the tourism economy is significantly higher, with visible positive effects at the national level as well. In this context, Advent Zagreb, where 65 percent of spending was generated by domestic and foreign visitors, stands out as an important generator of tourism and economic activity, not only for Zagreb, but also for the wider Croatian economy, in a period of the year traditionally marked by lower tourist demand,” revealed Krešić.
Average visitor spending varies depending on their profile and includes spending on accommodation, food and drinks, shopping, culture, entertainment, local transport and other services. Same-day visitors from elsewhere across Croatia and abroad spent an average of around 70 euros per day, while the highest level of spending was recorded among guests staying in private or hotel accommodation, ranging from 125 to 152 euros per day. Although the research isn’t conducted every year, the results obtained can be considered relevant for the current season, with an expected slight increase in line with the achieved tourism indicators.
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