This year, Croatian ports will receive 963 cruise ships, which is almost 5.71 more than the year before, when the country received 911 liners, the Croatian Ministry of Tourism reports.
According to Croatian port authorities, this year the largest number of cruise ships sailing along the Adriatic, will stop at the ports of Dubrovnik and Split, which in previous years have become the most visited resorts in the country.
"The Port of Dubrovnik expects active development in the cruise tourism sector in 2018, but with a slight reduction in ship calls due to a change in the city's policy for accepting cruise ships," the ministry said in a statement. It also said that the season began on March 18 with the arrival of the Viking Star, which had 929 passengers on board.
This year, the port of Dubrovnik expects 441 cruise ships (2% less than the year before) and about 740,000 passengers (4% more than the year before).
The ministry also said that other ports are expected to receive more cruise ships this year, including the ports of Rijeka, Split and Sibenik.
The flow of river cruises is also expected to increase. Thus, the port of Vukovar will receive 328 ships, which is 50 more than last year. The port of Osijek expects 70 ships (15 more than in 2017).
It is worth noting that this year Croatia is expecting a big boost in the tourism sector. Thus, several new airlines will start operating at the country's airports, which will significantly increase the tourist flow to the resorts. As expected, this year the number of carriers operating in the republic will increase by more than 25 percent, and the duration of the tourist season will also increase.
Let us recall that last year Croatia announced a record tourist flow. According to the eVisitor system, from January to the end of December, the country's resorts were visited by a total of 18.5 million people (+13 percent), and the number of overnight stays was 102 million (+12 percent). Including 16.5 million foreigners (+14%) who visited Croatian resorts, spending 89.8 million overnight stays (+12%).
The majority of overnight stays were realized in Istria (28 million nights), Split-Dalmatia County (19 million nights) and Kvarner (18.6 million overnight stays).
Source: trn-news.ru
