Željko Fanjak: Hotels in Karlovac County have exceeded 100.000 overnight stays

The just-ended year 2022 was very successful for Karlovac County in terms of the number of arrivals and overnight stays, but also, more importantly, tourist spending. Interestingly, after Zagreb, Karlovac County once again achieved the highest tourist traffic in the continental part of Croatia. 

With over 32% more tourists and 36% more overnight stays, we can be satisfied, especially in the context of increasing the length of stay upon arrival, given that overnight stays grow at a higher rate than arrivals, he points out. Željko Fanjak, director of TZ Karlovac County, adding that the average length of stay has increased to 1,91 days.

"The preseason was extremely good, and in March, April and May we recorded more than twice the number of overnight stays compared to the previous year 2021 (216%), which was also good in this respect. Also, the month of December stood out in the postseason with over 23% more overnight stays compared to the year before. If we correlate these figures with the events calendar, we can see a clear link and the reasons that led to an increase in tourist traffic, such as the TOP events WRC Croatia, Days of Beer, Quattro River Rally, Mo:dem festival, Štrudlafest, Ogulin fairy tale festival, Starry Summer, numerous advents and other tourist events that were held during 2022." Fanjak pointed out. 

The largest increase in tourist traffic was achieved by the tourist board of the Plitvice Valley area and the tourist boards of the towns of Slunj and Karlovac, which speaks volumes about the importance of Plitvice Lakes and Rastok in the commercialization of tourist facilities in Karlovac County as a tourist destination. 

This is also indicated by the fact that almost half of the total overnight stays in the Karlovac County were realized in the area of ​​the Plitvice Valley tourist board.

In 2022, two new tourist boards were established in Karlovac County: the Tourist Board of the Plitvice Valley (Rakovica and Saborsko) and the Tourist Board of the Emerald Rivers and Valleys in the Heart of Croatia (Josipdol, Plaški and Tounj).

The occupancy of accommodation capacities is getting better

After the change in guest structure due to the pandemic, as a result of which domestic guests dominated in terms of arrivals, Germans were again the most numerous guests in Karlovac County.

A significant increase in the number of arrivals was also achieved by the Dutch, as numerous guests in the camps, and by the Italians, Poles and French, who together compensated for the complete absence of tourists from the East Asian broadcasting markets.

"It is especially worth noting that the hotels in Karlovac County exceeded the figure of 100.000 overnight stays, which is an increase of over 40% compared to the previous year. These great data give hope that tourism will continue to develop systematically and that we will reach the goals of the Development Strategy tourism of Karlovac County until 2025."

The largest number of overnight stays is still generated by family accommodation, over 208 thousand overnight stays, while in second place are camps with almost 152 thousand overnight stays, and hotels with over 100 thousand overnight stays.

"The total number of beds has not changed significantly, but we expect an exponential growth in the number of accommodation capacities in the coming years due to numerous investment projects that we hope will be realized with the help of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan implemented by the relevant Ministry of Tourism and Sports." states Fanjak. 

Over 95.00 bicycle passes in a year 

The number of cyclists was the highest in the first part of the year, as we can see according to the data obtained from the posted cyclist counters, and we are particularly pleased that the dispersion of tourist arrivals is slowly coming to the pre- and post-season, adds Fanjak and points out:

"This year, we expect that the CRO RACE bicycle race could once again take place in Karlovac County at the end of September, which will certainly make a certain contribution to the international recognition of Karlovac County as an active vacation destination. It is worth mentioning that during 2022 we continued with the standardization of bicycle tourist accommodation capacity, as an activity we launched in 2019, within which 9 new Cyclist Welcome labels were awarded with three, four and five levels of accommodation quality." 

At the end of this month, a new tourist facility is expected to open in the area of ​​Rakovica - the Underground Heritage Center ˝Speleon˝ and a little later Nikola Tesla Experience Center which will further refine the tourist offer in the destination.

"After Zagreb as the center of all events and the capital of the Republic of Croatia, Karlovac County once again achieved the largest tourist traffic in the continental part of Croatia, and for that I especially congratulate all employees in the tourism of Karlovac County." concludes Fanjak.

Photo: RTZ Karlovac County