Croatian capital becomes more popular to Chinese tourists: data

Croatian capital Zagreb is becoming increasingly popular to Chinese tourists, according to latest statistics released on Wednesday.

In the first six months of this year, the capital of Croatia hosted 28,000 Chinese tourists who made 39,938 overnight stays, the spokeswoman of the Zagreb Tourist Board Darja Dragoje told Xinhua on Wednesday.

This is a 20 percent year-on-year increase when it comes to the arrival of Chinese tourists in Zagreb, and 30 percent growth in terms of overnight-stays.

"Chinese tourists are mostly interested in historical and cultural monuments and sightseeing of the Upper Town," Darja Dragoje says.

Tourists from China tend to briefly stay in Zagreb, and their arrival is part of the trips around Croatia. For the Chinese tourists, Zagreb is becoming a more and more interesting destination, claimed Dragoje.

According to data released on Wednesday by Zagreb Tourist Board, in the first six months, South Korea, the U.S., China, Germany and Italy were the top five sources of tourists to the Croatian capital, while most of the overnight-stays were made by tourists from the U.S., South Korea, Italy, Germany, and China.

With its 1.1 million overnight stays in the first six months of this year, Zagreb has become one of the most attractive Croatian cities for tourists, just behind coastal cities Dubrovnik and Rovinj.

The Croatia's capital also recorded 611,000 tourist arrivals, which was five percent more than in the same period last year.

Croatian Tourism Minister Cappelli announced on Tuesday that the tourism industry had achieved "good results" in the first half of the year. Latest data shows that around 6.9 million tourists visited Croatia from January to June, creating 26.2 million overnight stays. The numbers of tourists and their overnight stays increased six percent and three percent respectively, compared to the same period in 2018.