15 foreign cruise ships made a total of 85 calls at Croatian seaports in the first 8 months of 2021.
This is up from 9 vessels that made 21 voyages in the same period in 2020 but far below the pre-pandemic numbers of 2019, Croatia's Statistical office revealed.
There were ~86,000 cruise tourists that visited Croatia in January-August 2021, up from ~4,000 during the same period of 2020, when due to the Coronavirus crisis stricter epidemiological measures were introduced in order to limit the number of travelers on those vessels, the office announced in a monthly report last week.
In comparison with the first 8 months of 2019, the number of cruises of foreign vessels to Croatia was 81,8% lower in January-August 2021, the total number of visits by 74.5%, and the number of passengers on those vessels by 88.3%.
During the first 8 months of 2021, foreign-flagged cruise ships called at Port Cruz (Dubrovnik) 70 times, follows Split with 40 calls, Korcula with 26, Hvar with 24, Sibenik with 22.
Tourism is one of the key industries for the Croatian economy, contributing ~20% of the country's GDP.