Croatia’s hotel sector is in itself an important influence on the country’s construction sectors. Its income provides tax revenues that fund government construction projects, and the payments that it makes to employees and suppliers provide the means for them to invest in, among other things, buildings and other construction, according to an opinion piece by Michael Glazer (SEE Regional Advisors) and Tatjana Halapija (Nada Projekt), Croatian members of the Eastern European Construction Forecasting Association (EECFA). 

“Accordingly, the 8% real increase in hotel income is likely to boost construction overall, at least to an extent,” wrote the experts. 

There is also the question of how much the increase in hotel income reflects the fortunes of non-hotel tourism accommodation providers. It is not clear that they have done as well as the hotels in this regard, conclude the experts. 

EECFA data shows that Croatia’s tourism growth is slowing down, at least in the high season and especially among foreigners. Year-on-year growth in overnights for the high season of July and August 2024 versus the same period in 2023 was 0.8% overall. While domestic tourist overnights climbed 10.0%, foreign tourist overnights stagnated, growing only 0.11%.  

This contrasted sharply with the much better numbers for May and June, for which overall overnights increased by 3.6%, with a 3.8% and 3.6% increase for domestic and foreign tourists, respectively.