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Croatia ranked fourth in the European Union in terms of tourist arrivals at the beginning of this year, when the entire bloc exceeded 471 million overnight stays. The latest Eurostat report reveals that in the first quarter of 2026, 3,4 percent more overnight stays than last year.
With a nine percent increase, the Croatian tourism sector successfully capitalized on the pre-season, placing itself just behind leaders Ireland, Malta and Denmark.
Foreign tourists accounted for around 46,6 percent of all overnight stays in the Union in the first three months of 2026, or almost 220 million, which is 11,4 million or 5,5 percent more than in the same months of 2025, but with large differences by country.
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In the first quarter, 471,1 million overnight stays were recorded in tourist accommodation facilities, or 3,4 percent more than in the same period in 2025, and by far the largest increase was recorded in Irska of 35,3 percent, while Croatia is in fourth place, according to Eurostat data released on Tuesday.
Ireland is followed by Malta in terms of overnight stays increases in the first quarter with 11,1 percent more than in the same period in 2025, and Denmark is third with an increase of 9,3 percent.
Croatia is in fourth place with a growth of nine percent, Slovakia is fifth, and the top ten countries with the highest increases include Slovenia, Italy, Estonia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
On the other hand, among EU countries, in the first quarter, the number of tourist overnight stays fell in nine of them, with Lithuania recording the largest drop, almost 13 percent, followed by Romania by 6,7 percent, and Luxembourg by about four percent less than last year.
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Foreign tourists They generated around 46,6 percent of all overnight stays in the EU in the first three months of 2026, or almost 220 million, which is 11,4 million or 5,5 percent more than in the same months of 2025, but with large differences by country.
Malta had the highest share of foreign overnight stays in the total, at 93 percent, followed by Cyprus with 85,6 percent, and Luxembourg with 85,1 percent, while those with a much lower share of foreign overnight stays were Germany, Poland and Romania with around 20 percent.
Ireland is among the EU countries that achieved the largest increase in foreign overnight stays compared to the first quarter of 2025, of 42,3 percent, while Lithuania is second with a growth of 24 percent and Slovakia with 15,4 percent more.
The largest decrease in foreign overnight stays in tourist accommodation facilities was recorded in Latvia, by 7,5 percent, Bulgaria by 4,3 percent, and Belgium, by four percent.
/ / / Slight decline in overnight stays in the EU in the first quarter of 2025.
Although they are not among the countries with the highest percentage increases, they are still the strongest tourist countries in the EU, such as Spain, Italy, Germany and Austria in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same in 2025 had the largest increases in overnight stays in absolute numbers.
In Italy, there were five million more overnight stays in tourist accommodation facilities, 2,6 million more in Spain, and two million more in Germany.
Spain, Italy and Austria accounted for more than half of the total foreign overnight stays in the EU, 123 million out of a total of 220 million, of which the highest number, 54,1 million, was in Spain, 39,1 million in Italy and 30,1 million in Austria.
Eurostat the data They also show that in the European Union, domestic overnight stays increased in the first three months of this year compared to last year, by 1,7 percent or 4,2 million overnight stays more, to a total of 251,4 million.
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