Tourism generated 16.9% of Croatia's gross value added in 2016

Croatian tourism's direct gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016 was 11.4%, while tourism's contribution to the national economy that year was 16.9%, it was said at a presentation of Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) findings at the Tourism Ministry earlier this week. In 2016, foreign and domestic tourist consumption reached EUR 10.4 billion, whereby tourism made up 11.4% of the national GDP, which was in line with forecasts, Minister Gari Cappelli said, adding that all activities would be geared towards having tourism revenues exceed EUR 14 billion by 2020.

Tourism's direct GDP in 2016 was HRK 40.04 billion, said Marko Kristof, head of the national statistical office.

Tourism's gross value added (GVA) in the total GVA amounted to HRK 31.7 billion (10.9%) in 2016, he said, adding that this share puts Croatia among the European Union countries with the highest tourism direct GVA, ahead of Portugal (6.7%), Spain (6.6%) and Italy (6.0%).

The GVA of tourism activities in 2016 totalled HRK 69.9 billion and made up 24% of the total GVA, but this amount does not mean that this is tourism's share in GDP, said Kristof.

In 2016, internal tourism consumption, which comprises all tourism earnings, totalled HRK 78.62 billion (EUR 10.4B). Of that, 97.9% was internal tourism expenditure, of which 86.3% was inbound tourism consumption and 13.7% was domestic tourism consumption.

An analysis of inbound tourism data shows that 94.1% (HRK 62.5 billion) was non-resident tourism expenditure (overnight visitors), whereas non-resident same-day visitors accounted for 5.9%. Kristof said domestic tourism expenditure in 2016 was HRK 10.5%.

Neven Ivandic of the Institute for Tourism said the TSA measured what a tourist bought and which services were sold to that tourist, reducing them to added and new value, not just consumption.

He said the level of tourism in Croatia was not such that it was starting to threaten other industries, adding that tourism was not just hotels and restaurants, but a whole range of other sectors directly participating in it.

Cappelli said it was often stated in public that tourism generated over 20% of Croatia's GDP. He explained, however, that this indicator actually reflected the tourism expenditure-GDP ratio, not how much tourism directly generated new value.

(Hina)

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