Zagreb’s festive celebrations were crowned as the best in Europe for three consecutive years, but Zagreb Advent 2019 remains unbeaten.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Sinisa Malus writes, Zagreb Advent 2024 was visited by a massive 130,000 people, which is close to 2023’s figures. Despite these great results, that figure is still 4,000 visitors less than Zagreb Advent 2019.
While popular, the recently concluded Zagreb Advent failed to surpass the record number of guests who came to Zagreb Advent 2019 according to data from the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ), and based on the eVisitor system.
The City of Zagreb was visited by 130,000 guests during the month of December, which is on par with 2023, when there were 127,000 guests. Both of these figures are excellent but are still less than the record numbers of Zagreb Advent 2019, when 134,000 people descended on the Croatian capital. The same was true when it comes to realised overnight stays. Last December, 243,000 overnight stays were realised in tourist accommodation across Zagreb, compared to 238,000 the year before. Back during the pre-pandemic, record tourist year of 2019, there were 252,000 overnight stays realised in Zagreb.
If we look at the figures from back in 2023 and from the more recent 2024, we’re free to talk about a kind of stagnation or perhaps saturation with Zagreb Advent. According to general impressions, it was still successful and had a good offer, but it seems that it reached its peak just before the pandemic if we’re talking solely about numbers.
According to one Zagreb restaurateur, Zagreb Advent 2024 ended up boiling down to a few popular trends that are known to send prices skyrocketing. There was also a terrible offer at certain locations and a handful of enthusiasts trying to create the best possible experience for their visitors in less than ideal conditions. The aforementioned experienced Zagreb restaurateur revealed that due to the high entrance fees, he gave up on participating in Zagreb Advent two years ago, because they “barely broke even” when doing so.
Issues surrounding high prices can hardly be avoided, for which Zagreb Advent has often been the target of (un)justified criticism. The biggest hype in the most recent advent celebrations was created by the so-called Dubai fritule, but it’s difficult to say how much this craze helped and how much it harmed the image of the event itself. Things got a little out of control, as evidenced by the fact that Dubai fritule were also discussed in the context of the renewed rise in inflation. The price increase at the end of the year was also influenced by the usually higher demand and high consumption in December.
Some have called it the “Dubai fritule effect” this time, alluding to this viral food. High prices didn’t prevent many people from waiting in line to try it. However, Advent is only part of the story of Zagreb’s overall tourism picture last year. It seems that Zagreb managed to surpass the figures for the whole of Croatia in terms of growth intensity.
Overall, Zagreb’s tourism last year was similar in trends, and only slightly better in terms of numbers than in the rest of the country. While Croatia as a whole recorded four percent more arrivals and one percent more overnight stays, in Zagreb the number of arrivals increased by nine percent and overnight stays by six percent, with this growth being driven slightly more strongly by domestic tourists.
The ratio of foreign to domestic tourists in Zagreb is approximately 4:1, and the figures of the City of Zagreb Tourist Board for 2023 negate the feeling that visitors from Asia – South Korea, China and/or Japan, who can regularly be seen sightseeing in groups – are the most numerous in Zagreb. According to the previous data, the most numerous guests of the capital are Americans and Germans, followed by guests from neighbouring Italy.
For example, back in 2023, Zagreb was visited by around 88,000 guests from Germany and 86,000 tourists from the USA. South Korea is below tenth place with around 30,000 arrivals, and there were even fewer guests from China. The list of the five strongest tourist source markets for Zagreb, after Germany, the USA and Italy, is rounded out by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.
