Number of tourist arrivals in Dubrovnik 2012-2023

Overnight tourist arrivals in Dubrovnik, Croatia, increased at a fast pace throughout the 2010s, surpassing 1.4 million in 2019. The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19), however, brought a halt to this trend, reducing tourism in the city to just 220 thousand visitors in 2020 before figures began to increase again, standing at 1.2 million visitors in 2023. These figures do not include the large number of excursionists and cruise passengers that typically enter the city during the peak season.

Coping with Dubrovnik’s popularity

For many years, the city of Dubrovnik has been a leading destination in the Mediterranean. As in many of Europe’s most prominent tourist cities, however, increasing visitor numbers led to problems with overtourism, to the point that UNESCO warned that Dubrovnik’s world heritage status was at risk. To cope with the limited capacity and resources, the city launched plans in 2017 to make tourism more sustainable, including limiting the number of cruise ships calling at the port and the number of visitors entering the city.

Tourism across Croatia

As in Dubrovnik, there was a growing number of international tourist arrivals throughout Croatia before the pandemic hit. The country has various coastal cities on the Adriatic Sea that are also popular tourist destinations. The Dalmatia region, where Dubrovnik is based, covers much of the coastline of Croatia and includes the city of Split. The Istrian peninsula in the north, where the city of Pula is based, is also popular. According to Croatia’s national tourist board, the capital Zagreb was the most visited city in Croatia.