For the last part of 2010 on the Visit Croatia website, we’ve been running a poll amongst our website visitors and readers to find their favourite destination in Croatia. We received a fantastic response – thank you very much to everyone who took the time to enter.
We can now reveal that the winner of the top destination in Croatia, as voted for by our readers, is…Dubrovnik!
Which, we must say, isn’t much a of a surprise! This beautiful Dalmatian destination, with its wonderful Old Town, and numerous sights, places to eat, entertainment options to enjoy and beaches to laze on really provides something for everyone. There’s also something to fit every budget – whether you’re trying to keep your travel costs down, or want to splurge on five-star luxury.
Dubrovnik wasn’t just a popular destination with our readers in 2010, but a popular place to visit overall! 588,534 tourists came to Dubrovnik in 2010, which is an increase of 13% on 2009’s numbers. Visitors stayed for 2,192,254 nights in total, a figure that’s also up – by 14% – on 2009. Funnily enough, Brits were the most numerous visitors (52,807) which is, in part, also a reflection of our readers poll. (Although, of course, we do have readers and visitors all over the world!)
These rising visitor numbers will hopefully continue for 2011 – a trend already started by New Year celebrations in the city when 4,000 guests stayed in Dubrovnik – up 20% on the year before. This also shows that it’s a city that can be enjoyed year-round, not just in summer.
Dubrovnik, of course, is also increasingly popular with cruise ship passengers. During the whole of 2010, 705 cruise ships docked in the city, bringing with them 930,000 passengers – up 11% on 2009. In fact, 2010 was the most successful year for Dubrovnik in terms of cruise ship numbers, something that’s expected to be beaten in 2011. The city is now often found as a destination on cruise itineraries, and this type of holiday should also help bring in visitors during winter months with one cruise line offering sailings during January and February. (As well as the rest of the year too.)
The full list of results in our poll is shown below.
Visit Croatia Readers’ Top 10 Favourite Destinations in Croatia
1. Dubrovnik – 37%
2. Split – 16%
3. Plitvice Lakes – 9.6%
4. Rovinj – 7.9%
= Porec – 7.9%
6. Zagreb – 7.5%
7. Brac – 1.8%
= Hvar – 1.8%
= Trogir – 1.8%
10. Opatija – 1.3%
= Cavtat – 1.3%
Other destinations that received votes but that didn’t make the top 10 include Makarska, Motovun, Cres, Korcula and Vis, amongst others.
Is your favourite destination featured there? Are you surprised by the top 10? Let us know! Email us at webmaster@visit-croatia.co.uk or Tweet us @visit__croatia
[Sources for tourist statistics: Vjesnik; HRT; Slobodna Dalmacija; HRT; Vjesnik]