Foreign tourists contributed 3.59 million arrivals, a 18% rise, and 8.57 million overnight stays, a 17% increase. Slovenians also made 6% more tourist trips within the country, while their overnight stays increased by 5%.
The share of overnight stays accounted for by foreign tourists has been rising ever since 2009. It stood at 55% then, at 62% in 2016, and 68% last year.
Italians (14%), Germans (12%) and Austrians (11%) led the overnight stays statistics among European guests, followed by the Dutch and Croatians (5% each), the British and Hungarians (4% each). The biggest uptick was recorded for the Dutch (35%), Germans (26%) and Hungarians (21%).
Non-European guests accounted for a combined 13% of overnight stays. The biggest rise was recorded in 2017 for Chinese visitors (37%), followed by those from South Korea (31%), Australia (23%), Canada (26%), the US (21%), and Japan (11%). The figure for Israelis fell by 17%.
In 2017, the highest number of overnight stays was recorded in mountain resorts, over 3.4 million (27% of all overnight stays) or 19% more than in 2016.
Mountain resorts overtook spa resorts for the first time in terms of overnight stays - the latter recorded 3.31 million overnight (26% of all overnight stays), which is 5% more than in 2016.
Seaside resorts (20% of all overnight stays) recorded an 11% increase and the capital of Ljubljana (12% of all overnight stays) a 16% increase in the number of overnight stays.
In 2017, more than 46,000 rooms or apartments with almost 135,000 beds were available to tourists in Slovenia; 39% in hotels and motels, boarding houses, etc., 19% in camping sites and 42% at other facilities.
