In the year 2012, the republic of Slovenia recorded a 2% rise in the number of tourist arrivals. According to the data of the Slovenian Statistical Office, there were 3.2 million arrivals. On top of this, tourism recorded 9.4 million in overnight stays which was 1% more than in 2011, which was the best year ever recorded before.
Most of the tourist visits were from the foreign markets, which recorded a 6% rise in the arrivals as well as overnight stays. On the other hand, domestic tourism recorded a drop of 3% in arrivals and a drop of 5% in overnight stays as compared to the year 2011.
Despite the economic meltdown in the foreign markets, they recorded encouraging growth in 2012 in Slovenia. The country was visited by 2.1 million visitors who had 5.7 million overnight stays. Encouraging results were recorded from the traditional markets such as Germany which recorded a growth of 9% arrivals as well as 7% overnight stays. The other traditional market of Australia recorded a growth of 8% in arrivals and a growth of 3% in overnight stays.
Despite having some slightly lower results, Italy still had the highest number of tourists and overnight stays with the country generating close to 1 million overnight stays in 2012 alone.
The Russian federation also showed positive trends with a growth of 36% in overnight stays. Netherlands had a growth of 26% in overnight stays, Japan had a 19% growth in overnight stays, China had 38% growth in arrivals and 8% growth in overnight stays and this is an indicator of the great potential of these markets in the future.
In the year 2012, over a third (which translates to around 40%) of all overnight stays were in spa municipalities. 23% of all overnight stays that were generated were in the mountain municipalities while coastal municipalities generated 14% of all overnight stays. In the same year the highest growth recorded in overnight stays as per the municipalities types were recorded in the capital city of Slovenia Ljubljana, with a growth of 7.7%.