Mon, 22 Dec 2025

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 Why Croatia's capital wants to hold Europe's best Christmas market

The festive events help to put cities on the map and attract millions of tourists.

* Zagreb, Croatia's capital, sees a huge economic boost from its Christmas markets and events.
* The city's tourist board says that visitor numbers to Zagreb have more than doubled since 2014, with over 245,000 people staying for at least one night during December in 2024.
* This has given the city an estimated €100m ($117m; £88m) economic boost.
* However, the city still lags behind other European Christmas markets, such as Cologne's which is expected to attract four million visitors and generate €229m for the local economy.
* Zagreb Advent, the capital's Christmas market, has a limited history and started in 2014.
* Despite this, it has attracted visitors from across Europe, including Italy, Spain, Bosnia, Slovenia and the UK.
* The event brings "unusually high" numbers of arrivals and overnight stays in December, according to Marko Peric, dean of the Faculty of Tourism at Croatia's University of Rijeka.
* However, he cautions that the rest of Croatia still relies heavily on the summer season and needs to develop its tourist offer for other parts of the year.
* Tourism Minister Tonci Glavina says that Croatia is making progress in this direction and is on course for a record-breaking year, thanks to growth either side of the summer peak.
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