Huge sums for the Croatian hotel and catering industry in connection with Euro 2024

June 23, 2024 – Croatia’s hospitality sector (bars, cafes, restaurants, etc.) rubs its hands and records over €35 million in turnover while Croatia is on the pitch.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, the sheer sum of cash turnover in the Croatian hotel and catering sector says a lot about the impact of the euro. It also provides an answer to the question whether the upcoming Olympic Games will have an impact on the arrivals of foreign tourists and their spending habits.

The entire tourism season, including pre- and post-season, is currently expected to be solid this year. At the same time, for some business niches, the football euphoria is a time of extraordinary harvest, and this undoubtedly depends on how long Croatia will stay in the Euro. The Croatian hospitality sector proverbially makes money thanks to the Croatian national team.

supply to fans we are seeing increasing numbers in the retail sector

Among those who recorded above-average turnover on the day of the two matches of the Croatian national team so far are representatives of the Croatian hotel and catering industry.

According to the Tax Office’s data on consumption measured by fiscalized turnover, on the day of Croatia’s first match against Spain, cafes, restaurants and other establishments providing services in the preparation and serving of food and beverages reported a turnover of almost EUR 19 million, incl. People working in the Croatian hotel and catering sector in Zagreb alone recorded over EUR 3.2 million.

On the day of Croatia’s match against Albania, the Croatian hotel and catering industry received bills of EUR 16.3 million (of which approximately EUR 3 million came from Zagreb). This slightly smaller amount can certainly be partly explained by the fact that it was a weekday and the match took place earlier in the day.

Nevertheless, even this 16.3 million euros is significantly more than the average daily turnover of the Croatian hospitality industry in the first twenty days of June. As of Wednesday, they had recorded around €295 million in turnover since the beginning of this month.

The positive impact of the Croatian matches on the retail sector has so far been most strongly reflected in increased spending the previous day. In the trade sector, the day before Croatia’s first match, over EUR 110 million was transferred to the cash register, which is ten million more than the previous day and five million more than on Saturday, the day of the match itself.

In total, since the beginning of this year, in all activities in the fiscalization system, bills and receipts have been issued for the amount of over EUR 17.8 billion, of which EUR 2.52 billion concerns the first 20 days of June alone. In the first five months of 2024, the total fiscalized turnover amounted to almost two billion euros. That’s 14 percent. more than in the same period last year.

By the end of May, the cash registers of the Croatian hotel and catering sector amounted to over EUR 1.37 billion. That’s as much as 37 percent. more than recorded at the end of May last year. As EUR 295 million had already been reported and registered by June 19, this month will clearly exceed the comparable turnover of last year (turnover amounted to EUR 410 million). This means that it is more than likely that last year’s half-year turnover of the Croatian hotel and catering sector (1.4 billion euros) will be exceeded by hundreds of millions.

It is impossible not to emphasize the fact that significantly higher prices are largely responsible for this increase. The latest CBS inflation data also points very strongly to this. Looking at some annual comparisons, the largest price increase in May was recorded in the Restaurants and Hotels category, with an average annual increase of almost 11%.

Regarding tourism, in the accommodation sector, bills and receipts worth almost €465 million were paid both in cash and by cards. Compared to last year, this is an increase of over EUR 60 million, or about 15%.

In approximately the first 20 days of June, bills and receipts worth more than EUR 180 million were issued. This suggests that June may end with more modest growth compared to the same month last year, with a turnover of €342 million.

 

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