Croatia records 13.61% more cruise ship passengers
In the first six months of 2026, the number of cruise ship round trips in Croatia rose by 11.91%, while passenger numbers increased by 13.61%. Dubrovnik remains the main centre of cruise traffic and is also gaining increasing importance as a home-port destination.
Cruise traffic in Croatia continues to grow, but the interesting detail is not the number of ships, but the intensity of their use. From January to June, 62 foreign cruise ships entered Croatian sea ports, the same as the year before. However, they made 282 voyages and carried a little over 391 thousand passengers.
Same number of ships, significantly more traffic
Compared with the first half of 2025, the number of round trips increased by 11.91%, and the number of passengers by 13.61%. At the same time, the number of days ships spent in Croatian territorial sea rose by 15.91%, to a total of 672 days.
For the tourism industry, this is a more important signal than the number of ships itself. The same base of vessels is generating more arrivals and higher passenger traffic, which increases opportunities for ports, excursion programmes, transfers, guides and other services related to cruise guests.
Dubrovnik and Split account for the bulk of cruise traffic
Almost three-quarters of all circular journeys are concentrated in two counties. Dubrovnik-Neretva accounted for 47.91 TP3T, and Split-Dalmatia 25.51 TP3T of the total number of journeys. Next are Zadar with 12.1% and Istria with 6.4%.
According to the CBS, In the first half of the year, Dubrovnik had 216 visits by foreign cruise ships. It is followed by Split with 135 and Zadar with 88 visits. Korčula had 39, and Hvar and Šibenik had 35 each.
Dubrovnik wants to keep a larger share of the value within the destination
At the same time, the number of transit guests is not the only thing that matters for Dubrovnik. The Port of Dubrovnik Authority expects that during 2026, more than 60,000 passengers on 14 ships operated by ten international cruise companies will pass through Gruž on turnaround operations.
The development of home port traffic is of particular business interest because passengers begin or end their journeys in the destination. This creates opportunities for pre- and post-cruise overnight stays, air travel, transfers and additional spending. It is precisely this segment that could be a more important indicator of the quality of cruise tourism development than simply the growth in the number of arrivals.
