ISTRIA'S SUMMER RESORTS ACCOMMODATE 160,000 TOURISTS

PULA, Aug 7 (Hina) - There are 160,000 tourists currently spending their holidays in the summer resorts of Istria, Croatia's northern Adriatic peninsula, the head of the Istria County Tourist Association, Veljko Ostojic, said on Thursday, pointing out this was 11 percent more than in the same period a year ago. The "peak" of this season, Ostojic said, could be expected over the next weekend, on the basis of announced arrivals of large numbers of tourists from Italy and Bavaria. The Tourist Association of Rovinj (Istria's west coast) accommodates 21,071 tourists, followed by Vrsar (18,504), Funtana (18,387), Tar-Vabriga (16,606), Medulin (15,960) and Porec (15,459) - all on the west coast. According to Ostojic, the hotel and apartment capacity is 95-100 percent full, while camps are 80 percent full. About 80 percent of a total of 200,000 registered beds in all types of accommodation in Istria are full, Ostojic said, adding it is realistic to + expect that this year the summer resorts in Istria would register 12 million overnight stays. The record number of 17.5 million overnight stays, registered in 1990, depended on the length of the tourist season, said Ostojic, adding this would be difficult to achieve without the return of tourists from Great Britain, the Benelux countries and Scandinavia. (hina) ha 071041 MET aug 97