CROATIAN TOURISM BEGINS TO RECOVER

SPLIT, 24 Aug (Hina) - According to the Croatian Tourism Ministry, there were 7,5 million overnight stays in Croatia during July, which is around 23% more than in July of 1996, or 54% of the pre-war 1990. Four southern Croatian counties have considerably contributed to this year's successful tourist season, the most important being Split County, where according to still incomplete data, the number of overnight stays in July amounted to 80% of the pre-war period. Assistant Tourism Minister in charge of economic activities, Gordana Borojevic, said that similar developments have been noticed in August as well. If weather conditions remain to be favourable until the end of this month, one could expect from 9 to 9,5 million overnight stays, Borojevic said. After a very successful pre-season which, according to the State Statistics Institute, had more than 6,1 million overnight stays, the results of this tourist season show that a Tourism Ministry's prognosis on an 20% increase in tourist traffic will be confirmed, with Croatia realising 52% of the 1990 tourist traffic. (hina) rm 241035 MET aug 97