"Rising supply and demand in river cruises across Europe in 2014 encompassed over 1.1 million passengers, or 50,000 more than in 2013, and the trend of this increase is continuing this year," said Zrinka Marusic, a researcher from the Institute.
In Croatia, this form of tourism is connected with the River Danube and Vukovar, where 40,000 passengers were registered visiting that eastern Croatian city on their cruise trips along the Danube in 2015.
Of those tourists, two thirds (67%) were Americans and most of them were older than 65.
In 2013, the average spending per capita in river cruising was 11 euros, and 8 euros of that sum went on purchases on land. Boat crew members spent more, 24 euros per capita.
The overall revenues from river cruises in 2013 in Croatia were EUR 1.1 million, and nearly half of that were revenues from fuel sold for boats, Marusic said.
Those revenues increase by 10-15% from year to year.