In said period, nearly 12.3 million tourists visited Croatia, up 5.5 per cent on the year, generating 72 million bed/nights, an increase of 4.1%.
Foreign tourists accounted for 11.1 million arrivals, up 6.1%, and 65.4 million nights, up 4.7%.
HTZ director Meri Matesic highlighted increases in bed/nights generated by tourists from Poland (20.3%), Great Britain (24%), the US (25.6%), Norway and Sweden (30% each), and Finland (35.5%).
She recalled that German tourists accounted for the highest number of foreign bed/nights (22%) and that bed/nights by tourists from Germany, Austria, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia were up on the year by two to four per cent.
As expected, bed/nights declined among tourists from Russia (by 21.6%) and Ukraine (24.5%) because of the visa regime following Croatia's European Union accession on July 1.
Bed/nights also declined among tourists from Italy and Spain, by 2.1% and 8% respectively, which Matesic said was because of the economic crisis in those countries.
Matesic and Tourism Minister Darko Lorencin announced a stronger HTZ engagement in Russia and Ukraine, including workshops in Moscow and Kiev in January and a tourism fair in Moscow in March.
Lorencin said he discussed the visa requirements for those countries with Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic and that they concluded that as of January 1 visa issuance should be facilitated as much as possible.
He and Pusic agreed that the visas should be valid for 90 days, enabling Russian and Ukrainian tourists to come to Croatia a number of times in said period.