Celje - Slovenian spas recorded more visitors in 2021 than the year before, although not as many as in 2019. "2022 will also be exceptionally demanding for the entire tourism sector and we can already say it will be unpredictable," the Association of Slovenian Natural Spas said on Friday as it presented last year's results.

The 13 spas that are members of the association recorded 583,607 guests last year and over 2.2 million nights. "In the second half of 2021 in particular, when all guests could come, and not just those coming for medical reasons, the occupancy of spas and health resorts were above average."

The number of guests was up by 22.4% compared to 2020, while nights were up by 18.1%, with a vast majority of the guests being domestic ones, and only 100,690 or 17% coming from abroad.

The number of foreign guests dropped by 10.6% compared to 2020, and they generated 416,580 nights or 7.1% more than in 2020. The share of nights generated by foreign guests in the total number of nights was 18.9%.

Increasing the most was the number of guests from Poland (up by 288%), Belgium (+248%), Czechia (+198%), the Netherlands (+64%) and Germany (+37%).

By country, most of foreign guests still came from Austria, but there were fewer of them than in 2020 and they generated 9% fewer nights. A very big drop was recorded in guests from Croatia (-53%) and Italy (-38%).

Last year, 26.5% fewer guests were recorded compared to 2019 and the nights they generated also dropped at the same rate.

This year as well is expected to be unpredictable, in line with a survey carried out by the Tourism and Hospitality Chamber. In the first half of 2022, providers expect to reach half the figures they reached in 2019.

In the first four months of 2020, spas were only allowed to accept guests coming for medical reasons. "The path to recovery of Slovenian tourism will be very long," the spa association said.

It called for the promised bonuses for tourism to be paid out and subsidies for shorter working hours to be reintroduced.

"Tourism has been hit by the epidemic to the extent that it will need long-term and systemic aid," the association added.