Slovenia's second largest city has had a good year tourism-wise, with visitors spending more than half a million nights in Maribor's accommodation facilities in what the local tourism board says is a new record.

From the beginning of January to the end of November, Maribor recorded 509,249 overnight stays, up 26% year-on-year. This is the first time the figure exceeded the half-a-million mark.

As many as 91% of the tourists staying in accommodation facilities came from abroad. Visitors from Germany, Croatia, Serbia, Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy and Hungary accounted for the largest shares.

The number of visitor arrivals also reached a new peak, at 224,950, in what is a 22% increase on 2022. The average length of stay from January to November was 2.3 days.

A detailed assessment of the 2023 results follows at the start of next year, but the January-November figures are cause for celebration even before the December holidays period, Maribor Tourism director Jure Struc said on 14 December.