Slovenia generated €3.24 billion in revenue from incoming tourism last year, up 9% on the year before and the first time ever that the figure passed the €3 billion mark, data from the central bank shows.

The figure approached that mark in 2022, at €2.972 billion. Before plummeting in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, receipts from incoming tourism reached €2.843 billion in 2019.

Slovenia has thus made an important step towards realising the goal in the seven-year national tourism strategy to generate €3.9 billion from incoming tourism by 2028.

In addition to quantitative goals, the strategy also lists qualitative goals, such as improving the quality and competitiveness of the tourism sector and making it more sustainability-oriented.

The country attracted more than six million visitors last year, who spent more than 16 million nights at its accommodation facilities in a new record.

The central bank noted that inbound tourism exceeded outbound tourism by €1.092 billion in 2023, meaning that foreign tourists spent that much more in Slovenia than Slovenian tourists abroad.

However, the surplus is 12% lower than in 2022, as Slovenian tourists increased their spending abroad by €415 million, while foreign tourists spent €268 million more in Slovenia.

The record surplus of €1.344 billion was recorded in 2019.

Positive shift in external statistics

The Bank of Slovenia released the figures on 13 February as part of broader external statistics, which show that the country recorded a current account surplus of €2.8 billion in 2023, a substantial improvement on a €580 million deficit recorded the year before.

Contributing the most of the balance of payments surplus was trade in goods, which moved from a deficit of €2.2 billion in 2022 to a surplus of €460 million in 2023.

Compared with the year before, merchandise exports fell by 3% to €41.3 billion and imports contracted by almost 9% to €40.8 billion last year.

The positive current account balance was also driven by trade in services, where Slovenia posted a surplus of €3.8 billion last year, up 8% on 2022.

Exports of all services rose by 6% to €11.8 billion and imports of services were up by 4.7% to €8 billion.