Slovenia recorded the highest ever number of tourist arrivals and nights in 2024, with visitor numbers significantly above the 2023 records driven by a surge of visitors to the capital Ljubljana.

Visitor numbers rose by 6.3% to 6.6 million, with the guests generating 16.9 million overnight stays, an increase of 4.5%, show the latest Statistics Office data.

The increase was driven by foreign tourists, whose number surged by 8.5% to just over 5 million. The number of domestic guests meanwhile declined slightly to 1.5 million.

Germany remains the biggest source market, accounting for more than one in ten total arrivals, followed by neighbouring Italy, Austria and Croatia.

Numbers for Austria, Germany and Italy grew at single-digit rates, whereas the number of visitors from Croatia surged by over 17% and the number of guests from Serbia rose by more than 15%.

Almost half of all guests, slightly over 3 million, stayed at hotels, with 1.4 million picking private accommodation and almost 1 million opting for campsites.

Broken down by type of destination, the mountains, which include major ski resorts as well as the lakeside resort of Bled, remain the most popular destination. They accounted for a third of all visitors and almost a third of all tourist nights.

The capital Ljubljana is in second place with 1.2 million visitors and 2.6 million nights. It is followed by communities in the seaside and those with spas, which recorded almost a million guests and three million nights each.

While other types of destination grew at low single-digit rates, Ljubljana saw visitor arrivals and nights rise by almost 13%.