Feature: Croatia's tourism sector feels the pain of U.S. tariffs

ZADAR, Croatia, May 18 (Xinhua) -- The impact of new tariffs imposed from early April by the U.S. Trump administration is already being felt in Croatia's tourism sector.

In Zadar, Croatia's port city on the Adriatic Sea and a popular tourist destination known for its rich historical heritage, Miljenko Mazut said Americans are cancelling their vacation reservations here.

"We had a lot of reservations for May and June from groups of American tourists, but now 50 percent of those reservations have been cancelled," said the co-owner of a private hotel.

"That is a loss of at least 50,000 euros (56,000 U.S. dollars) for us in the season," he added.

Mazut attributed these cancellations to the weakening of the U.S. dollar.

He said Washington's tariff hikes and affected countries' retaliatory duties and countermeasures have made the greenback a big victim, triggering dollar sell-offs on the market and a dropping exchange rate.

"We are already feeling the consequences of the introduction of American tariffs, because the value of the U.S. dollar has fallen, and as a result, American tourists are cancelling their vacations in Croatia," Mazut noted.

The dollar depreciation will discourage more and more Americans from traveling abroad as overseas trips have become more costly, he said. He added that he expects a sharp decline in U.S. tourist arrivals in the Balkan country this year.

The United States has become Croatia's largest non-European visitor market, media reports said. In 2024, over 776,000 Americans visited Croatia, a 9-percent increase in arrivals over the previous year.

Meanwhile, what worries Mazut more is the U.S. tariff-induced lift in the service price universally in the tourism business.

"I'm worried that hotel supplies will become more expensive, which will again be reflected in our price increases," he said.

He predicted a 10-15 percent price hike -- a heavy blow to Croatia's tourism sector, a key economic pillar, which accounts for about one-fifth of the gross domestic product (GDP), official data show.

Mazut also concluded that the new U.S. tariffs are not protecting Americans as Trump has claimed, but are rather hurting them.

"The tariffs harm all sides, including the Americans," Mazut said, citing U.S. media reports as saying that it is the U.S. consumers who have to bear the brunt of Trump's extra tariffs. Enditem