Ljubljana Had 50% More Tourists in 2005 than Three Years Ago
The number of tourists visiting Ljubljana last year was 313,493, which is an increase of 50% over the last three years. The number of overnight stays was 565,649 an increase of 38% over the same period.
"No European capital can boast such results," said Mayor of Ljubljana Danica Simsic at a press conference in the capital on Tuesday.
Simsic added that Ljubljana was becoming a prestigious tourist destination. This is because Ljubljana is a tidy, charming and welcoming city that tourist numbers are on the rise, she stressed.
She said that the amount of cultural and other events on offer to tourists in Ljubljana had risen over the past three years and that new low-cost carrier connections had also helped the rise in tourist numbers.
Over 1,550 groups of tourists went on a guided tour of the city last year, up 20% on the year before. This means 47,429 tourists saw the capital in this way. The guided tour is available in a total of 17 different foreign languages, according to the mayor.
"Ljubljana has taken pains over its image for over a decade now," explained Simsic. The city's budget allocated over SIT 4bn (EUR 20m) for financing the renovation of the facades of 200 prominent buildings in Ljubljana.
Tourists spending on average less than two days in Ljubljana spent an average of EUR 128 per day. The total tourist expenditure in Ljubljana last year amounted to SIT 16bn (EUR 70m), Simsic said.
Although the city budget gained hardly anything from this, the city annually invested SIT 28m (EUR 120,000) for the development of tourism.
The director of the Ljubljana Institute for Tourism Barbara Vajda said: "We want to make Ljubljana a city of art and culture as well as business and a city for discovering Slovenia".
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