Ljubljana Castle attracted 1.3m visitors in 2018
Ljubljana, 23 January - Ljubljana Castle, the capital's main tourist attraction, welcomed 1.316 million visitors in 2018, 57,000 shy of the record posted in 2017. The number of visitors to use the castle funicular on the other hand continued to grow, by another 7.4% to reach 539,000, the castle operator said on Wednesday.
Ljubljana
Ljubljana Castle.
Photo: Tamino Petelinšek/STA
Almost 73% of the visitors were tourists from abroad. Standing out are visitors from Italy, Great Britain, the US, Germany, Korea, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Croatia and Taiwan.
The city-owned operator is also proud of the programme organised at the castle, with 551 events taking place last year, including the first grape picking in the vineyard planted on Castle Hill in 2016.
An important trend noted is the dispersal of visits beyond the main season, with visitor figures exceeding 1,000 in eight of the 12 months.
Moreover highlighted were the operator's first six months in the capacity of the manager of Ljubljana's famous Celica youth hostel. The room-occupancy rate stood at 81% and 54 art events took place at the hostel in the second half of the year.
Ljubljanski Grad expects to finish 2018 in the black, assessing revenue at EUR 5.9m. It pointed out that the share has been increasing of market-secured revenue, the estimate for this year being 82%.