Despite Belgrade placing Croatia on its yellow list of risky countries, the number of Serbian tourists and workers on the Adriatic is breaking all records. In the first half of the year alone, over 123,000 arrivals and nearly 580,000 overnight stays were recorded.
Official warnings from Belgrade have evidently failed to spoil the plans of thousands of Serbian citizens for holidays and work on the Croatian coast. Although Serbia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs classified Croatia in the orange group of countries in March 2026, recommending travel "only if absolutely necessary," and later moved it to the yellow group with travel "with additional precautionary measures," the numbers tell a completely different story.
According to data from the Croatian National Tourist Board, more than 123,000 tourists from Serbia visited Croatia in the first half of this year. They generated nearly 580,000 overnight stays, confirming that the Adriatic remains one of the most sought-after destinations for citizens of the neighboring country. In terms of numbers, they ranked eleventh on the list of foreign guests, a significant placement given the country's size.
Even more impressive are the figures on the labor force. According to records from the Ministry of the Interior (MUP), by mid-year, nearly 140,000 Serbian citizens were residing and working in Croatia. By the end of July, with over 17,800 work permits issued, Serbian nationals were the second most numerous group of foreign workers in the country, right behind workers from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Interestingly, this number was even two thousand higher than the number of permits issued to workers from the Philippines.
MUP statistics also reveal a dramatic increase over the past decade. While in 2016 only 379 workers from Serbia were employed in Croatia, and in 2017 there were 767, the figures exploded in the years that followed. By 2021, 13,579 were recorded, with 2024 being a record year at 27,988 workers. In 2025, that number slightly dipped to 24,278, but it still represents an increase of as much as 78 percent compared to five years earlier. Data for the period from 2018 to 2020 is not publicly available, but by 2021 the figure was already 35 times higher than in 2016.
The influx of workers is directly linked to the tourist season. The number of workers from Serbia triples between March and July, confirming their crucial role in Croatia's hospitality and tourism sectors during the summer months.
Although citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina remain by far the largest group of foreign workers, with over 38,000 in 2023, the dynamics are changing. Workers from Nepal and the Philippines, who were almost nonexistent in 2016—with only seven and ten respectively—now number in the tens of thousands and are rapidly climbing the list.
Recall that Serbia's decision in March sparked strong reactions because Croatia, as the only European Union member, found itself in the orange group alongside some twenty unstable countries such as Haiti, Myanmar, Nigeria, and Venezuela. Although the status has since been softened to the yellow group, Croatia remains the only EU member that official Belgrade does not consider a completely safe destination for its citizens. The highest-risk red group includes countries like Iran, Lebanon, and Ukraine, while countries deemed completely safe for Serbia are placed in the green group. However, judging by the numbers, Serbian citizens themselves clearly think otherwise.
