Tourism direct GDP (2023) | Tourism direct employment (2024) | Travel exports (2024) |
|---|---|---|
5.2% of total GDP (up 0.2 percentage points since 2022) | 7.5% of total employment (up 0.1 percentage points since 2023) | 26.7% of total service exports (down 0.9 percentage points since 2023) |
OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2026
National tourism strategy: Strategy of Slovenian Tourism 2022-2028
Responsible government agency: Ministry of Economy, Tourism and Sport
National tourism budget: EUR 26.2 million
Key tourism policy priorities and actions:
Enhancing the operating environment for tourism businesses – Considering price positioning and higher value-added tourism products to increase the international competitiveness of Slovenian tourism providers and improve their operational efficiency.
Investing in tourism infrastructure – Supporting the development and redevelopment of tourism infrastructure with a focus on high-quality and environmentally sustainable tourist accommodation that maintain long-term market relevance.
Improving sustainable mobility – Reducing emissions from Slovenian tourism by strengthening accessibility and sustainable mobility options.
Tourism is a key contributor to the Slovenian economy. Tourism’s direct contribution to national GDP in 2023 reached 5.2% or EUR 3.3 billion, a 16.1% increase compared to 2022. Tourism-related industries employed almost 70 400 persons in 2024, accounting for 7.5% of the total workforce and an increase of 1.1% compared to 2023. Travel exports represented 26.7% of total services exports (or EUR 33.4 billion) in 2024 but remained below the pre-pandemic levels of 33%.
In 2025, Slovenia was visited by a record 7.0 million international and domestic tourists, an increase of 6.2% compared to 2024. The total number of overnight stays reached 17.8 million, marking a 5.9% increase over the previous year. At the same time domestic tourism declined slightly with 0.6% fewer arrivals and 0.5% fewer overnight stays. The largest share of international overnight stays was generated by tourists from Germany (15.3%), followed by Italy (8.9%), Austria (8.0%), Croatia (5.8%), and the Czech Republic (5.8%).
The Ministry of Economy, Tourism and Sport is the responsible governmental body for tourism policy and its implementation. The Tourism Directorate is divided into the Tourism Development Division and the Business Environment in Tourism Division. The Ministry assures the legal framework for better tourism governance and stimulates the business environment for tourism SMEs, encourages co-operation between public and private stakeholders and ensures the effective management of the tourism budget.
The Tourism Council is the main political body for co-ordinating tourism policy and consists of government and industry representatives. The Ministry co-operates and consults with the Tourism and Hospitality Chamber of Slovenia, the Chamber of Craft and Small Business of Slovenia and other representatives of the tourism sector, including the Tourist Association of Slovenia, which is a national non-governmental organisation comprised of more than 600 local tourism associations.
The Slovenian Tourist Board is a public agency responsible for the marketing of Slovenia’s tourist products and services, and the programme for enhancing the sustainable development of Slovenian tourism. The Tourism Board acts on an annual work programme funded by the national tourism budget, and is responsible for programme activities related to collecting and sharing data to support the green and digital transformation of tourism, conducting research and surveys, tourism marketing and knowledge promotion, developing products and strengthening destination management by supporting networking in the tourism ecosystem.
The State tourism budget dedicated to tourism in 2025 amounted to EUR 26.2 million of which EUR 14.7 million was allocated to implementing the Slovenian Tourism Board work programme.
Source: OECD, adapted from the Ministry of the Economy, Tourism and Sport, 2026.
The Slovenian Tourism Strategy 2022-2028 sets the guiding principles for tourism development in Slovenia. In its simplest form, it aims to create a green and boutique tourism sector, with a smaller footprint, that provides more value for everyone. The Strategy has 102 measures within ten policies. The Strategy’s Action Plan, currently in the implementation phase, includes eight of the policies from the Strategy. The Strategy relies on horizontal co-ordination, with all relevant Ministries and institutions required to report their progress. As of February 2026, four measures have been fully implemented, 82 are in the implementation phase, and 5 will not be implemented. The Tourism Strategy is complemented by the Strategy for the Digital Transformation of Slovenian Tourism 2022-2026. These two strategies were developed simultaneously, with the goals of the Digital Transformation Strategy embedded in the Tourism Strategy.
A core priority for Slovenia is creating an operating environment where tourism businesses can thrive, helping to channel private investment and create better quality and higher value-added products. The key challenge is to increase the international competitiveness of Slovenian tourism providers and improve their operational efficiency and support environmental sustainability at the destination level. To support this, Slovenia co-funds certification and re-certification of sustainability certificates, such as Green key or EU-ECOLABEL.
During the 2022–2028 strategic period, the policy to support private investments focuses on increasing total value-added in the tourism sector by 43% (from EUR 0.9 billion to EUR 1.3 billion); increasing value-added per employee in the core tourism industry by 31% (to EUR 38 429); and achieving higher growth in value-added per employee in the accommodation sector by 64% (to EUR 59 618). The targets set are considered to be ambitious but achievable with the right measures and activities.
Investing in public infrastructure, nature and culture is planned to improve Slovenia’s tourism offer. This policy is aligned with Slovenia’s goals under the EU Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovenia. This funding has supported public and shared infrastructure projects that enhance tourist destinations and improve the overall visitor experience. These projects have included upgrades to public tourism infrastructure, destination facilities, access points, interpretation centres, and other amenities that contribute to higher-quality, more sustainable and better-managed destinations. In 2025, most projects were approaching completion, with preparations underway for new proposals to further link tourism infrastructure with cultural heritage, green transition goals and integrated destination development, ensuring continuity beyond the initial recovery period.
A separate funding initiative targeting tourist accommodation facilities was published at the end of 2024 to support the complete renovation of existing facilities and the construction of new, high-quality and environmentally sustainable accommodation. Projects were required to meet a strict criterion related to quality standards, energy efficiency, sustainability and long-term market relevance. Successful proposals were selected in mid-2025, with investments contributing to the modernisation of accommodation infrastructure, increased capacity in higher-quality segments and Slovenia’s positioning as a sustainable, boutique and experience-oriented tourism destination.
Ensuring the sufficient supply, knowledge and value of human resources in the tourism sector is pivotal to enabling and supporting the green, digital, quality and value transition of Slovenian tourism. The approach to the human resources development policy includes short-term actions to normalise the business in the first period of the tourism strategy's validity and long-term human resources development measures to increase the value of Slovenian tourism. The Ministry, in co-operation with the Slovenian Tourism Board and educational institutions, is responsible for promoting tourism careers through the 'Kariera v turizmu' programme. The Ministry also participates in career fairs across Slovenia and offers professional internships to tourism students.
The proposed development policy on accessibility and sustainable mobility is one of the major upgrades of the existing national tourism Strategy, with a goal to significantly reduce emissions from Slovenian tourism. The development of sustainable and zero-emission forms of mobility for visitors and goods (green supply chains) will need to be supported across all levels. The policy will consider key elements including: reducing the number of private cars (running on fossil fuels); upgrading the integrated public passenger transport system to meet tourism needs; and redefining Slovenia’s priority forms of accessibility according to the carbon footprint per passenger and the value-added of each market. Horizontal co-ordination allows the tourism sector to draw on existing programmes to improve accessibility and sustainable mobility (see box below).
Tourism information remains pivotal for the effective management of the sector. The National Information Centre for Tourism was officially launched in June 2025. The Centre is part of a horizontal development policy led by the Slovenian government in the field of digitalisation which collects all available tourism data and makes it publicly available to shareholders. It provides 30 practical use cases (e.g. specific functionalities or operations enabled by the system based on available data and indicators), which are presented through more than 70 interactive visualisations.
Sustainable mobility is a key focus of the Slovenian Tourism Strategy 2022-28, however, it is a core competence of the Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Energy rather than the Ministry of Economy, Tourism and Sport. The goal is to significantly reduce emissions from Slovenian tourism through initiatives such as improving railway and bus connections with near markets, developing cross-border infrastructure for cycling and hiking, improving traffic strategies within destinations, creating mobility plans for enterprises and increasing e-mobility. While further targeted action will be required, horizonal co-ordination and effective use of existing programmes provides real opportunities for progress in the tourism sector. Examples include:
The Co-financing of Municipal Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) by the Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development. The aim of the call was to support the introduction and promotion of integrated transport planning and to steer local authorities towards the development of sustainable transport solutions. This is achieved through the development of SUMPs, which provide a framework for the long-term and systematic implementation of measures promoting sustainable mobility at the local level, including for tourists.
Co-financing of the installation of publicly accessible charging infrastructure for electric vehicles by the Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Energy and co-financed under the Recovery and Resilience Plan. The objective is to establish a geographically dispersed network of publicly accessible charging infrastructure for electric vehicles across all statistical regions of Slovenia. Through this call, co-financing is provided for the deployment of publicly accessible charging infrastructure, with eligible beneficiaries including hotels and similar establishments.