The first three months of 2010 are over and so are the Easter holidays, which tourism professionals consider to be a kind of indicator for predicting the upcoming tourist season.

So what are the prospects for Ljubljana?

The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia has so far only released official tourism statistics for January 2010, and these indicate a positive trend. In the first month of the year, Ljubljana recorded 16,816 tourist visitors, a 7.8 percent increase over January 2009, and 33,594 overnight stays, a 3.9 percent increase over January last year. The largest number of overnight stays were (once again) made by Italians and the second largest by Serbs, who no longer need visas for Slovenia. Next on the list were Austrians, followed by visitors from Germany, Croatia, the UK, the United States, and France.

Tourism statistics are also collected by the Ljubljana Tourism public service enterprise, which monitors approximately 80 percent of the city's accommodation establishments. In the first three months of the year, Ljubljana Tourism recorded 90,607 overnight stays, a 1 percent increase over the same period last year. There is every indication that the trend is finally upwards again after a 20-month period of poorer tourism results than those we were used to before the economic crisis.

Despite the rather miserable weather during the Easter holidays, Ljubljana recorded a large number of tourist visits. Most of the visitors were from Slovenia's neighbouring countries. On the long Easter weekend (Friday to Monday), Ljubljana's three Tourist Information Centres recorded as many as 3,198 tourists, including a large number of those who only visited Ljubljana for a day.

"If there is any truth in the saying that one can tell by the morning what the day will be like, the skies above tourism in Ljubljana will this year be less cloudy than last year," says Barbara Vajda, Managing Director of Ljubljana Tourism.