Back to the Real Salt Lake Newsfeed

Slovenia sees tourism boom, thanks in part to Melania Trump

Ljubljana, Slovenia • The tiny European nation of Slovenia is undergoing a tourism boom partly because it's the native country of U.S. first lady Melania Trump.

The Slovenian Statistics Office said Monday that some 1,939,000 tourists visited the Alpine country of 2 million in the first half of this year, a 15 percent increase from the same period last year.

Analyzing the impact of the Slovenian-born first lady on the tourism growth, the statistics office said the number of U.S. visitors has risen 15 percent since Donald Trump took office in January.

The deputy director of the Statistics Office, Karmen Hren, said despite the overall growth on the national level, there was no particular change in overnight stays by visitors at Melania Trump's hometown of Sevnica.