ZAGREB, September 5, 2020 - As a result of the global coronavirus pandemic, foreign cruise ships made as few as 16 trips to Croatia in the first seven months of 2020, which is a decline of 95.6% compared with the same period of 2019, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS). 

The 16 trips were made by seven cruise liners, whose number fell by nearly 88% compared with last year. Fifteen of the trips were made in the first quarter of the year, while one was made in July. The July trip brought 25 passengers who stayed in Croatia for six days, while in July last year 96 such trips were made with a total of 156,000 passengers.

In the first seven months of this year, the cruise ships brought slightly fewer than 3,800 passengers, which is a decline of 99.3% compared with the same period of last year when 368 trips brought 565,000 passengers.

Unlike the previous years, when cruise ships visiting the Croatian Adriatic flew the flags of more than 20 countries, this year they sailed under the flags of only five countries - Belgium, Greece, Italy, Malta and the Marshall Islands. Maltese-flagged ships maintained the lead over the years as 12 of the 16 trips this year were made under the Maltese flag.

The majority of the trips, or 75%, were made to Dubrovnik-Neretva County and the rest to Istria County.

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ZAGREB, July 8, 2020 - Since March there have been no foreign cruise ships in the Croatian Adriatic because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 15 cruises recorded in the first five months of this year were realised from January through March, down 91.2% on the year.

Cruises resumed after epidemiological restrictions were relaxed but they have mainly been organised by smaller domestic ships, with only a few organised by foreign tour operators at the end of June and early this month.

However, there have been no big liners with thousands of passengers since March and given the increase in coronavirus cases around the world, they can hardly be expected this year, especially in any big numbers.

In the period from January to May 2020, six foreign vessels on cruise arrived in Croatian seaports, down 86% year on year, which realised 15 journeys. There were 3,737 passengers on board these vessels, (-98.5% y-o-y), who stayed for 47 days in Croatia (-86% y-o-y).

The highest number of cruises was realised by vessels under the flag of Malta (12 cruises), Belgium, Italy, and the Marshall Islands.

Cruise ships are a doubled-edged sword for Dubrovnik, and it seems resolving matters isn't quite as straight forward as one would have hoped. Could a new daily per passenger fee be the answer the southern Dalmatian gem is looking for to avoid going the same way Venice did?

As Marija Crnjak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 8th of March, 2019, as of 2021 the City of Dubrovnik will introduce a daily tax for guests of cruise ship passengers in the amount of one euro per person, from which the city will be able to turn about 950 thousand euros into cash in just one year. The main part of the revenue will be intended for the maintenance of the city's road, as the mayor of Dubrovnik Mato Franković revealed to Poslovni Dnevnik at the ITB Tourism Fair in Berlin, Germany.

On Wednesday, he met with the representatives of large cruise companies like Carnival, and one of the topics was the new tax that they are preparing for the Pearl of the Adriatic.

After dealing with the tight timetable of large cruise ships, the guests of which typically visit Croatia's tourist Mecca for just one day, this will be an extra move in Dubrovnik's efforts to break free of the damaging consequences of not only the major tourist crowds in Dubrovnik, but the environmental damage being caused by the massive vessels themselves, with the aim of increasing revenue for the strengthening of the city's infrastructure.

In line with that same goal, Dubrovnik has already been one of the few this year to use a legal option and increase the flat tax for property renters to 750 kuna per bed, and next year, this amount is planned to see yet another increase, to a maximum of 1500 kuna, from which the City of Dubrovnik will make 12.5 million kuna in revenue. Otherwise, Dubrovnik allocates twelve million kuna annually for road maintenance.

Discussions about the need to introduce a tax for cruise ship passengers has been going on for more than five years now, and now it will be possible to change the Law on Residence Tax which is in the second reading.

"All cities that receive cruise ships will now finally have the right to charge a one-day-resident sojourn tax, which we have been able to introduce at the City Association level, and we're pleased that the Ministry has incorporated it into the law. Companies have nothing against the taxing, they just asked us to give them enough time to prepare for it, as the tax will be charged to agents who will need to calculate it into the price of the whole arrangement,'' explained Frankovic.

The move will limit the number of cruise ships in Dubrovnik to two daily, so that no more than 5,000 visitors will arrive in the city in any one day. This is the result of intense negotiations between the City of Dubrovnik and the largest cruise companies in the CLIA association, which took place to attempt tp solve the problem of up to seven cruisers a day entering Dubrovnik, which would bring up to 10,000 passengers into the city per day.

Make sure to stay up to date by following our dedicated travel page. If it's just Dubrovnik and the extreme south of Dalmatia you're interested in, give Total Dubrovnik a follow.

Click here for the original article by Marija Crnjak for Poslovni Dnevnik

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