April 25, 2022 - The 2022 cruiser season in Croatia officially launched at the beginning of April in Dubrovnik and will end on November 21 in Split. 

The cruising season in Croatia started very early this year, or at the beginning of April, when the first MSC cruise ship of this year, MSC Fantasia, sailed into the port of Dubrovnik. This ship, which can accommodate up to 4,300 passengers, will visit Dubrovnik on Thursdays until the end of the season, scheduled for September 8, reports Novi List. 

In addition to Dubrovnik, MSC Cruises will visit Split, Zadar, and Rijeka and record 63 Croatian ports this season, which will end on November 21 in Split. Dubrovnik, the first and strongest Croatian port for large cruisers, expects to achieve 70 percent of 2019's traffic, which means that the city should reach about half a million passengers on large cruisers, or about 340 large ships. However, the number of cruisers and cruise passengers in the city is limited to two berths, or 4,000 passengers at a time.

While southern Croatia has opened the cruising season for large cruisers, Kvarner has started a new season this year with small cruise ships. Over the weekend, the ID Riva tours Alpha and Vita set off on a seven-day cruise from Rijeka with a group of guests from Switzerland who rented the boat for three weeks at the beginning of the season and three weeks at the end of the season and go on a bike tour. This is around 70 guests. Mario Konta, head of the port of Rijeka in ID Riva tours, said that this year's season started six weeks earlier than last year and that booking is incomparably better.

"This year, if all goes well, we should have a better year than 2019. I have been working here for 20 years, and this is the first time we are leaving in mid-April. It had never moved this early, always towards the end of April. And that's a very good sign. Today we are on board the ‘Alpha,’ which was sold in 13 charters this year before the season even started. So we have a lot of old guests coming back to us, and also a lot of guests who were there during the pandemic and who came back to us precisely because they said we were one of the few who asked for hand sanitizers, disinfection, wore gloves and masks and carried out all epidemiological measures. And the guests remembered that," said Konta, adding the last tour should be done on October 22, before the proper off-season begins. 

"The ships will sail for six months, which is a huge improvement compared to the last two years, so we are delighted. Next week we already have six ships departing from Rijeka, which is also a great indicator considering that it has not happened to us that we already have six full ships at the beginning," said Konta and explained that the route goes through the Kvarner islands, visiting Krk, Rab, Pag, Zadar, Kornati, Lošinj and Cres, before returning to Rijeka.

The captain of the motor yacht 'Alpha', Marin Tomaš, pointed out that he has had a boat with ID Riva for more than half a year.

"You know how much that means to us in these circumstances. This ship, 'Alpha,' is sailing for its third season, so the first was during the 2020 pandemic, and that year was unknown to everyone. ID Riva was on the front line of cooperation with the Croatian Institute of Public Health, the German health authorities, and others. And we found a balance, and, in addition, we all joined the Ministry's "Safe stay in Croatia" program. The complete ID Riva fleet is under this program, and we all adhere to epidemiological rules. This season we are starting to work also with epidemiological measures. For example, when leaving the kitchen, waiters must wear masks when receiving guests, during room service, and, therefore, during contact with the guest. Because, above all, we want our guests here to continue to feel safe. The entire crew has, of course, been vaccinated," said the young captain, adding that for the past two years, they have been driving at reduced capacity, on the verge of profitability. But the banks, he says, have met the needs of shipowners and approved a moratorium on loans for shipbuilding, and all that has been balanced so that those two critical years ended well.

"As for this year's bookings, it is phenomenal. We plan to sail for 26 weeks, and we are already at a good 80 percent occupancy. I must say that when the situation with Ukraine arose, there was a great fear of how it would develop and what would happen to the season; however, fortunately, it turned out very quickly that the situation with booking, despite everything, is excellent," said Tomas. Yesterday, another small luxury cruiser, 'Vita' with guests from Germany, set sail from the port of Rijeka.

His captain Silvestar Vukovic, doyen of the ID Riva cruise, also pointed out his satisfaction with this year's announcements and the fact that after two pandemic years, he is starting two months earlier.

"This is the success of our ID Riva agency and its entire team led by Selimir Ognjenović. The past two years have been challenging, but thanks to the Government's help, which provided the minimum wage to our employees, and thanks to the banks that approved the moratorium on loans, we managed to survive those two difficult years," said Vukovic.

He added that this year the old guests are coming back. Still, new ones are coming who have the opportunity to enjoy this unique vacation, beautiful towns, and small coastal and island places, but also the kindness of the hosts and very important gastronomy. This long-time sailor who has been with ID Riva since the very beginning of the cruise pointed out the excellent cooperation through all those years with the Port of Rijeka Authority, whose employees, he pointed out, he can always count on.

MB 'Morena' and MB 'Kalipsa' sailed from Opatija over the weekend. There were over 60 Austrian guests on these cruises in total. 

"Today is an important day for the Katarina Line agency. Although these are not our first departures this season, since we already had American guests who set out on a cruise from Split, three ships will set sail from the port of Opatija today. More precisely, two today, and another tomorrow morning. This is not what we had in 2019, but it is still a good start in 2022 and an indicator that, as it looks now, our business will be much better than last year. However, it should be said that all this together is still with a lot of ‘holes’ and uncertainties.

Reservations exist, but they can be canceled at any time, and we must not be deceived, but work intensively to offer as much as possible around the world and in the domestic market. For domestic tourists to also be able to enjoy cruises, I announce that we will have special offers for them," said the owner and director of the Opatija agency Katarina Line Katica Hauptfeld.

Cruises in various categories, from traditional to premium and deluxe quality ships along the Croatian coast, are their specialty. Of their three boats, two will be stationed in the port of Opatija.

"We have been to Croatia many times, we are a small agency from Villach and our guests love the combination of sports and relaxation on board. We always do it out of season and spring is ideal for that, because the islands are still fresh now, nature is waking up, everything is quiet, there is very little traffic, no crowds, which is very good for cyclists.

With the Katarina Line agency, we create exciting routes for our guests because they love cycling and cruising. The boats give us flexibility in terms of weather conditions, our departure today is from Opatija, and after a seven-day cruise, we will return to Opatija. Our guests are all from Austria, except for one Frenchman, there are 24 of them on the cruise, and they did not come to swim in the sea, but for active rest, relaxation, health, and enjoy excellent food. We sail to Krk, Rab, Pag, and Mali Lošinj and Cres, and then return to Opatija," explained Elke Neuhuber, owner of the agency from Villach, who sailed on the MB 'Morena'.

As Katica Hauptfeld pointed out, there are six more sailing on Katarina Line in Kvarner in addition to the already mentioned ships. 

This is the year of great cruisers to Rijeka, given that the pandemic essentially reduced their arrivals to zero. Nineteen ships are expected to arrive, slightly less than the record in 2019 when there were 24. Eight shipping companies have announced their arrival in Rijeka, and according to the current plan, the first ship to arrive in Rijeka is Marella Explorer 2 from Marella Cruises. Its first arrival was announced on May 7. The ship comes to the port of Rijeka for the first time, and it will be the first of its eight arrivals this season. In addition to Marella Cruises, ships of Celebrity Cruises, Oceania Cruises, TUI Cruises, MSC Cruises, Crystal Cruises, AIDA Cruises, and Noble Caledonia will arrive in Rijeka in 2022. 

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ZAGREB, 8 Nov, 2021 - In September 2021 there were 49 foreign cruises in the Croatian part of the Adriatic, almost ten times more than in September 2020 and the most in a single month since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, show data from the national statistical office.

The visiting cruise ships stayed 135 days as against 41 days in September 2020, and the number of passengers was 51,600 as against 155 in September 2020.

Compared to August 2021, the increase in the number of cruises continued in September, with 13 more visits. The trend started in June, when there were 15 visits by foreign cruise ships, followed by July, with 34 registered visits, and August with 36.

These results, however, are still far from the 2019 results. In September 2019 there were 101 visits by foreign cruise ships, with more than 152,500 passengers.

The visiting vessels sailed mostly under the flags of Panama, the Bahamas, Malta, Belgium, France and Norway.

In the first nine months of 2021, 24 visiting cruise ships realised 134 cruises in the Adriatic, bringing 137,500 passengers who stayed a total of 372 days in Croatia.

By comparison, in the first nine months of 2020, there were only ten visiting cruise ships, 26 cruises and slightly more than 4,000 passengers.

The number of foreign cruise tours in the first nine months of this year is still far below their number in the first nine months of 2019, with the first nine months this year seeing 76.4% fewer cruises and 84.5% fewer passengers.

Dubrovnik-Neretva County saw the largest number of visiting cruise ships in the first nine months of this year, accounting for 69.4% of all visits, followed by Split-Dalmatia County with a share of 24.6%.

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11 June, 2021 - The very first large Dubrovnik cruise ship with passengers on board since the start of the pandemic arrrived today. This is a pieces of news many people in Dubrovnik have been waiting for for quite some time.

MSC Orchestra arrived to Dubrovnik this morning. It is the first big Dubrovnik cruise ship to bring passengers into the city after a long and costly silent period caused by the pandemic. This 294m long behemoth can house 2550 passengers in its 1275 cabins. It is not new to Dubrovnik as MSC ships are some of the most commonly seen cruise ships in the city's port. With the city’s tourism sector feeding so many local Dubrovnik families, the long awaited arrival of a thousand or so guests at one time is seen as nothing short of a blessing. This is exactly why Dubrovnik’s mayor Mato Frankovic was quick to point out the arrival of the ship and its significance on his social media.

Source: Mato Frankovic / Facebook

Dubrovnik’s love/hate relationship with modern day cruise ships has been an ongoing state of being for the last couple of decades or so. The cruise ship industry brought to the city a quick way of recuperating large numbers of guests after the Croatian Homeland war of the 1990’s, which left the city’s economy in a total shambles. Soon after the first ships started arriving back to Dubrovnik, it became clear that Croatia's southernmost city is a perfect short stop port for many. Cruise ships brought with them large number of guests and did wonders in prolonging the tourist season.

Of course, it’s not all good news. A large amount of people coming to the city for a short time means crowded streets and traffic jams once again, an old Dubrovnik problem. For many, the experience of Dubrovnik became lessened by the fact the movement along the main areas was at times very difficult. Overcrowding and the strain placed on the infrastructure became a real issue. Dubrovnik’s image of a pleasant destination perfect for longer stays is now under threat.

What’s Next?

With all this being said, it will be very interesting to see how cruise ships are going to fit into Dubrovnik’s tourism picture this year. There will be a few of them, most probably with reduced capacity and sales. This might be a unique opportunity to see whether cruise ships and Dubrovnik can finally settle their differences.

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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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As Morski writes on the 30th of October, 2019, the Port of Rijeka's authority has installed new floating pontoons for the reception of large cruise ships, so that some of the world's largest cruisers are now able to enter and dock on the Rijeka breakwater when visiting the city which is soon to become the European Capital of Culture.

Two new floating pontoons measuring nine times six and a half metres will now allow for the reception of very large cruisers and merchant ships of up to 295 metres in length. The investment which has now enabled the Port of Rijeka to be able to accept much larger vessels, such as passenger cruisers which are often seen docking in Croatian ports stands at two million kuna, according to a report from HRT.

Year after year, the number of cruisers arriving not only in Croatia as a whole, but more specifically in the Northern Adriatic and in the City of Rijeka is growing. Despite complaints about how these giant ships negatively affect the environment and pollute not only the air but the sea, some brand new floating pontoons are in the pipeline for the upcoming season in Rijeka, with about forty cruisers carrying 74,000 passengers already announced.

The move is even more important as 2020 is the year when Rijeka becomes the European Capital of Culture and is likely to experience greater publicity and as such an even stronger tourism boom because of that.

The newly installed pontoons will provide much the Port of Rijeka much needed additional capacity to be able to safely and securely accommodate large cruisers. The city's port authority is also in the process of building a brand new southern berth for vessels that will cost around thirty million euros in total. The money will be provided to Rijeka from European Union (EU) funds.

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Ever since Croatia has been hosting numerous cruise ships along the coast, the public has been wary of them, constantly repeating the idea that they are incredible polluters, letting their wastewaters out in the Adriatic.

Whenever anything related to those cruise ships is shared on Facebook, for instance, most comments will focus exactly on this aspect of their presence.

Žarko Koboević Ph.D., associate professor at the Department of Nautical studies of the University of Dubrovnik has been researching pollution of the seawater with the wastewaters from these vessels.

His research has given somewhat different results: cruise ships absolutely do not pollute the coastal seawaters, meaning the part of the sea where people swim, where yachts hang around, where any type of activities are being undertaken. Kristina Filičić spoke to him for Slobodna Dalmacija.

Professor Koboević says that current events, such as the situation when a cruise ship near Zlatni rat in Bol was suspected of releasing its wastewater, require more detailed research, similar to what he did four years ago for his doctoral thesis.

He performed research and sampled the water for a full 14 months at 8 popular swimming locations - and all of that research has shown that the cruise ships do not contribute to the pollution of the sea in those areas. The main reason is that the modern cruise ships have new technology which converts faecal wastewater into two components - clean water and gases that are released into the atmosphere, so basically - there is no "dirty" wastewater to be released at all.

All of the water released from the cruise ships is carefully monitored for a number of parameters, and the released water from a cruise ship is usually cleaner than what we consider perfectly clean sea-water on our favourite beaches. Those ships that don't have such modern technology for wastewater management are not allowed to release their wastewater within 12 nautical miles from the closest land, which is far enough that no consequences can be observed.

None of what we explained in the previous paragraphs applies to the small boats in the national traffic - day-trip boats, yachts, sailboats, and other small vessels, and most of them are usually right next to the land. Where do they empty their wastewater tanks filled with unprocessed waste?

They are not monitored at all, and their tanks need to be emptied, so where are they doing that? In the sea, of course, and almost none of them would even consider going 12 miles from the coast, or going to have their tanks professionally emptied in the ports, where they would have to pay for the service.

Additionally, prof. Koboević that Croatian laws don't really regulate the field in a significant way, so there's no way that any fines would be introduced. If you're a yacht owner, and it isn't quite clear what you are or are not allowed to do, and there are no fines anyway, why shouldn't you just do what you think is best?

One of his ideas to mitigate the situation is to include the emptying of the tanks included in the price of admission to the marinas and ports. That would make many yacht owners use that service, so there would be less wastewater to be released in the sea. There is no need to come up with any new ideas, just to copy other countries that already have better regulations.

His final idea is a bit extreme - he says that one of the solutions would be that the tanks on smaller vessels would need to be welded shut, so they can only be emptied in ports. While that would probably be the solution, I'm not sure how exactly that would be done.

As Morski writes on the 12th of April, 2019, the Republic of Croatia has achieved growth in terms of nautical tourism, but the problem of the lack of berths has to be resolved - these were some of the conclusions drawn from the meeting of the nautical associations of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) with the relevant nautical institutions, which took place within the framework of the two-day Nautical Tourism Days conference organised by HGK for the preparation of a peaceful, successful and safe season at sea.

The conference covered the need for communication on all of the important issues which concern and involve Croatia's blossoming nautical tourism sector.

''With a fleet of more than 4000 charter boats, with over 140 nautical tourism ports, 17,000 berths, and then more than a million passengers having arrived on cruise ships back in 2018, Croatia is a nautical superpower and one of the most important nautical destinations not only in the Mediterranean, but in the world,'' said HGK's Dragan Kovačević on the first day of the conference.

The revenue achieved by Croatia's nautical tourism ports amounted to 857 million kuna, while the average guest spends a handsome 183 euros per day on a charter vessel, which is more than twice the daily consumption of the average Croatian tourist.

''Money is not only spent on boats, but on all other forms of tourism, and more than 30 percent at that; from culture, sport, entertainment to gourmet and gastronomic offerings, Kovačević pointed out, adding that all these are parameters that speak volumes about nautical tourism in the Republic of Croatia as the country's most dynamic tourist offer and has enormous potential. However, Croatia also needs to make sure to take wise steps to direct the further development of this branch of tourism.

HGK's Paško Klisović pointed out a number of problems facing members of this association, as well as the Croatian nautical tourism sector itself.

''Part of the problem can be solved by better promotion on some markets, especially in the United States. We need to motivate Americans to come in larger numbers, at least as far as Croatia's nautical tourism is concerned. Existing markets are stagnating because we've reached the limit. Last year, our fleet grew by seven percent, and the number of guests grew by less than two percent. The fleet will grow this year, and we will be happy to repeat the past. We're somewhat concerned about the fact that, as far as bookings are concerned, Greece has become the most sought after charter destination. These are the trends and we need to make the right moves,'' stated Klisović.

The conference also discussed new regulations for nautical tourism, the prevention of unregistered activities, as well as the overall sustainability and safety of nautical tourism.

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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

Has Dubrovnik finally got its cruise ship problem under proper control? It would appear so!

The vessel, carrying over 1,000 passengers, arrived in Šibenik yesterday.