April 7, 2022 - Blaž Pezo of the Dubrovnik Port Authority announced 345 ship arrivals and about 520,000 cruise ship passengers in Dubrovnik this season. 

When measures were relaxed in mid-May 2021, the conditions for restarting cruising tourism in the destination were finally met, taking into account the reduced covid-capacity of 60 percent of passengers. The Dubrovnik Port Authority was happy to welcome the tourism market, and as the season progressed, many cruisers came. In the end, the director of the Dubrovnik Port Authority Blaž Pezo said they ended 2021 with traffic above expectations, reports DuList. 

Last year, he stressed, a solid cruise season was achieved in which they were visited by 139 ships and 110,130 passengers. Given that there were none in 2020, Pezo said that the Port Authority is satisfied with the 2021 result, which is 30 percent of 2019 and is a good base for this season which they expect 70 percent of 2019.

"We are optimistic about the 2022 season. According to current announcements, in 2022, we expect 345 ship arrivals and about 520 thousand passengers, which is fully in line with the plans for sustainable tourism development in the destination. The maximum number of passengers from cruise ships in Dubrovnik throughout 2022 is 4,000 passengers at a time or an average of two ships at berth. The Dubrovnik Port Authority is actively participating in the City of Dubrovnik project ‘Respect the City’, in which we strive to ensure the sustainability of Dubrovnik tourism. As part of the project activities, the Ordinance on conditions and criteria for accepting and allocating berths for cruise ships in sustainable destination development was developed. As a result, an even better schedule of cruise ship arrivals in Dubrovnik was achieved, which will result in a more even flow of passengers from the port, mostly towards the historic core, and thus reduce the intensity of the load on city roads in the direction Gruž - Pile - Gruž," said Blaž Pezo for Dulist.

How does the situation with Ukraine reflect on the announcements for the cruising season, and are specific markets disrupted?

"In recent days, information has appeared in the public that the war in Ukraine has begun to affect cruising tourism. Some cruisers have canceled their visit to Dubrovnik, but the situation is not dramatic. So far, we have only two cancellations due to operational reasons and several changes in the entry schedule into Dubrovnik due to the relaxation of measures in Italy. I would not say that the situation is alarming, but we monitor the situation together. In the announcement for this year, which should be very good after the coronavirus pandemic, we have 345 ships.

Of course, there is a possibility some will cancel, but we hope that will not happen. It is unknown how many passengers the cruisers could bring to Dubrovnik, as the number is changing, but they are currently between 60 and 70 percent full. Given the much more favorable situation with the coronavirus pandemic, we expect that European and American shipping companies will gradually increase their cruiser capacity this season. With the improving situation, the greatest demand, i.e., the most serious number of tickets and passengers on cruises, is expected from the major tourist markets from Great Britain and the USA, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain," concluded Blaž Pezo.

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January 27, 2021 - Dubrovnik anticipates 354 cruisers this year, which should carry over 600,000 passengers, according to the Dubrovnik Port Authority director. 

Tportal.hr reports that the Dubrovnik Port Authority director, Blaz Pezo, said on Tuesday that in 2021, 354 cruise ships with over 600 thousand passengers had announced their arrival in Dubrovnik.

As an HDZ city councilor, Pezo participated in the Dubrovnik City Council's discussion on Tuesday on the amount of tourist tax for cruise ships in international maritime traffic when the ship is moored at the port or anchored in the City of Dubrovnik area in 2022, which we reported on yesterday. 

"The cruiser market could recover from June 1. The announcements are excellent, and whether it will happen depends on the epidemiological situation," Pezo pointed out.

City councilors Maro Kristić (Most) and Rikard Rossetti (DUSTRA) pointed out that the decision on the amount of the tourist tax should be postponed. Still, Pezo replied that the shipowners were aware of the decision and that the fees had already been included in their arrangements so that no one would be burdened.

The Dubrovnik City Council confirmed, among other things, that work on a critical infrastructure project in Dubrovnik, the development of the Lapad coast, should begin in mid-February. The mayor of Dubrovnik, Mato Franković, pointed out that an artificial problem is being created that does not exist.

"We have all the valid permits and consents of all competent ministries. The expropriation procedure has started and been completed, a tender has been announced, and it will be completed in a few days. If there are no complaints, the works will start in mid-February," said Franković, adding that the concessionaire of the port area Marina Frapa should solve the problem of overlapping the concession property with the Republic of Croatia concessionaire.

At the Dubrovnik City Council, it was decided that the City of Dubrovnik representatives in the Governing Board of the "Good Deeds" Foundation will be Terezina Orlić, Nada Medović, and Suzana Kosović.

The councilors also decided on the awards of the City of Dubrovnik for 2020. The winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award is former Dubrovnik Mayor Nikola Obuljen. Furthermore, the winners of the annual awards are Maja Nodari, Fr. Pijo Pejić, and the Society of Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. The awards will be presented to the winners at a solemn session of the City Council during Dubrovnik City Day and the St. Blaise celebration. 

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Dubrovnik has suffered at the hands of the cruise ship industry for several years now. As the environment is threatened and the situation with these gigantic floating cities grows ever more problematic, Dubrovnik made several promises to limit the number of cruise ships allowed to enter the Port of Dubrovnik (Gruž), but the complaints just kept rolling in regardless of that fact. Has TUI provided an answer to this burning issue, at least partially?

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes on the 17th of September, 2019, the City of Dubrovnik, TUI Cruise and the Global Cruisers Association CLIA organised a tour of TUI's Mein Schiff 6 cruiser in the port of Gruž on Monday this week, which outlined not only ultra-modern technology, but a very impressive environmental policy applied by the company on board their ships.

The southern Dalmatian city of Dubrovnik is the first city with which CLIA signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Tourism Sustainability back in July, which also envisages a joint tourism sustainability study in future.

According to Maria Deligianni of CLIA, cruise companies have invested around 22 billion euros globally in new environmental technologies, and TUI Cruise is the leader in this trend, with its youngest fleet and new technology designed for sustainable development.

"We understand the problem Dubrovnik has with the crowds and we want to be active in resolving it," she said. Among other things, the plan is to build a facility at the Gruž Harbour which will also aid in making the situation there a little less alarming.

We're working on a design solution. The Mein Schiff 6 boat we visited has a very strict environmental policy, they themselves produce seawater, purify sweage, separate waste, and the sulfur emissions from the fuel are at a minimal 0.1 percent,'' revealed Ivana Zore, environmental director at Mein Schiff, who is otherwise from the City of Split, another popular Croatian city which has been experiencing increasing issues with cruisers.

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