The Daily Telegraph continues their love affair with Croatia in their latest travel list...

The hugely popular TV series will return to the pearl of the Adriatic this winter.

The hit HBO show has brought the beauty of Croatia into millions of homes, and the search engines are reflecting that interest. 

One of the many growth areas in Croatian tourism in recent years is in visits to Game of Thrones locations. The popular HBO series has a mass global appeal and - similar to the Lord of the Rings effect in New Zealand - a growing number of fans are visiting Croatia to visit the various filming locations.

While this tourism is still in its infancy, many tours have sprung up from different agencies, as fans search for every scrap of information about the hit television show. 

Having started out in Dubrovnik, the filming locations have quietly spread up the coast, and the main locations can be summarised in the map above. 

Looking to get the very best out of a Game of Thrones tour in Croatia? From one-day tours of the locations in and around Split to more comprehensive five-day tours, Split agency Vetus Itinera offers among the best tours on the market. Check them out here, and find out what the Game of Thrones crew feels about filming in Croatia. 

While we’re still on the topic of Game of Thrones, here’s some good news for the fans that are now flocking to Croatia to walk in the footsteps of the show’s star characters. Not everyone can be a snobby slave extra, but now they can at least sit on the Iron Throne which will soon be displayed in the fictional King’s Landing and real town of Dubrovnik. Who knows, I may even get down off my highgarden horse and make the trip from my Mereen house in Klis to the capital for another brush with royalty. 

In addition to GoT tours and memorabilia offered throughout the city, it's been confirmed that the original Iron Throne used for filming scenes in King’s Landing was practically gifted to Dubrovnik as they purchased it for very little money.  Many fanatics are unpleasantly surprised to not see at least a replica somewhere in the city and now their prayers to the Lord of Light will be answered with the real thing at the start of June. The throne will be a permanent fixture on this real life fantasy set and a GoT musuem is also planned for Dubrovnik’s main pedestrian street, Stradun. 

There’s no better time than now to plan your trip to explore several of the Seven Kingdoms in Croatia and sit on the throne from which the most powerful rulers of Westeros once ruled the land. For those interested in GoT tours Vetus Itinera offers 1 or 5 day tours that follow the rocky path from King’s Landing in Dubrovnik to Mereen in Klis with the sight of a famous bathing scene, national parks, islands and historic cities in between! 

The 5 day tour also includes a stop at the Walls of Ston and gives you a chance to check off one of Conde Nast Traveler’s choices on their list of 50 Things to Do in Europe Before You Die. Eat oysters in the very same place the travel pros suggest you taste this delicacy. That sounds to me like the perfect opportunity to kill two ravens with one stone! 

For more information and to book a tour visit Vetus Itinera’s GoT website. 

As the showing of the new season of Game of Thrones approaches, there will be once more increased interest in Croatia as a destination to its millions of fans, as some of Dalmatia's most stunning spots are featured in the HBO series. Kastela and Sibenik are among those added to old favourites Diocletian's Palace and the imperious Klis Fortress for the new season. 

But filming aside, what is the potential financial benefit from a tourism point of view? I a feature in the New Zealand media on Game of Thrones Croatia yesterday, the Mayor of Dubrovnik said he hoped that Game of Thrones Croatia could do what Lord of the Rings did for New Zealand. I had a quick search to try and find some official statistics, and came across these from 2004. With Croatia being a lot more accessible than New Zealand for many, could Croatia do even better?

In 2004:

Six percent of visitors to New Zealand (around 120,000 -150,000 people) cite The Lord of the Rings as being one of the main reasons for visiting New Zealand.
One per cent of visitors said that the Lord of the Rings was their main or only reason for visiting.
This one per cent related to approximately 22.6m euro in spend
63,200 visitors participated in a Lord of the Rings activity while here.
9,988 international tourists did a group tour for LOTRs fans
20,251 international tourists did an organised tour that included a LOTR site
29,233 international tourists visited a LOTR site independently
Since 2004, an average 47,000 international visitors each year have visited a film location.

If you are looking for a quality Game of Thrones tour in Croatia, check out these one-day and five-day tours.

Concluding Ivana Sepak's fascinating mini-series on Dubrovnik and Game of Thrones, Ivana saves the most intriguing until last on March 2, 2016 - an eye-witness account of the only filming in Croatia last year. Fans of the show not wanting Season 6 spoilers - look away now!

Ivana Sepak's look at the contrasts and comparisons of historical Dubrovnik, the Republic of Ragusa, and Game of Thrones' King's Landing, continues on March 1, 2016. 

TCN's series taking a closer look at various aspects of Game of Thrones in Dubrovnik continues on February 24, 2016, as we look at how Kings Landing compared to historical Dubrovnik, or Ragusa as it was known. It would appear that Ragusa was a much more civilised and progressive place to live...

As Game of Thrones main storyboard artist William Simpson arrived back in Dubrovnik on February 11, 2016, local resident Ivana Sepak starts a new series for TCN looking at Croatia's very own King's Landing.