May 25, 2022 - Jug Dubrovnik celebrated against Jadran Split in Game 4 on Tuesday night to become the 2021/22 Croatian water polo champion. 

Dubrovnik water polo club Jug AO thus won their 17th Croatian title on Tuesday night and 39th national champion title in total. It is also the 66th overall trophy for the club.

In the fourth game of this year's Croatian championship final playoff, Jug defeated Jadran Split on penalties at their pool in Gruž, thus ending the series with 3:1 for Jug.

The result was 6:6 after 32 minutes of play, forcing the match into penalties. All four Jug players were accurate with their shots, while Marin Delić and Jerko Marinić Kragić did not score for Jadran.

It was a meeting with few goals, dominated by goalkeepers on both sides, and Jug held a 5:4 advantage from the end of the third quarter until a minute and a half before the end of the match. Then, Konstantin Kharkov scored for 5:5, which was Jadran's first goal after almost 14 minutes of play. Rino Burić then gave Jadran a 6:5 advantage 35 seconds before the final buzzer, i.e., one step closer to the decisive fifth game.

However, Jug started the last attack with seven attackers, which paid off because Hrvoje Benić equalized for 6:6 nine seconds before the end. The game was then decided on penalties, as was the first game, and Jug was more successful in the shootout once again. 

Just before the Croatian champion medals and trophies were distributed, individual awards and trophies for the 2021/22 season were presented in Dubrovnik:

Jerko Marinić Kragić (Jadran)  was named the top scorer in the Croatian Championship (63 goals)

Toni Popadić (Jug) was named the best goalkeeper in the Croatian Championship

Konstantinos Kakaris (Jug) was named the best player in the Croatian Championship.

Congrats to both Jug and Jadran on a season well done!

Source: HVS

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated travel section.

August 23, 2019 - Scenes from Gruž port in Dubrovnik on Thursday suggest anything but an improvement in buckling down on the city's cruise ship tourism.

On July 8, 2019, TCN published the results of the "Transportation and Environment" Association, which, along with the support of numerous similar environmental foundations, including the European Commission (EC), conducted extensive research on air pollution in European destinations in ports which accept cruise ships in 2017. The study revealed alarming stats about the pollution levels in Croatia's top destination - Dubrrovnik.

Namely, 27,173 vehicles were registered in Dubrovnik in 2017. During that time, in the port of Gruž, forty such massive vessels sailed in while taking round trips, spending a total of 2,791 hours moored. Thus, 2,523 kilograms of contaminated particles were discharged into Dubrovnik's air.

During that same time, the aforementioned 27,173 vehicles registered in the Dubrovnik area released 11,561 kilograms of exhaust gases into the air. Translated into basic percentages: 20.1 percent of the air pollution in Dubrovnik comes directly from cruise ships.

When considering the release of harmful compounds such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides, the data for Dubrovnik is as follows: During those 2,791 hours of cruise ships being moored in Gruž, cruise ships released a massive 140,259 kilograms of nitrogen oxide into the air, while 27,173 registered vehicles during that same year released 100,174 kilograms of the same harmful compound.

Furthermore, during their stay, cruise ships released 6,344 kilograms of sulfur oxide into Dubrovnik's air, and passenger cars released 331 kilograms of the same compound during that time.

Exactly one month later, on August 8, 2019, TCN reported the following cruise ship statistics according to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics:

In the first six months of 2019, 272 journeys of foreign vessels on cruise were realised in Croatia.

In the period from January to June 2019, there were 54 foreign vessels on cruise that arrived in Croatian seaports, which realised 272 journeys. There were 409 thousand passengers on board who stayed for 554 days in Croatia.

The highest number of cruises was realised by vessels under the flags of Malta (72 cruises) and Italy (45 cruises), while the highest number of passengers on board the arrived vessels were under the flags of Italy (108 thousand passengers) and Panama (100 thousand passengers).
 
Out of a total of 272 journeys of foreign vessels on cruise, the majority was realised in the County of Dubrovnik-Neretva (60.3%) and the County of Split-Dalmatia (25.3%), which makes up the total of 85.6%. The remaining 14.4% of journeys were realised in the following counties: Zadar (5.9%), Istria (4.8%), Primorje-Gorski kotar (2.6%) and Šibenik-Knin (1.1%). 

The most visited seaport was the seaport of Dubrovnik, followed by the seaports of Split and Zadar
 
The majority of visits of foreign vessels on cruise were realised in the seaport of Dubrovnik (195 visits), followed by the seaports of Split (104 visits) and Zadar (45 visits). 

In the period from January to June 2019, the number of journeys of foreign vessels on cruise increased by 10.6% and the total number of sojourns by 6.1%, as compared to the same period of 2018. In the aforementioned period of 2019, the number of passengers on board increased by 14.8%, as compared to the same period of 2018.

Just yesterday, on August 22, 2019, Dalmacija Danas published a photo that perfectly presents the shocking reality of cruise ship tourism in Dubrovnik today. 

You can have a look for yourself below. 

Photo by Boris Bašić 

”Contracts with cruise companies are signed for next year, so that throughout the whole week, from Monday to Sunday, we will have a maximum of two cruisers a day. Sometimes there will be only one, sometimes two will arrive at one or one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. We aspired to that, and now we have achieved it,” the mayor of Dubrovnik, Mato Franković, said last year.

However, Thursday’s view of Gruž reveals an entirely different reality; one where there were twice as many cruisers as promised at the port.

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.

A brand new building is set to be built down in Dubrovnik as a mosque for the religious needs of almost 1,500 people who identify as Muslims (according to the 2011 census) will be constructed.

As Al Jazeera Balkans writes on the 16th of April, 2019, the Islamic centre which will be located in the Gruž area of the City of Dubrovnik should become a reality in just two years, according to a report from Dubrovacki dnevnik.

As soon as all of the required documentation is dealt with and settled, the construction of the mosque, complete with a minaret, is likely to begin, which is not expected to last for a particularly long time. For now, building permits are being waited on.

The future mosque's location will be at a space on the site of former GP Dubrovnik in Gruž, the project foresees the construction of a mosque complete with a minaret, which will be built in Mediterranean or Moroccan style.

"The project will go its way, it will not take long until we get the construction permit, so we're currently preparing the paperwork, and everything will be ready for construction in two years. We have to emphasise the fact that we in the Islamic community have great cooperation with the city authorities which have been coming to meet with us,'' said the Islamic Community's president, Fehim Vukotić.

The construction of an Islamic center is a long-term desire of Dubrovnik's resident Muslim population, of whom in Dubrovnik, at least according to the census of 2011, there are 1,499. That number has likely risen since then.

By building an Islamic center and a mosque with a minaret, there will finally be a place dedicated to numerous social content and events for the southern Dalmatian city's local Muslim community, as well as prayer rooms.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more. If it's just Dubrovnik and the extreme south of Dalmatia you're interested in, give Total Dubrovnik a follow. Need ideas for what to do when visiting the Pearl of the Adriatic, check out Dubrovnik in a Page.

Fancy doing your bit to help keep Dubrovnik's coast and islands clean in exchange for getting better acquainted with more secluded parts of the environment?

As Dubrovnik battles with the realities of its cruise ship problem, it seems the adoration for the Peal of the Adriatic from the nautical tourism world just keeps on flooding in...

There are no legal grounds for the signing of a concession with the French-Turkish consortium.

Outstanding results for the port in Dubrovnik

There are no legal possibilities for the signing of a concession contract.

9 cruise ships and 9,287 passengers will arrive in Dubrovnik today, with yet more arriving tomorrow.

Another boat almost fell victim to another fire this afternoon in Dubrovnik.