May 10, 2019 - Putting Croatian adventure tourism on the map, with the biggest welcome in the world. Day 49 of this incredible 2011 adrenaline trip covering 2,500 km along the Croatian coast. 

The World's Biggest Welcome, an ambitious adventure tourism project in 2011 in Croatia enters Day 49 of this 2019 appreciation of one of the finest tourism promotion projects ever in Croatia.  

The plan? To showcase the diversity and fabulous offer of adventure tourism in Croatia by following a GPS route the length of the Croatian coast in the shape of the word 'Welcome' - thereby creating the biggest welcome in the world from a hospitable tourism country. 

Day 49 moved from Ston to Ploče.

61 kilometres for the day: 3 km by kayak and paddling from Ston to Neum, followed by 33 km bike ride from Neum to Metković, and 25 km from Metković to the Neretva firth rowing in an old Neretva style boat to continue forming the ‘E’ in ‘Welcome’.

Day 49 kicked off with a send-off from the kids of Mali Ston. 

Lacko trying out his new vessel. 

Lacko giving tribute to Czech adventurers who often choose paddle boats as their transport on the Adriatic.

They traded in their paddleboats for bikes and set off towards Bijeli Vir.

Passing Lake Kuti along the way. 

Locals in Bijeli Vir admiring their traveling circus.

Lacko made it to Metković and rowed with the team from Krvavac 2 in an original ship from Neretva. 

Passing by the Kula Norinska tower. 

Krvavac 2 arriving in Opuzen where Kominski pirates gave Lacko a proper welcome.

The Kominski gusari pirate ship.

They even let Lacko steer for a bit!

Kominski gusari pirates in Crna rijeka.

The day ended with a group photo. 

A key part of the project was promoting tourism, and the official website has details of the key places visited during the day. 

You can see the entire project on the Welcome website, as well as much more of Luka Tambaca's stunning photography on the Welcome Facebook page. 

Tune in tomorrow for Day 50, as Lacko and the team move from the Neretva to Korčula. 

To follow the whole project from the start, follow the dedicated TCN page. 

Chinese-Croatian relations grow ever closer as the Chinese expand their business empire in Dalmatia, not merely stopping at Pelješac bridge. The Chinese are now setting their sights on a vehicle factory in southern Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 7th of April, 2019, an army of unemployed people, almost three thousand of them in total who are registered at the employment centres in Metković and Ploče in the Neretva region, received the news with understandably huge enthusiasm.

The Chinese will re-launch the Neretva valley, Slobodna Dalmacija writes, breathing life back into a part of Dalmatia that really needs it. Apart from the fact that they are already working on the aforementioned construction of the much anticipated Pelješac Bridge, the Chinese will soon embark on yet another major project in Croatia - a factory for electric cars and scooters in the Nova sela business district, which has so far been being developed in the Neretva valley's Kula Norinska area, but at a very slow pace.

This slow page is set to change a lot when the Green Tech Group, registered as a company in Zadar by Karl Soong along with Croatian entrepreneurs Mladen and Anthony Ninčević, starts with the construction of electric vehicles intended for the markets of Central and Eastern Europe down in Nova sela.

There are many unemployed people living in and around the Neretva valley, which is close enough yet just a bit too far away from potential employment in tourist areas like Dubrovnik. This news naturally brought a smile to the faces of many seeking steady work as in Kula Norinska, work began on the infrastructure in the future business zone in Nova sela, thus making this potentially enormous capital project start right there on ground in Dalmatia.

Twenty people would be employed to start things up at Dalmatia's brand new factory. However, when investment in the production of electric scooters, automobiles and batteries begins to add up and things gain some motion, up to 500 workers will be able to gain employment in various positions in the electric vehicle production facilities.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for more on China-Croatia relations, business in Croatia, the investment climate and working in Croatia, and much more.

After a decade of silence and complete inactivity, the Croatian Government is moving once again towards the temptation of a highway construction project towards Dubrovnik, a move initially started by former PM Ivo Sanader.

As Kresimir Zabec/Novac writes on the 2nd of February, 2019, after a rather unnecessarily lengthy and of course unclear title, the conclusion of the ''study documentation for the road connection of southern Dalmatia to the motorway network system of the Republic of Croatia from the Metković junction to the future Pelješac bridge and from the Doli junction to the City of Dubrovnik'' (yes you can take a breath now), which was adopted during Friday's Government session held in Dubrovnik, has actually led back to the beginning of re-activating the old plan to build a highway to Dubrovnik.

The last time constructing a highway to Dubrovnik was mentioned was way back in 2009, ten whole years ago, when a construction contract worth 3.675 billion kuna was signed in Osojnik in the presence of the controversial former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, an amount which didn't include the VAT for the planned Doli - Dubrovnik section. Although the contracts were indeed signed, the money for this project was never secured, therefore the works never started and all in all, time went by and people simply forgot about it for the most part.

Although there are permits, projects and designs from that time that still exist and could be acceptable today, Croatian roads (Hrvatske ceste) will spend 4.06 million kuna this year to take a better look at the southern Dalmatian transport system in the area of ​​Dubrovnik-Neretva County and its link with the existing highway network, and determine the feasibility of any highway construction from the existing Metković junction to the future Pelješac bridge, and then from Doli to the City of Dubrovnik. They'll also rule whether or not it is simply better to use the highway through neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.

EU co-financing

Croatia's Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butković, has already jumped the gun when it comes to the talks held on Friday, stating that the Ploče - Dubrovnik motorway will be built, but the question is when. He is counting on the EU being prepared to co-finance the project in the next operational period. However, some insist that a study is needed because the road image itself has changed over the past ten years, not only in southern Croatia, but also in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The motorway was built behind Ploče and the where the future Pelješac bridge will be, in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, the construction of part of the Vc corridor from Počitelj to the border with Montenegro through Popovo polje has also begun.

Compared to ten years ago, the highway would now be changed somewhat. Back then, the route went from Ploče to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina at Neum and then continued on the other side down south to Dubrovnik.

It was estimated that eighty kilometres of highway from Ploče to Dubrovnik could cost around 732 million euros.

Today, it is assumed that the direction would go from the current Karamatići junction to the Pelješac junction, from where traffic will go down to Pelješac bridge. That equals approximately twenty kilometres of brand new highway sections. The traffic would continue along the new Pelješac road to the Doli junction, and from there 29.6 kilometers of highway would be built leading down to Dubrovnik.

According to the old 2009 project, a total of thirty objects needed to be built, of which there were ten viaducts, nine tunnels, and eight underpasses. Back then, the price of one kilometre of construction was 16.5 million euros without VAT, equalling a total of almost half a billion euros without VAT. The price of the construction of the highway from Karamatići to Pelješac is as yet unknown, but this section is also a very demanding part of the project as the route passes through the Neretva valley, so a high level of environmental protection will be required. Owing to all of the above, estimates are that the entire highway from Ploče down to Dubrovnik could stand at a massive 800 million euros.

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

Click here for the original article by Kresimir Zabec for Novac.jutarnji.hr

Vrgorac and Metkovic are two settlements in inland Dalmatia with a lot of history, but which spend their time out of the tourism limelight. 

A glimpse into how Vrgorac and Metkovic used to be in the latest edition of how Croatia used to look, with a 1970's video of both Vrgorac and Metkovic, shot with a 8mm camera by Boris Katavic. 

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ZAGREB, August 12, 2018 - The winner of the 21st edition of the 22.5-kilometre-long Boat Marathon, which was held on the Neretva river on Saturday, was the 10-member team from Stablina in the environs of the town of Ploče.

An earthquake with its epicenter close to Medjugorje made Dalmatia tremble a bit this afternoon.

After meeting at the Ranjina Palace with Dubrovnik Mayor Mato Franković, Dubrovnik-Neretva County Prefect Nikola Dobroslavić and Lastovo Mayor Leo Katić, Goran Marić signed two contracts on the use of state property in ​​Dubrovnik-Neretva County.

Today we’re moving a bit off the coast and more inland - into the Neretva Delta, where the traditional amateur sports competition in rowing small autochthonous Neretva boats (lađa) is held every year at the beginning of August.

Another close call as a fire close to Metković is extinguished.