November 8, 2021 - How do Split and Dubrovnik winter flights compare to other cities in the region, as well as competitor destinations on the Mediterranean. Quite interesting... 

I am just back from a couple of trips to the Adiatic coast in October and November. 

So much beauty, such a great time to visit. 

And yet... 

Split and Dubrovnik winter flights are as scarce as summer flights are abundant, and the whole Dalmatian coast largely goes to sleep from the end of October until March. 

It was not always that way, as we learned in a recent TCN interview with a UK tour rep in the 1980s, who explaine how year-round flights were bringing in Americans for stays of up to 6 weeks. Read more in Croatian Winter Tourism in 1990: Full of Life! Tour Rep Interview.

And yet, there are pockets of the coast which are very much alive in the winter months. Small initiatives that show there are people here - and the feeling that many more would come if the likes of Split and Dubrovnik were more accessible. Above is a photo from Nomad Table in Split on Friday night, a weekly event hosted by Saltwater Nomads and Zinfandel in Split. It was packed and sold out - again. I spoke to several remote workers who are enjoying Split as their temporary new home. More flights and easier access, combined with a proper strategy would increase their numbers considerably. 

After writing a few articles on the potential of winter tourism recently, I asked if there was anyone with something to contribute on the subject who would be interested in getting in touch to kickstart an initiative to improve the Split and Dubrovnik winter flights situation. 

Among the many who get in touch was tourism consultant Mario Seric, who was actively involved in a concerted effort with Split's hotels to bring more flights to the city a decade ago. Although the main initiative was ultimately not a success, there were some wins, including the Split to Munich flight, which continues today. 

I met Mario in Split over the weekend for a beer or three, and was not only deeply impressed by his intimate knowledge of the subject, but also just how badly served Split and Dubrovnik are when compared to the neighbours and competition. 

Although comparing Split and Dubrovnik winter flights to other Ex-Yu destinations is not a like for like comparison, it serves as a useful indicator of their position in the region in this regard. And when one compares to similar destinations in the Mediterranean, that is where things get a little shocking - for me at least. 

I asked Mario to send me some data on winter flights in terms of numbers of flights a week, number of airports served, and number of countries connected. This is what he sent me.

I am sending the basic airport info as well as main information for the winter 2021/2022 timetables for direct scheduled flights for 9 selected airports that I have chosen based on the following criteria:

• I exclude big Mediterranean metropolises such as Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Athens, and Istanbul;
• I also exclude some other big Mediterranean cities such as Malaga, Valencia, Marseille, Naples, and Izmir;
• I also exclude island cities such as Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari, Palermo, Catania, Heraklion, etc.
• I include mid-size Mediterranean cities with established or emerging tourism industries such as Alicante, Nice, Venice, Bari, and Thessaloniki (for serious comparisons);
• I also include some cities in the Western Balkans that are not comparable at all such as Banja Luka, Tuzla, Niš, and Ohrid (for fun).

I would also like to point out that the information below for the winter 2021/2022 timetable is the latest official info from the airports and the airlines, but this is constantly changing, especially nowadays during the pandemic (even on a daily basis).

ALICANTE-ELCHE AIRPORT

Basic Airport Info

• Serving Alicante, Elche, and Costa Blanca
• Passenger traffic in the year before pandemic (2019): 15.048.240
• No. 5 airport in Spain by passenger traffic (after Madrid, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, and Malaga)

Winter 2021/2022 Timetable for Direct Scheduled Flights

• Number of airlines: 29
• Number of routes: 167
• Number of airports: 105
• Number of countries: 24
• Top airlines by the number of routes: Ryanair (64), Vueling (19), easyJet (11), Jet2.com (9), Norwegian (8), Wizz Air (8), etc.
• Top countries by the number of routes: UK (46), Spain (21), Germany (12), Norway (11), Belgium (9), Netherlands (9), Italy (8), France (7), etc.

NICE COTE D'AZUR AIRPORT

Basic Airport Info

• Serving Nice, Cannes, and French Riviera
• Passenger traffic in the year before pandemic (2019): 14.485.423
• No. 3 airport in France by passenger traffic (after Paris Charles de Gaulle and Paris Orly)

Winter 2021/2022 Timetable for Direct Scheduled Flights

• Number of airlines: 43
• Number of routes: 113
• Number of airports: 78
• Number of countries: 33
• Top airlines by the number of routes: easyJet (27), Air France Hop (10), Wizz Air (8), Air Corsica (4), Norwegian (4), Transavia (4), Volotea (4), etc.
• Top countries by the number of routes: France (29), UK (12), Germany (5), Italy (5), Spain (5), Tunisia (5), Netherlands (4), Russia (4), Switzerland (4), etc.

VENICE MARCO POLO AIRPORT

Basic Airport Info

• Serving Venice and Padua (also Treviso, but it has its own airport with quite strong business)
• Passenger traffic in the year before pandemic (2019): 11.561.594
• No. 4 airport in Italy by passenger traffic (after Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa, and Bergamo)

Winter 2021/2022 Timetable for Direct Scheduled Flights

• Number of airlines: 37
• Number of routes: 75
• Number of airports: 55
• Number of countries: 26
• Top airlines by the number of routes: easyJet (14), Volotea (11), Wizz Air (9), Ryanair (6), etc.
• Top countries by the number of routes: Italy (16), France (14), UK (8), Germany (5), Spain (5), etc.

BARI KAROL WOJTYLA AIRPORT

Basic Airport Info

• Serving Bari, northern and central parts of Apulia region
• Passenger traffic in the year before pandemic (2019): 5.545.588
• No. 11 airport in Italy by passenger traffic

Winter 2021/2022 Timetable for Direct Scheduled Flights

• Number of airlines: 14
• Number of routes: 76
• Number of airports: 56
• Number of countries: 18
• Top airlines by the number of routes: Ryanair (37), Wizz Air (19), Volotea (4), etc.
• Top countries by the number of routes: Italy (31), Germany (8), France (5), Spain (5), Poland (4), Romania (4), etc.

THESSALONIKI MAKEDONIA AIRPORT

Basic Airport Info

• Serving Thessaloniki and central Macedonia (including Chalkidiki peninsula)
• Passenger traffic in the year before pandemic (2019): 6.895.331
• No. 3 airport in Greece by passenger traffic (after Athens and Heraklion)

Winter 2021/2022 Timetable for Direct Scheduled Flights

• Number of airlines: 18
• Number of routes: 80
• Number of airports: 57
• Number of countries: 23
• Top airlines by the number of routes: Ryanair (26), Aegean (15), Sky Express (8), Olympic Air (7), Wizz Air (6), Eurowings (4), etc.
• Top countries by the number of routes: Greece (20), Germany (19), Cyprus (4), Italy (4), Russia (4), UK (4), etc.

BANJA LUKA AIRPORT

Basic Airport Info

• Serving Banja Luka and northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Passenger traffic in the year before pandemic (2019): 149.693
• No. 3 airport in Bosnia and Herzegovina by passenger traffic (after Sarajevo and Tuzla)

Winter 2021/2022 Timetable for Direct Scheduled Flights

• Number of airlines: 3
• Number of routes: 14
• Number of airports: 14
• Number of countries: 8
• Airlines by the number of routes: Ryanair (7), Wizz Air (6), Air Serbia (1)
• Countries by the number of routes: Germany (4), Sweden (4), Austria (1), Belgium (1), Italy (1), Netherlands (1), Serbia (1), Switzerland (1)

TUZLA AIRPORT

Basic Airport Info

• Serving Tuzla and northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Passenger traffic in the year before pandemic (2019): 593.083
• No. 2 airport in Bosnia and Herzegovina by passenger traffic (after Sarajevo)

Winter 2021/2022 Timetable for Direct Scheduled Flights

• Number of airlines: 1
• Number of routes: 14
• Number of airports: 14
• Number of countries: 6
• Airlines by the number of routes: Wizz Air (14)
• Countries by the number of routes: Germany (8), Sweden (2), Austria (1), Denmark (1), Netherlands (1), Switzerland (1)

NIŠ CONSTANTINE THE GREAT AIRPORT

Basic Airport Info

• Serving Niš and southern Serbia
• Passenger traffic in the year before pandemic (2019): 422.255
• No. 2 airport in Serbia by passenger traffic (after Belgrade)

Winter 2021/2022 Timetable for Direct Scheduled Flights

• Number of airlines: 4
• Number of routes: 12
• Number of airports: 11
• Number of countries: 7
• Airlines by the number of routes: Wizz Air (5), Ryanair (4), Air Serbia (2), Swiss (1)
• Countries by the number of routes: Germany (3), Austria (2), Sweden (2), Switzerland (2), Italy (1), Malta (1), Slovenia (1)

OHRID ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE AIRPORT

Basic Airport Info

• Serving Ohrid and western parts of North Macedonia
• Passenger traffic in the year before pandemic (2019): 317.218
• No. 2 airport in North Macedonia by passenger traffic (after Skopje)

Winter 2021/2022 Timetable for Direct Scheduled Flights

• Number of airlines: 2
• Number of routes: 9
• Number of airports: 9
• Number of countries: 6
• Airlines by the number of routes: Wizz Air (8), Edelweiss Air (1)
• Countries by the number of routes: Germany (3), Switzerland (2), Austria (1), Italy (1), Sweden (1), UK (1)

Concerning SPLIT AIRPORT, as you know it is the second busiest airport in Croatia (3,30 million passengers in 2019) and has very good connections in the summer timetable, but the winters have been disasters since I have been following this and for Winter 2021/2022 timetable Split Airport has 10 routes served by Croatia Airlines (Frankfurt, Munich, Rome, and Zagreb), Eurowings (Cologne Bonn, Dusseldorf, and Stuttgart), and Trade Air (Dubrovnik, Rijeka, and Pula / Osijek - it is the one flight that goes to Pula and then continues to Osijek). If you take away Croatian airports, Split is connected with only 6 other airports (5 in Germany and 1 in Italy).

Concerning DUBROVNIK AIRPORT, it is the third busiest in the country (2,90 million passengers in 2019) and has also very good connections in the summer timetable. For the last few winters it had slightly better connectivity than Split Airport, but this year it has only 4 routes served by Croatia Airlines (Zagreb), Trade Air (Split / Rijeka - one flight that goes to Split and then continues to Rijeka), Turkish (Istanbul), and Vueling (Barcelona).

Thanks Mario, very interesting statistics. I will be featuring more of Mario's findings in the near future. Mario is preparing some information for me about an initiative which started back in 2008, which was strongly supported by Split Airport and the bigger hotels (Le Meridien Lav, Radisson and later BlueSun), but sadly not by the relevant official bodies at the time. With the continued support of Split Airport and others joining the debate, could things be different this time?

If you are interested in joining an initiative to improve the Split and Dubrovnik winter flights situation and have something to contribute (please state what), then please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Subject Winter Flights

What could life after Croatia Airlines look like is the struggling national carrier was no longer on the scene? A very interesting interview with some parallels with the CEO of Budapest Airport a few years ago on life after the demise of the Hungarian state carrier - Lessons from Budapest Airport: CEO Jost Lammers on Life After Malév.

ZAGREB, 7 Nov 2021 - In 2020, enterprises in the Osijek, Rijeka, Split, and Zagreb urban agglomerations netted HRK 16.2 billion in profits, or 77% of the profits of all enterprises in Croatia, according to an analysis by the Financial Agency.

The agglomerations were established in 2015 and 2016 under a decision of the Regional Development and EU Funds Ministry.

In 2020, the biggest consolidated net profit was generated by enterprises in the Zagreb urban agglomeration (HRK 14.3 billion), followed by Osijek (HRK 804.1 million), Split (HRK 631.6m), and Rijeka (HRK 399.8m).

Of the 139,009 enterprises which submitted annual financial statements for last year, 79,229 were based in the four urban agglomerations, up 1.8% in 2019. Most were in Zagreb (55,282) and least in Osijek (4,476)

Of the 947,874 persons employed in enterprises in 2020, 566,310 were employed in the four agglomerations, the most in Zagreb, 430,965, or 7.8 employees per enterprise on average, and the least in Osijek, 30,930, or 6,9 employees per enterprise on average.

Last year, enterprises in the four agglomerations made HRK 512.3 billion in total revenue, down 5.5% in 2019, and accounted for 68.9% of the total revenue of all enterprises in Croatia (HRK 743.8 bn).

Their profit totaled HRK 32.5 billion, down 4.4% in 2019, while total losses went up by 45.4% to HRK 16.3 billion.

In 2020, the highest average net monthly salary in enterprises in the four urban agglomerations was in Zagreb, HRK 6,796, 5.2% more than the average in all four and 13.8% more than the average in all enterprises in Croatia, which was HRK 5,971.

The lowest net monthly salary was registered in the Osijek urban agglomeration (HRK 5,155).

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

For more, check out our business section.

November 5, 2021 - The largest Croatia fan procession ever is expected ahead of the Croatia-Russia World Cup qualifier at Poljud Stadium in Split on November 14. 

All available tickets for the match between Croatia and Russia have been sold. A packed Poljud of about 33,000 fans will cheer on Croatia in an attempt to win first place and secure a spot in Qatar for the 2022 World Cup. That is, assuming Croatia wins in Malta three days earlier. 

Tickets went on sale October 25 at 1 pm, and hours later all tickets for the west and east stands were claimed. In the following days, tickets for the remaining sectors in the north and south stands were taken, sold from 80 to 200 kuna.

HNS announced that there will be no ticket sales at the box office and that in the coming days some free tickets may appear on the Internet if the customers who ordered them do not pay on time.

Fans who come to the match are invited to the Riva waterfront, where the largest Croatia fan procession in history, with between 20,000 and 30,000 people, is expected in honor of the 30th anniversary of Vukovar. Fans will head towards the stadium from 12:30 on November 14. Kickoff at Poljud is scheduled for 3 pm. 

All fans coming to the stadium must have an EU digital covid certificate with a valid QR code to be checked at the entrance. Certificates of vaccination or illness or various test results will not be recognized.

Children under the age of 12 do not have to have a certificate if they are accompanied by a parent or guardian who has a valid certificate and a ticket, and HNS will provide rapid antigen testing to fans who do not have a digital certificate.

Tickets for the match in Malta, which will be played on November 11 at 8:45 pm at the Ta'Qali National Stadium, went on sale from Thursday at the price of 80 kuna.

In Malta, however, only people with full vaccination against the coronavirus or those who have recovered from Covid AND have received at least one dose of the vaccine are allowed. This does not only apply to children aged five to 11, who need a negative PCR test not older than 72 hours.

Source: 24 Sata

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

November 4, 2021 - Because Chops breakfast serves every kind of Split morning, rain or shine. 

Breakfast - sworn by parents as the most important meal of the day, never missed by athletes, and indeed a meal no tourist traveling Croatia can afford to miss before their sightseeing adventures. 

And while you're exploring Split, you'll notice that some restaurants do breakfast better than the rest. Chops Grill is one of them. 

Making waves last year with their affordable yet quick grab-n-go brekky options, like the irresistible croissant sandwich with prosciutto or salmon and tangy spring onion and honey mustard touch, dining at Chops for your morning meal comes with a generous selection of feel-good food you won't soon forget. 

A staple on the Chops breakfast menu is the hard-hitting eggburger, which first made its debut last year on the new Chops to-go menu with the favorite croissant sandwich. A perfectly chewy bun warmed by fluffy scrambled eggs, cheese, sriracha mayo, and spring onion make for a delightful yet just filling enough morning munch. 

But Chops' breakfast goes beyond these beloved sandwiches. Classics like eggs benedict on in-house English muffins, the ham, cheese, and pancetta omelet, or the over-the-top Chops breakfast with scrambled eggs on focaccia with pancetta, grilled sausage, and asparagus will teleport your morning from Split to the USA. You can even sit down for American pancakes to seal the deal! 

But that's not all. 

Those of you looking to keep things light can opt for the chia pudding, fit breakfast with Greek yogurt, avocado toast, or veggie omelet, or quench your thirst thanks to a variety of freshly squeezed juices, from apple, mint, and ginger, to Super Green, Veggie Focus, or the Heartbeat abounding in avocado, banana, apple, and red beet! 

And juices aren't the only way to whet your morning palate, with standout items like the avocado or almond butter berry shake on offer, too. 

Topped off with award-winning coffee, there is something for everyone at Chops Grill - and you'll likely return for dinner to try their star-studded selection of steaks! 

You can see the full Chops breakfast menu HERE. 

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

November 4, 2021 - The atypical humanitarian Split Beard Auction is part of the global Movember movement. The highly anticipated event celebrates its jubilee 5th edition this year.

The auction urges men to stop shaving in November and determine the price of their beards or the amount for which they are willing to shave them off. Then, if enough donations are collected for that beard, the person shaves at the Beard Auction on the first Sunday in December, and the collected funds are donated to the Split County League Against Cancer. People can also nominate a "beard" or "mustache" via social media to encourage relatives, colleagues, and friends to donate. In both cases, you can support the auction in an informal and fun way to raise awareness about various forms of cancer, with special emphasis on prostate cancer in men - which in 90% of cases is curable if detected in time!

The auction has so far been accompanied by the immense enthusiasm of locals, and at the last 'Covid' edition in 2020, the auction collected 93,000 kuna, of which fixation material was provided for radiotherapy of prostate cancer patients at the Split Clinical Hospital Center.

This year, the goal is to exceed 100,000 kuna, and the funds raised will be spent on educating the general public about the importance of preventive examinations. Thus far, they have shaved the beards of Alkars, many current and former athletes, singers, actors, politicians, and bikers, and everyone is welcome!

DJ Matthew Bee will enhance the atmosphere on Sunday, December 4, at Plan B pub, starting at noon and lasting until the evening when the band Little Sisters will perform.

Participants who cannot come to Split in person can shave at an earlier date and film the spectacle for all to see! Post a picture of your face adorned with a beard or mustache on social media, tag @bradata.aukcija, and invite friends and acquaintances to join the auction. The collected amount should be brought to Plan B on December 4 or paid directly to the Split County League Against Cancer, IBAN: HR4824070001100579328 (payment description - za Bradatu Aukciju + name of donation).

The Beard Auction is organized by the Split County League Against Cancer with partners: Ka'brada, Rotary Club Split Plus, PromoPlan, and Kazinoti & Komenda and barbers Leekarija Barbershop, Barbershop Ivan, Stil A and Španić Barber from Vinkovci.

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

November 2, 2021 - Valdas Dambrauskas is the new coach of HNK Hajduk Split.

The club today agreed to work with Dambrauskas, who signed a contract until the summer of 2024.

Coach Dambrauskas was born in Pakruojis, Lithuania, on January 7, 1977. He has 14 years of football experience behind him. He started at the Fulham, Manchester United, and Brentford Football Academies. His first senior coaching engagement was in the Kingsbury London Tigers, which he led from 2007 to 2010.

He then worked for the next two years as the coach of the U-17 and U-19 national teams of Lithuania, and in that period, he was also an assistant coach at Lithuanian club Ekranas. In 2014 he took over the independent management of Ekranas. He soon moved to the head coach of Žalgiris, where he remained until 2017, during which time he won three consecutive titles. Before coming to Gorica, he worked as a coach of the Latvian RFS. He arrived in the HNL in February 2020 and stayed until September 2021, when he transferred to the Bulgarian Ludogorets, his last coaching engagement before coming to Hajduk.

With coach Dambrauskas arrive two assistants, 47-year-old Marius Skinderis and 36-year-old Justinas Gasiunas. Skinderis played as a defender in his senior career and played for numerous clubs from 1993 to 2010. In his coaching career, he worked as an assistant with Ekranas and Panevėžys, then as the first coach with Nevežis, and then as an assistant coach of Dambrauskas in RFS and Ludogorets. Justinas Gasiunas will be the new goalkeeper coach in the first-team staff. In his coaching career so far, among other things, he has many years of experience working at the Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. and Brentford and in the Lithuanian national team. Mislav Karoglan, Šime Veršić, and Antonio Sebežević remain in the staff of the first team as assistants.

"Valdas Dambrauskas is a coach who led very well organized and successful teams, which he upgraded with his coaching knowledge. I am convinced that he will bring us new energy and that with his knowledge and experience, he will contribute to the improvement of quality in all segments of football. It is the profile of the coach who primarily seeks to establish a positive relationship with the whole team, which we consider a fundamental prerequisite for success. He prefers to work with players of a strong character; he believes that working with such a player profile is essential for success and reaching the highest football level. I believe that in addition to all the above, in a relatively short period he will raise the level of quality of our game, the value of players, and thus give a new dimension to the team needed in the fight for trophies," said sports director Mindaugas Nikoličius.

To learn more about sport in Croatia, CLICK HERE. 

ZAGREB, 31 Oct, 2021 - Split Mayor Ivica Puljak called on Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Sunday to "stop blocking the development" of Split, while the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure dismissed such a claim and reminded him of the projects that have been launched.

Speaking of the granting of a concession for the city's Žnjan beach, Puljak told N1 television that Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Oleg Butković had said on a number of occasions that, as far as the ministry was concerned, everything was ready and that it was forwarded to Plenković to put it on the government's agenda.

"I invite Prime Minister Plenković... to finally decide who will get the concession so that the project can really be realised. I hope the concession will go to the Žnjan d.o.o. company, which is a city company, and that we will start realising that project," Puljak said, adding that the realisation was almost six months late.

"I think Plenković should stop blocking the development of the City of Split and that he should move away from cheap politics. He should realise that they lost this election, he should get over it in a way and he really must not hold this city back any longer. I think the problem now is him," Puljak said, referring to Plenković's HDZ party and local elections this past May.

The Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure said Puljak's claims that Plenković was blocking Split's development by allegedly procrastinating with a decision on the Žnjan concession were "entirely unfounded and incorrect."

The granting of said concession passed regular government procedure and the opinions of the relevant state bodies are now being collected so that a decision on who will get the concession can be made, the ministry said.

It added that the Plenković cabinet was doing everything for Split to develop as much as possible, and mentioned the transport projects that have been launched as well as a HRK 42.6 million reconstruction project in the city port.

For more on politics, follow TCN's dedicated page.

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 28 Oct 2021 - A two-day conference on economic trends in central, eastern, and southeastern Europe, the consequences of the corona crisis, climate change, and inflation, which was organized by the European Bank Coordination "Vienna" Initiative and the Croatian National Bank (HNB), started in Split on Thursday.

The European Bank Coordination “Vienna” Initiative is a framework for safeguarding the financial stability of emerging Europe. The Initiative was launched at the height of the first wave of the global financial crisis in January 2009.

Opening this annual conference, the HNB Governor and Chairman of the Vienna Initiative Steering Committee, Boris Vujčić, said that the availability of bank lending was currently much better than in 2019, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of course, during the lockdown of economies there was no need for taking funds, as economic activity was suspended, but the price of the money today is more favorable, the governor said in his opening speech.

Asked whether he feared inflation, Vujčić said that he could now, perhaps, be more afraid of inflation than other citizens, however, inflation was not currently an important issue.

He elaborated that this year's 2.3% inflation rate should not be a rate that caused concern.

It will grow into a bigger problem if such a rate remains present for a long period, he explained.

The governor also admitted that a part of bankruptcy proceedings that had not happened during the pandemic could ensue later and that state grants for job-keeping measures helped to achieve employment even higher than before the corona crisis.

He said that Croatia would get an exact date for the euro changeover next summer.

HNB survey shows that 61% of Croats are for switching to the euro

As for a referendum initiative by a few right-wing parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties against the adoption of the euro in Croatia, Vujčić said that not one country that introduced the euro had experienced a decline in living standards.

He went on to say that opinion polls conducted by the central bank show that 61% of Croatians support the euro, 19% are against it, and the remaining respondents are also in favor of the euro on certain conditions. 

The HNB reports on its website that the participants in the Split conference include Vice-President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Mark Bowman, the European Investment Bank Vice-President, Lyiana Pavlova, World Bank Vice-President for Europe and Central Asia, Anna Bjerde, who will join virtually, as well as central bank Governors of Estonia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Ukraine.

Representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the European Investment Fund will also be participating in the conference together with commercial banks and other financial sector stakeholders.

As the region recovered, the Initiative’s focus shifted to addressing the remaining and new challenges in the financial industry, including the resolution of non-performing loans, the development of local capital markets in emerging Europe, funding innovation, and green transition.

For more, check out our politics section.

October 27, 2021 - Not the everyday mission as Split policemen rescue a tangled dolphin just off the coast of Ciovo. 

The commander of the Split police vessel, Mate Merčep, and his two fellow police officers (Marko Tadić and Jure Katavić) from the Split-Dalmatia Police Department set out to monitor the state border towards Vis on Tuesday morning. However, a sudden call for help diverted them eight kilometers from their route, report Slobodna Dalmacija.

The policemen turned the vessel around and embarked on a new mission - rescuing a two-meter long and 70-kilogram dolphin, which they untangled from a net near Ciovo for about forty minutes.

"The fishers noticed a wounded and helpless dolphin and informed the 112 Center, and they informed us. If we had arrived half an hour later, the dolphin would not have been alive. He was wrapped in ropes that inflicted deep wounds on his body, so he didn't even move from helplessness. That bundle of ropes damaged the back of his fin, and about fifty meters of rope were wrapped around him," they said. 

Marko Tadić went down to the ship's edge and carefully tore those ropes after the three lured the dolphin to the boat.

"The dolphin received us as if he felt we wanted to help him. He was calm the whole time, and I guess he couldn't be any different since he was exhausted. Who knows when the poor thing got entangled in a fishing line? Maybe it was five hours, and maybe it was a couple of days, we don’t know that. While I was slowly cutting the ropes around the dolphin, I was careful not to cut the rope with which my two colleagues held the dolphin," Marko said.

Split-Dalmatia County Police Department

"The dolphin jerked a little because he thought we had released him, but it didn’t go that fast. A professor from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Zagreb helped us with advice and guided us on the phone. He told us that when the dolphin breathes and dives several times, then he can swim away. That's how it was in the end," Katavić and Merčep added.

In March 2019, Merčep was on a similar animal rescue mission, saving a Maltese dog that was drowning in the cold in the Lora area.

"Now he is housed in Kaštela, and I am thrilled that he is safe and warm," said Merčep.

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

October 22, 2021 - Tickets for the decisive Croatia-Russia World Cup qualifier at Poljud will go on sale on Monday!

The Croatian Football Federation has announced that the online ticket sales for the final 2022 World Cup qualifier against Russia will start on Monday at 1 pm.

The Croatia-Russia match is scheduled for Sunday, November 14 at Poljud, starting at 3 pm, and tickets will be sold through the HNS ticket portal at the following prices:

West middle - 200 kuna, West - 150 kuna, East Middle 120 kuna, East - 100 kuna, North / South - 80 kuna.

On the day of the match, tickets will be sold at the following prices:

West middle - 250 kuna, West - 200 kuna, East middle - 150 kuna, East - 120 kuna, North / South - 100 kuna.

The Croatian Football Federation emphasized that all persons coming to the stadium must have an EU digital COVID certificate, i.e., that vaccination certificates or recovery certificates will not be recognized, as well as various test results, but only an EU digital COVID certificate with a valid QR code that will be checked at the entrance.

HNS will also provide rapid antigen testing points, after which everyone who tests negative will receive an EU digital COVID passport necessary to enter the stadium. The price, location, and opening hours of the testing point will be announced at a later date.

Ticket sales include e-tickets that the customer must download and print, and only citizens of the Republic of Croatia have the right to purchase, regardless of residence address, by filling in the required personal information.

Due to special epidemiological measures in the stands, one person can buy up to four (4) tickets. In addition to their data, the customer also enters data on the other ticket holders, where they do not necessarily have to be a citizen of the Republic of Croatia.

Tickets will be available at the ticket portal, where you can find detailed information on ticket sales and payment methods.

HNS warns fans that guards will check the accuracy of personal data on the tickets when entering the stadium. Fans who try to enter the stadium with a ticket under another name will be denied entry. Therefore, HNS urges fans not to buy tickets on the "black market" or from scalpers.

The Croatia-Russia match will decide the winner of the Group H World Cup qualifying group, i.e., the team that will secure a direct place in Qatar, while the second-placed team will advance to additional qualifications. Two rounds before the end, Russia leads the group with 19 points and in second is Croatia with 17 points. Before the decisive clash at Poljud, Russia will host Cyprus, while Croatia will host Malta. Both Russia and Croatia are expected to win their penultimate matches. 

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