July 13, 2020 - Dubrovnik, the 'Pearl of the Adriatic' and Croatia's tourism star, is struggling to resume tourism post-lockdown.
The forecasts for the tourist season in Dubrovnik at the beginning of spring were not so bad, and probably much better than the actual outcome. It seemed then as if the coronavirus would disappear with the heat, tourists would travel, and most stakeholders in tourism were hopeful that the situation would improve significantly for the better. At the time, Dubrovnik unofficially said that they hoped for a turnover of at least 30 percent compared to last year. But that did not happen, reports Dubrovnik Daily.
Croatia is still recording new cases of infection, and according to the eVisitor guest check-in and check-out system, on July 5, 2020, 2,145 guests stayed in Dubrovnik, which is only 13 percent of the total number of guests last year on the same date, when 24 824 overnight stays were realized. According to the Dubrovnik Tourist Board, Dubrovnik's hotel accommodation currently has the largest number of guests from Germany, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Germans, French and Poles mostly stay in private accommodation.
Dubrovnik caterers also hoped for a better situation at the beginning of the season. The president of the Dubrovnik Association of Caterers and the owner of the Otto tavern, Ante Vlasic, says that the current income they generate will not be enough to cover basic expenses. For that, as he says, at least 20 percent of the turnover should be realized compared to last season, but much less is realized.
"Most of my colleagues generate turnover and revenue of up to 10 percent compared to last year. This roughly coincides with the number of guests coming to Dubrovnik, about which we regularly receive information from the Dubrovnik Tourist Board. Maybe that percentage is even slightly lower because we lost daily excursionists, for example, from BiH and Montenegro, and cruise guests," said Vlasic.
According to him, no one prepared for the new situation, especially because last season was a record, and a reduction in VAT was even announced for this one, which would be an additional relief for caterers.
"People have made big investments that will not pay off for them now. We expected the situation to change significantly from June, but that did not happen. For example, my store operated in June at a rate of five percent of revenue compared to June last year. The least damage is caused by catering establishments that work all year round and which mainly serve drinks, some of them work at 30 percent of the usual traffic, and some at 50 percent, which is much more, but such are only two or three bars in Dubrovnik," said Vlasic, adding that he hopes that'll change after July 15, when, according to the announcements, more planes should land in Dubrovnik. Vlasic believes that it is necessary to carry out activities that would attract guests because there are many positive examples in Europe.
"Greek Mykonos is almost full, Italy is filling up very quickly, as is the French coast, Provence, and they were in a much worse situation than ours when it comes to the epidemiological picture and the situation around the coronavirus pandemic," says Vlasic.
Compared to restaurants, coffee bars that are open all year round and frequented by the local population are somewhat better. One of them is the cafe bar 'Antika' in Lapad Bay, owned by Zlatko Begusic, otherwise the president of the Association of Craftspeople Dubrovnik.
"Traditionally, we have a lot of local people from the City who come to have a drink, but the traffic is not even close to last season, let's say it is 50 percent lower. Cafes earn less than last year, but will survive, especially those outside the city, in Gruz or Lapad. Also, last year I had six waiters because there was such a need, now I have three," said Begusic.
Private landlords are rightly particularly concerned, because, for most of them, winter means investments and preparations for the season in which everything invested should return. But that didn’t happen this year. Slavica Grkes, vice president of the professional group of travel agencies at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and owner of the Dominium travel agency, says that the drop in their agency's turnover by July 1 is 94.67 percent. And when it comes to renting, there are some new trends.
"As far as renting is concerned, we record more reservations on Mljet and Peljesac than in Dubrovnik, and those related to Dubrovnik are mostly last-minute overnight stays for units that have parking. We are selling the cheapest and most luxurious accommodation we have to offer," said Grkes.
When it comes to prices, Grkes claims that almost everyone has lowered them, some even up to 60 percent, and some have decided not to rent their housing units for tourist purposes.
"We closed about 20 percent of the accommodation units for tourist rentals because the owners decided to rent those units for a longer period of time or not rent them at all, for fear of being infected with COVID. We hope for the arrival of planes, a better epidemiological picture, but also an extension of the measures. Everyone has mostly written off this season, but I sincerely hope and cannot come to terms with the fact that everything we have been building for years will disappear," said Grkes.
Although for many years they criticized cruise guests and the crowds in the City attributed to them, it has now been shown that they are also a very important factor in Dubrovnik tourism, which suffers losses due to the absence of cruise ships.
Thus, revenues from cruisers this year, compared to last year, are lower by 96 percent, and the Port of Dubrovnik, according to the data provided, is expected to record a decline in revenues when it comes to yachts (96 percent less revenue), lines (94 percent less revenue) and ship’s storage (63 percent less revenue).
In the port of Gruz, 362 ships that would bring about 550 thousand passengers were canceled, and nine of them were realized, with 3,532 passengers. For comparison, last year, there were 486 boat trips that brought over 768 thousand guests.
From January to May 2020, Dubrovnik-Neretva County had the most cruises in Croatia, 73.3 percent of them. The port of Dubrovnik had the most visits by foreign cruise ships, followed by Korcula, Split, Sibenik and Zadar.
In addition to the Dubrovnik Port Authority, Dubrovnik Airport also recorded losses, as did other airports around the world. According to the report of the 'European Airport Council' ACI-Europe, from January 1 to June 28, 2020, European airports lost 748 million passengers, while Croatian airports realized almost 800 thousand passengers in the first half of the year, while last year alone in June it was 1.6 million.
In the first seven days of July, 7,800 passengers and 272 aircraft landings took off at Dubrovnik Airport, which is an increase compared to the previous week by 78 percent in the number of passengers and 39 percent in the number of operations, said ZL Dubrovnik.
This may be good news in the new situation in which car destinations profit somewhat more than air destinations, including Dubrovnik. Therefore, it is not surprising that all hopes are placed on flights that could be the only ones to save this year's tourist season, reports the Dubrovnik daily.
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