A million passengers for 2015 by air last month, a million by ship this month. Dubrovnik is popular...
On Wednesday, the Dubrovnik Gruž Port has welcomed its millionth passenger this year, three days earlier than last year. It was Anne Martin, who arrived to Dubrovnik on the Thomson Majesty cruise ship, reports Poslovni.hr on September 17, 2015.
As noted at the official welcoming ceremony by the director of the Dubrovnik Port Authority Antun Asić, the millionth passenger of the year arrived three days earlier than last year despite the smaller number of passengers from the cruise ships. "This year, the millionth passenger arrived three days earlier than last year, and in recent years we usually have our millionth passenger in mid-September. This year, we have increased the regular route traffic, however the traffic from cruise ships has decreased, so we have retained about the same number of passengers", said Asić. He added that the forecasts for the next year predict an increase in the number of passengers.
Responding to a reporter's question, he said that he believes that "cruise tourism" is not in conflict with "hotel tourism". "People are always complaining, but they often have no reason for that. We did not have any special crowds in Dubrovnik this year, but crowds are an integral part of tourism, without them there is no tourism. I believe that the hotel tourism and 'cruise tourism' are not in conflict", said Asić.
The husband of the millionth passenger said that he and his wife first came to Dubrovnik 25 years ago and have since returned several times on cruise ships. "We first came 25 years ago and stayed in the hotel 'President'. It was a wonderful experience. Since then, we have been to Dubrovnik seven or eight times on cruise ships. This is a beautiful city and the people are wonderful. We are very surprised by this ceremony today, things like this usually do not happen to us", said Martin.
