November 9, 2019 -  A new measure could see Dubrovnik ban all new restaurants in the Old Town for five years. 

“It has so far fought overtourism by limiting the number of cruise ships that dock in its ports, banning four in five souvenir stalls, and cutting the number of tables and chairs outside restaurants by 20%. And now the Croatian port of Dubrovnik has suggested an even more stringent measure: an effective ban of all new restaurants,” wrote CNN on November 5th about the potential of a five-year ban for new restaurants in the city. The Dubrovnik Council will vote on the proposal next month. 

Mayor of Dubrovnik, Mato Frankovic, told CNN that, “anyone wanting to open a restaurant in the Old Town cannot put down new tables and chairs for the next five years. They can open inside, but knowing the Old City, it's very hard to find a place where you can work inside. Ninety nine percent of restaurants work mainly with outside tables."

Frankovic added that if a restaurant chose to close down, it would remain ‘fully closed’, meaning no new business could enter. 

Since the city council owns all the public space in Dubrovnik, they get to decide whether or not a restaurant can be allocated space outside for tables, CNN explained. 

Slobodna Dalmacija reported that Dubrovnik caterers do not mind the five-year embargo announced by the mayor of Dubrovnik.

For starters, there are already too many restaurants in Dubrovnik’s historic center - and as many as 150 different types, from snack bars to taverns. The locals say they must protect themselves from the competition coming from the outside:

“We agreed that a five-year moratorium would be a good idea because it makes it easier for everyone to do business and plan. Under such a condition, we would have a normal business environment, so this arrangement seems very good to me.

There is also one problem, and I do not know how it will be solved. For example, if one outlet closes in those five years, another outlet cannot be opened in its place, and that public space ceases to exist,” notes Ante Vlasic, head of the Dubrovnik Caterers Association.

Vlasic highlights another drawback:

“We don't even know what will happen if, for example, the owners of a restaurant change and everything else remains the same. But, in principle, the idea is good, it would provide us with better and easier work,” added Vlasic. The proposal stems from the cooperation between the City and the caterers according to the famous "5x5x5" model, which goes into effect from January 1, 2020.

Mayor Frankovic offered restaurateurs a lease extension on urban spaces and the lease of public spaces to five years, with a five-year moratorium on changes in public spaces and the number of tables.

“All those who have leased space owned by the City of Dubrovnik know that after the contract expires, we are obliged to call for tenders, place the premises on the market, and get new tenants according to the criterion of the best offer. The law did not envisage the possibility of offering a good tenant lease priority. 

We thought for a long time how to protect existing caterers, hired legal experts, and came up with this solution. For all those who lease space in our property, the lease will be extended to five years, which is the maximum legal deadline. Any price adjustments are minimal,” the mayor explained.

“The second amendment relates to the lease of public lands, which has been ongoing year after year, and the new proposal is to conclude public lease agreements for the first time for five years, which is the legal maximum. This applies to caterers both in the city and in private areas. It means five years for everyone, and the price remains the same.

We want to guarantee everyone more business security. Now you know that you will have contracts for five years and you will not be too concerned with who is in power,” said Frankovic.

Finally, Frankovic explained the last "5" of this model, which refers to the moratorium on leasing new public spaces.

“When we sign new contracts on January 1, 2020, there will be no lease of new public spaces for the next five years. There will not be one more table or surface. That's it. I think this is correct and fair and limits the enormous boom of restaurants inside the historic core that we no longer really need. Catering facilities can still open, but in private facilities and outside a public area,” concluded Frankovic.

Caterers have agreed to the embargo proposal, but are somewhat less satisfied with reducing the number of tables and chairs in public spaces.

Namely, the tables and chairs of hospitality facilities within the historic core extend over 3795 square meters of public space. On the first day of 2020, the coverage will be reduced by about three hundred square meters, as all catering establishments that have leased more than 25 square meters of public space so far will be reduced by ten percent. That provision hits as many as 56 catering establishments.

The restaurant "Dalmatino" has so far occupied 29.5 square meters of space. Owner Robert Jasprica thinks the decision to cut this by 10 percent is not a good one.

“What matters is how the number of tables will be cut. If it's going to be linear, as I've heard, I'm not losing those three, four chairs, but actually more. There will be ten centimeters between these tables, who will want to sit there?” says Jasprica, one of the few caterers who keeps his restaurant open in the winter.

“It’ll cut ten percent of the tables now, which is ten percent less public space, ten percent less traffic. This reduction is crucial to me for 12 full-time employees and for working in the winter. It is easier for me to close the facility on November 1st,” says Jasprica.

Recall, in the flight against ovetourism, Dubrovnik mayor Mato Frankovic also announced last year that no more than two cruise ships per day could dock in the city, which has a 70% success rate for 2019. 

Frankovic also shut down 80% of souvenir stands and 20% of outdoor seating. This other 10% will be cut from January 1, 2020, CNN concluded. 

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

November 9, 2019 - Rovinj studios Tumpic/Prenc and Delta Reality have taken home prestigious international work for their design work in Croatia. 

Glas Istre reports that at the prestigious Red Dot Design Awards held on November 1st in the luxurious space of the Konzerthaus Berlin, Studio Tumpic/Prenc of Rovinj took home the trophy for their bottle design of Istrian olive oil "Latini". Shortly afterwards, on November 4, during one of the world's largest travel fairs, the World Travel Market, Digital Reality Studio "Delta Reality" was crowned the gold for the “Witch Mare's House” project at the International Travel & Tourism Awards 2019, and in the category of most innovative use of technology.

“These awards are a great indicator that Croatian companies are creating projects that can not only compete on the international stage but also be winners. We have proved this in Berlin and London, to which we are very grateful to them for recognizing our work. This is a confirmation that we are heading in the right direction, that we are innovative, creative and above all - an excellent team,” said Anselmo Tumpic, director and co-founder of the Rovinj studio.

The team, including creative director Anselmo Tumpic, account director Sara Prenc Opacic, and Anton Licul Grk, received the Red Dot Award in front of about 1,400 guests from around the world.

The gala evening program was led by the founder and CEO of the Red Dot Awards, Peter Zec, while the award was presented by the commission member, Sylvia Vitale Rotta, who has previously served as design chair of the Eurobest jury, the Cannes Lions, and was a member of the jury in Dubai Lynx.

It is an award that recognizes the high quality of design and the creative achievements of designers and their companies, and a jury of 24 international experts awarded only 0.8 percent of applicants. Among the best was the Latini olive oil bottle, boasting a plaid shirt motif on the packaging as a sort of homage to their ancestors, and a pocket in which a piece of paper with a centuries-old family story was sealed.

This year's winning works were then exhibited for only one evening, so that the guests could be convinced of the quality of the awarded brands and their works. The exhibition will be moved to the Berlin "Communication Museum" where it will be open to the public until January 12, 2020.

A few days later and about 1,000 kilometers away, the creative studio Tumpic/Prenc and the Digital Reality Studio "Delta Reality" surpassed the tourist superpower of Spain with their project of the small Istrian town, Svetvincenat. Not only did they make it to the finals, but they introduced themselves in front of the key stakeholders of the international tourism and travel sectors.

“Receiving an international award in the ‘Most Innovative Use of Technology’ category is a huge recognition of the continued effort and persistence that Delta Reality's young team invests every day. Since we have worked at many international visitor centers and museums over the past year, we are especially proud to have won with the Croatian project, representing Croatia on multiple levels,” said Delta Reality Director and co-founder Darian Skarica.

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

If you ever found yourself wanting to go out in the nature in Croatia but were unsure where to go, a new book has been published with numerous walking trails in Croatia. 

There are around sixty such trails all over Croatia listed and described in the book, from Slavonia to Istria and Dalmatia, put together by the authors Lara Černicki and Stašo Forenbaher. The book is titled "Kratke šetnje u prošlost" and unfortunately, for now, it can only be found in Croatian. However, some additional materials have also been published which will allow even those who don't really read Croatian to enjoy walking in Croatia. 

The walks in the book usually start from an urban setting or a more important place, and in an hour, two or three of walking will take you to some type of a fort, an old church, or similar remnants of objects which used to be essential for the area. Lara Černicki used to write a column in the Jutarnji list where she suggested where the readers might go for a weekend trip, which is what lead to the idea of this book.

The original plan was to write a historical guide of the region close to the Croatian-Slovenian border, on both sides. Still, recent history and erection of more significant barriers stopped that idea. But, the new one appeared as they walked on the Northern part of the Velebit mountain and reached a location that was almost entirely unknown to them but was a big part of the life of people living in the area in the past. They chose the trails subjectively, the ones they liked the most are in the book. The walking trails from this book are not located in any high tourist places, but some of them are close to those. Some locations are entirely unknown, but the most popular sites in Croatia, such as Dubrovnik or Plitvička jezera can't be found in the book.  

The walks are diverse, giving you a broad overview of the landscape and history of Croatia. Each chapter in the book starts with a short story of the history of the proposed route, and then the walk itself is described. The book explains how long the trail is, and where it's supposed to take you (along with a detailed map). In addition to the maps in the book, the publisher Libricon has created (and this is the part which is very useful to people who can't really read Croatian) a database of GPS trails for the walks in .gpx format, which is something just about anybody who enjoys the walks in nature will have the means of opening and using (including the most basic method, Google Maps). Some of the walking trails are marked clearly, but for some of them, there are no markers or signs. 

You can find the database of GPS trails here.

Read more about life in Croatia in our Lifestyle category. 

As Novac writes on the 8th of November, 2019, the Republic of Croatia has now received its 100th electric vehicle charging station, thus continuing the expansion of the ELEN network in cities with the aim of facilitating safe long-distance electric car trips across the country.

In addition, according to HEP, it contributes to the electrification of Croatian transport, as well as the fight against climate change, and fulfills the goals of the European Union's energy policy.

''With the commissioning of the 100th electric vehicle charging station, HEP has confirmed itself as a key entity in the electrification of transport in Croatia, which is carried out in accordance with the guidelines of the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the policies of the European Union. At the moment, more than a hundred charging stations are installed across Croatia, 26 of which are in Zagreb,'' said HEP's Frane Barbarić, adding that HEP is only halfway through the planned construction of infrastructure for electric vehicles, a move worth a massive 60 million kuna in total.

HEP's 100th charging station are located in the centre of Zagreb, (King Tomislav Square/Trg Kralja Tomislava), and is co-financed by the EAST-E EU project, under which HEP will install 27 rapid 50 kW charging stations across Croatia.

HEP has so far installed ten such charging stations in Zagreb, nine of which are public and one is located in the garage of the office building at its headquarters. In addition, six more stations are in the process of being completed, while for a further 20 stations, the location of their installation is currently being defined.

According to the planned realisation, HEP will have a total of 35 public charging stations for electric cars in the City of Zagreb. At the moment, HEP's filling network covers all motorways and other important road routes in Croatia, city centres and tourist destinations, including several islands, and extends over the City of Zagreb and an impressive eighteen Croatian counties.

At the beginning of 2015, HEP began the cycle of building ELEN charging stations in various Croatian cities, following the provisions of the European Directive on the establishment of alternative fuel infrastructure, which by 2020 foresees the availability of charging stations for every 50 kilometres of motorway, in all agglomerations with more than 20,000 inhabitants and in all ports and airports, as well as railway and bus stations.

The setting up of 100 public ELEN charging stations throughout Croatia is funded by HEP's own funds and EU funds through EAST-E, NEXT-E and bigEVdata projects. They are currently testing all the end-user service options, including the payment models themselves, which will result in the commercialisation of the service in the coming months.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for more.

ZAGREB, November 8, 2019 - Croatia on Friday protested to Serbian authorities over a monument commemorating a Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) general who led the attack on Vukovar in 1991 and called on Belgrade to stop glorifying war crimes.

The memorial plaque to Mladen Bratić, commander of JNA and Serbian para-miltiary forces during the attack on Vukovar, was unveiled in a Serbian army complex in the northern city of Novi Sad on Friday.

Bratić was killed on 2 November 1991 at Borovo Naselje, a suburb of the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar which was occupied by Serbian forces on 18 November after killing over 2,000 people there.

In a diplomatic note presented to the Serbian Embassy in Zagreb, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs condemned this act and called on Serbian authorities to stop playing down and glorifying war crimes.

"Serbia is once again called upon to focus on the process of facing its own past and its role in the war it initiated in the 1990s," the Croatian ministry said. Such decisions and moves by Serbian authorities go against Croatia's efforts to build good neighbourly relations, it added.

Following criticism of Serbia's plan to unveil a memorial plaque for Yugoslav Army Major General Mladen Bratić, Serbia's President Aleksandar Vučić on Friday in Geneva said that Croatia has streets named after Mile Budak, a writer who served as a minister in the NDH governments.

The unveiling of a memorial plaque in the Serbian army complex in Novi Sad to Bratić has come across criticism in Croatia but also in civil society activists in Serbia. The plaque has been described as "unacceptable and incomprehensible," and "mocking the victims of war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide committed in the 1990s."

"Reporters from Serbia asked me how it can be that Croatian reporters can ask that of me when there are streets named after Mile Budak in Croatia," Vučić said. Budak was a minister in the Nazi-style Ustasha regime in Croatia from 1941 to 1945 and he is also known for his literary work.

Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenković announced that Croatia would send Serbia a protest note regarding the plaque honouring Bratić.

Earlier in the day Croatia's Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlić Radman condemned Serbia's actions.

"Unveiling a memorial plaque to a war criminal, certainly doesn't contribute to stabilisation and good-neighbourly relations. That direction in Serbia's foreign policy is unacceptable and incomprehensible," Grlić Radman told reporters in Rijeka.

A coalition of non-government organisations in Vojvodina known as Civic Vojvodina described the unveiling of the plaque as "a mockery of the victims of war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide in the 1990s." the "021.rs" web portal reported on Thursday.

Civic Vojvodina condemned the planned unveiling, saying in a press release that Bratić "commanded the attacks on and destruction of Vukovar, which was one of the most shameful military operations in the history of modern warfare, leaving an indelible stain on (northern Serbian province of) Vojvodina's capital."

More news about relations between Croatia and Serbia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 8, 2019 - Western Balkan countries, aspiring for European Union membership, are putting their hopes in Croatia's presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2020, and are hoping that North Macedonia and Albania will be given a greenlight for opening accession talks before the Zagreb summit in May.

These hopes were expressed at a meeting on the European prospects of southeastern European countries in Geneva on Friday. The meeting, organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF), brought together heads of state or government and ministers from Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia and Turkey.

During the event, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that "Croatia intends to help its neighbours" and that it would be ideal to reach a consensus on opening accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania by May.

"We are neither excessively optimistic nor enthusiastic. Nevertheless, this process needs to move forward. Without membership prospects we cannot count on accelerated economic development, true democratic values, cooperation, and accordingly, further strengthening of stability and security of our immediate neighbourhood," said Plenković.

Last month, the European Council failed to agree on opening accession negotiations with Tirana and Skopje, despite the fact that the European Commission gave its greenlight and the fact that a majority of EU member states were in favour of starting the talks. A unanimous decision is required in such cases.

France, as the most vocal opponent to further EU enlargement in the near future, as well as the Netherlands and Denmark withheld their support for the two Balkan aspirants.

North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said in Geneva that a lot of changes had been made in a bid to make progress on the journey towards the European Union.

Zaev put his hopes in Croatia's EU presidency because it would enable "more focus to be placed on the whole region," adding that North Macedonia would continue implementing reforms.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said that they felt as if "they are left without a compass", underscoring that Albania and its citizens nevertheless wanted EU membership.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said his country was not so optimistic as North Macedonia and Albania, but it would like to be given a clear answer.

Since early 2014, when Belgrade opened accession negotiations, 17 policy chapters have been opened in that process.

One of the conditions for Serbia's admission to the EU is the normalisation of its relations with Kosovo.

Montenegro's Vice Premier Zoran Pazin said that his country did not expect the EU to make concessions.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's Prime Minister Denis Zvizdić said that the EU membership had no alternative.

Zvizdić also commented on French President Emmanuel Macron's description of Bosnia as a "ticking time-bomb" and the greatest concern for Europe in the Balkans due to the country's "problem of returning jihadists".

Zvizdić responded that his country had made great progress in the fight against terrorism and added that in the last three years no Bosnian citizens had gone to wars in foreign countries or participated in terrorist actions.

More news about Croatia and the Western Balkan countries can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 8, 2019 - The parliamentary group of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) decided on Friday that the Committee on War Veterans would withdraw an amendment proposing that Antifascist Struggle Day should no longer be observed as a national holiday but as a memorial day, the group's chairman Branko Bačić said after their meeting.

The amendment will be withdrawn after the government rejects it, Bačić said.

He said that the chairman of the Committee on War Veterans, Josip Đakić, explained at the meeting how the amendment had been proposed and that they agreed to fully support the government bill amending the Holidays, Memorial Days and Non-Working Days Act.

"Đakić was explicit in saying that he would support the bill. There is still time until November 14, and the group's position is that it will support the bill and the decision of the party, which has taken a clear stance on this bill," Bačić said.

Asked to comment on the announcement by an HDZ member of the Committee, Stevo Culej, that he would not back the government bill, Bačić said that it was his business, adding that there was still time before the bill was put to a vote on November 14.

Speaking of the amendment put forward by the Committee on War Veterans, Bačić said that the proposal was obviously made by some of the Committee members, "I think external ones."

"We in the HDZ have made clear our position on June 22 as Antifascist Struggle Day and we stand by it. This bill is harmonised with the Constitution, in which President Tuđman clearly wrote that Croatia's sovereignty is founded on the resolutions by the ZAVNOH (State Antifascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia) in contrast to the NDH (Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia) and on the Homeland War," Bačić said.

"Those who do not understand this obviously do not understand the Constitution or the HDZ's programme. In the afternoon, the Presidency and National Council of the HDZ will once again reinforce the policy of the party's present leadership which strongly follows the doctrine of Dr Franjo Tuđman," he said, adding that he expected every HDZ member to implement the party's doctrine and programme.

The Committee on War Veterans later said it had withdrawn all five amendments to the holidays bill, including one proposing that Antifascist Struggle Day become a memorial day and a workday.

More news about holidays in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 8, 2019 - Croatia has recorded over 20 million tourist arrivals and 107 million nights in one year for the first time, the Tourism Ministry said on Friday.

According to the eVisitor system, which records the tourism turnover in commercial and non-commercial facilities and the nautical charter, 20.1 million arrivals and 107.03 million nights have been registered as of today, up 5% and 2% on the year respectively.

"This historic result, this challenging year for tourism... is proof and confirmation of the quality of the synergy of the public and private sectors, without which such results would not have been possible," said Minister Gari Cappelli.

"I'm confident this record will motivate us all to continue to build and make Croatian tourism even better," he added.

National Tourist Board director Kristjan Staničić said that after last year's entire tourism turnover was surpassed last month, "these historic 20 million tourist arrivals additionally confirm the strength and stability of Croatia's tourism sector."

He said 2020 would be challenging and that many tour operators and airlines had announced that they would expand their programmes for Croatia.

This year so far, the biggest number of nights was generated by tourists from Germany, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic, the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, South Korea and China.

The coastal resorts of Dubrovnik, Rovinj, Poreč, Split and Medulin recorded the biggest number of nights.

More news about Croatian tourism can be found in the Travel section.