Second hand sale underway in Lazareti
The seventh annual Dubrovnik Foreign Circle (DFC) second hand sale started today in the Lazareti complex just outside of the eastern entrance to the Old City of Dubrovnik. A wide array of clothes, for women, men and children, are on offer in the sale as well as household goods.
The second hand sale, which is being organised in partnership with the Lazareti Art Workshop, always has a humanitarian character and this year the beneficiary will be for “Dva Skalina” an association for children with special needs. The DFC plans to raise funds to assist in purchasing an outdoor wheelchair swing.
Get yourselves along to the second hand sale this weekend in Lazareti until 6.00pm and tomorrow from 11.00am to 5.00pm.
Dubrovnik Foreign Circle second hand sale this weekend
The seventh annual Dubrovnik Foreign Circle (DFC) second hand sale will be held this weekend, the 1st and 2nd of October, in the Lazareti complex just outside of the eastern entrance to the Old City of Dubrovnik.
The second hand sale, which is being organised in partnership with the Lazareti Art Workshop, always has a humanitarian character and this year the beneficiary will be for “Dva Skalina” an association for children with special needs. The DFC plans to raise funds to assist in purchasing an outdoor wheelchair swing.
As the DFC said in a statement “We accept adult, children and baby winter and/or summer clothing, shoes, accessories (jewellery, hats, bags etc.), household items (dishes, glasses, vases, paintings, small appliances etc.) As always, items must be in good condition and working order.”
The Dubrovnik Foreign Circle’s mission and vision is to actively serve the community by providing services that contribute to the health and vitality of the greater Dubrovnik Region. The organization’s goal is to provide friendship and understanding between its members and the Dubrovnik community at large by organizing cultural and social events. The Dubrovnik Foreign Circle engages in fundraising activities for the benefit of its community projects.
Come long this weekend and support this worthy cause.
Croatia slightly improves on world competitive list
According to a report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) for 2016/2017 the Swiss economy is still the most competitive in the world, while Croatia improved its position from the last year’s 77th to the 74th on the list which includes 138 countries.
This year’s list shows that Croatia made improvements in 6 out of 12 areas taken into consideration by WEF experts such as macroeconomic environment, higher education, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, market size, and business sophistication.
The National Competitiveness Council (NVK) of Croatia expressed satisfaction with the fact that Croatia rose from the 77th to the 74th place on the World Economy Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Ranking, but warned that this was just a modest improvement insufficient to successfully attract investments that would lead to higher living standards.
In addition, Ivica Mudrinic, the chairman of the NVK emphasized that positive effects could be felt only if Croatia improved its position to the 50th or the 40th place on the WEF list.
On the other hand, Croatia’s rankings have remained the same in terms of institutions and infrastructure but worsened in health and primary education, development of financial markets, technological readiness, and innovations.
A survey that was carried out among business people shows that the greatest difficulties in doing business in Croatia are inefficient administration, tax rates and regulations, as well as political instability and corruption.
The Dubrovnik Times celebrates tenth anniversary
At a gala party in the Klarisa restaurant The Dubrovnik Times officially marked its tenth birthday last night. The Dubrovnik Times is the first English language newspaper in the Republic of Croatia and the evening to mark the first decade was a special night for the editor Mark Thomas.
- We have printed over 1.5 million over the ten years, hundreds of thousands of articles, thousands of emails, and countless journeys around the county. And is certainly has been a journey – commented Mark Thomas.
The evening was attended by the Mayor of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County, Nikola Dobroslavić, the Mayor of Dubrovnik, Andro Vlahušić, the member of the board of Hanza Media, Ana Hanžeković, and the editor of Dubrovacki Vjesnik, Jadran Kapor.
- We have made a pause in the city council meeting just to attend this event and just to show how important it is to us all – commented Vlahušić, adding that Dubrovnik will achieve 3.6 million overnight stays and deserves the title of tourism champion.
Ivana Smilovic, a journalist from The Dubrovnik Times, presented the birthday party evening and a raffle was held to raise funds for a humanitarian cause. The band "Unique Dubrovnik" brought an international touch with their interpretation of pop songs.
Check out our photo gallery of our special night
Dubrovnik hotels leading in Croatia
According to a guest reviews analysis carried out by the company Hotels.com, nineteen hotels from Croatia were awarded with ''Loved by Guests Awards 2016'' gold award.
The awards for the Hotels.com "Loved by Guest" campaign were based on authentic and trusted reviews, written by guests who have actually stayed in the hotels.
After analyzing 20 million authentic reviews from guests all around the world, more than 2,700 hotels from 94 countries were classified as extraordinary and were assigned the highest gold award of Hotels.com, with ratings of 4.7 out of 5 or higher.
The Croatian cities which won the "Loved by Guests" award are:
1. Dubrovnik - 8 hotels
2. Split - 4 hotels
3. Zagreb - 2 hotels
4. Rovinj - 2 hotels
5. Hvar - 2 hotels
6. Zadar - 1 hotel.
Among Croatian hotels, nineteen of them received a gold ‘’Loved by Guests Awards 2016’’ award as part of the best hotels by Hotel.com. Here are the top 10:
1. Hotel Esplanade - Zagreb
2. Bellevue Hotel - Dubrovnik
3. Hilton Imperial - Dubrovnik
4. Valamar Dubrovnik President Hotel -Dubrovnik
5. Hotel More - Dubrovnik
6. Falkensteiner Hotel & Spa Iadera - Zadar
7. Hotel Lone - Rovinj
8. Hotel Adriatic - Rovinj
9. Celenga Apartments - Dubrovnik
10. Doubletree by Hilton – Zagreb
VIDEO Meet Deskbloks – one desk to rule them all
The world's first modular desk called Deskbloks, which is currently in the prototype phase, has begun to collect funds for the beginning of mass production.
The idea for the Deskbloks was created on the basis of a modular phone from 2013 when Stjepan, an IT engineer and the founder of the Deskbloks, decided to build a modular housing for his computer that could be exchanged and upgraded in the future without buying a new one. However, at first his idea came across many obstacles, but while he was playing a dice game he came up with the idea for a desk which would be consisted of blocks (modules) and could be, complying with users' wishes, exchanged, added and upgraded.
The young innovative IT engineer also wanted to make some things easier for himself and for future users who would use this desk in their offices, at home or the like. Thus began a development of the blocks which comprise built-in USB ports, built-in USB speakers, as well as a block with a built-in wireless charger for mobile devices.
Also great attention was given to the organization of cables because the desk was originally designed to be used for PCs and laptops, which contain a large number of cables.
The desk is made of high quality Croatian oak, which is as wood for furniture pretty massive, firm and resistant to various temperatures and conditions that users could come across. Due to oak as the main wooden material, the desk is very heavy thus ordinary Deskblocks composed of ten modules can withstand pressures up to five times greater than its own weight.
So far this innovative desk has been produced only in Slavonia, but by the end of the campaign and raising funds from other investors, the production of all Deskbloks elements will continue in Slavonia, mainly in Ilok. Apart from Croatia, the targeted market for the Deskbloks are other EU countries as well as world markets.
ISTO World Congress to be held in Zagreb
A news conference held on past Thursday, announced that the 26th ISTO (International Social Tourism Organization) World Congress will take place in Zagreb from the 18th to 21st of October 2016.
The ISTO 2016 World Congress is a direct continuation of the previous one held in Sao Paulo. It represents the continuation of an initiative that was launched with a goal of promoting the World Organization which together with its members works on improving social tourism.
''Driving Tourism through Inclusion'', the title of this year's congress, will focus on the latest trends of social, solidarity-based, responsible and inclusive tourism, with an emphasis on social policy as a driver of growth for domestic tourism.
The conference will be organized by the International Social Tourism Organization (ISTO) in cooperation with Croatian partners, including the City of Zagreb, the Croatian Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Social Policy and Youth, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, the Croatian Tourism Board, the Croatian Holiday and Hostel Federation, and many others.
The congress is intended for workers in the tourism industry, hotel and hospitality facilities, public authorities, trade unions, social organizations, universities and all those who are interested in social, solidarity and responsible tourism.
For the first time the ISTO World Congress will be held in Croatia and is expected to attract approximately 200 participants from all around the world.
Croatia planning to attract even more UK and US tourists
Even though there is already a whole array of tourist facilities with high quality offer in Croatia, foreign markets still do not perceive Croatia as a destination for luxury tourism.
However, it is not at all easy for such facilities to operate in Croatia, due to high seasonality and poor airline connections with markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom, which are markets with a large number of potential guests. Branding of the luxury offer and repositioning on the market are the main goals of the Luxury Hotels Group, founded this spring within the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK).
The US market is particularly interesting, not only because of its size (one-fifth of 320 million US inhabitants travel abroad), but also because American guests are especially fond of destinations with a rich cultural and historical heritage.
Around 11 million Americans visit Europe every year, in Croatia there were around 300,000 last year. By the beginning of this September this year, there were around 266,000 American tourists in Croatia.
However, the Americans still do not believe that Croatia has luxury hotels, thus one of the goals of the Luxury Hotels Group in cooperation with the Croatian Tourist Board is to convince them to the contrary.
The Group has currently had 16 hotels with a unique offer (gourmet, wine, heritage, boutique hotels, castle) such as Vestibul Palace Hotel in Split, Meneghetti in Bale, San Rocco in Brtonigla, hotels Kazbek and The Pucic Palace in Dubrovnik, hotels Bevanda and Navis in Opatija, Life Palace Heritage Hotel in Sibenik, a castle hotel Martinis Marchi Heritage in Maslinica on the island of Solta and Hotel Bastion in Zadar.
‘’Our goal is performance of all our group members under a common brand, in order to strengthen our performance on foreign markets. Among other things, we particularly target markets such as the USA and Great Britain, which is why we have teamed up with the Croatian Tourist Board and their branch offices on these markets. We have already received the first results of our cooperation. After our promoting activities some new potential partners i.e experts for luxury travel expressed their interest to work with Croatia”, said Antonia Urlic from the Luxury Hotels Group.
‘’So far we have had hotels mainly along the coast, but we would really like to see hotels on the continent in our group. We want to promote luxury offer of the whole Croatia’’, concluded Urlic.
Promotional film 'Dubrovnik and time' wins awards - again
Promotional film of the Dubrovnik Tourist Board 'Dubrovnik and Time' won two new awards on the Zagreb Tourfilm Festival. In category The best Croatian film up to 7 minutes it has won the first place and the third place in international competition of the best film up to 7 minutes too. Romana Vlasic, director of the Dubrovnik Tourist Board collected the awards.
After Berlin, New York, Riga, Sesimbra, Baku, Lubin, Los Angeles, Portugal, Maldivi it was time for Zagreb. That means that 'Dubrovnik and Time' has won the total of 12 awards.
At the festival more than 300 films applied in several categories and 124 were chosen for the competition.. By rewarding Croatian films Zagreb Tourfilm Festival encourages the promotion of Croatian tourism - through tourist films.
Promotional movie Dubrovnik and Time keeps getting prestigious awards at specialized festivals and the next ones to attend are in Portugal and Split.
Music has no borders: Hiwote, Alena and Azusa come to play in Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra
Music is powerful, it connects people and can take you anywhere! That's what literally happened to three talented girls – it took them to Dubrovnik. Hiwote Tadesse, Alena Shapochka and Azusa Yamauchi followed their passion and joined the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra. Hiwote is from Croatia but has Ethiopian heritage, Alena is from Belarus and Azusa is from Japan. They are 23, 25 and 27 years old and play viola and violin. They shared their new experience with The Dubrovnik Times and seemed really excited about this huge change in their lives.
Each of them has a story about how they ended up in Dubrovnik and they all have different backgrounds. Hiwote lived in Zagreb, then Belgium and studied in Netherlands.
- I was looking for an job opportunity and actually I found out about this audition because Dubrovnik Symphony Orcherstra published it online. I decided to try it and was happy when it happened – says Hiwote and adds that she was somewhat surprised that she got into the Orchestra, but also that there was a certain hope, because otherwise she wouldn't even come.
- Friend of my father recommended to me to take this audition – continues Alena, who wasn't so surprised when she got accepted, but it was a big pleasure for her.
Just like Hiwote, Azusa was looking for a job too and found the audition on the Internet. - I was very surprised that I got in the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra – she says with a smile.
Of course, when you move from one country to another there are many differences in lifestyle. - Compared to Belgium and Netherlands people seem much more happy, I think that's because of the sun. The atmosphere is more relaxed – says Hiwote about Croatian lifestyle while Alena thinks that Moscow and Dubrovnik couldn't be more different.
- Everything is different! Tempo of life, working, eating, just everything – explains Alena and adds that Dubrovnik looks a bit like Moscow when it's full of tourists.
Just as expected, Azusa says that a lot of people are really hard working in Tokyo, while here they're more relaxed. She even adds, with a bit of surprise, that she doesn't have to come and go at the exact time around here.
When asked if they've got used to the Dubrovnik custom of drinking coffee for hours all three girls laugh, so we'll guess not yet. But from our experience we can say that it will happen quite soon, especially with all the friendly people. The girls didn't have any problems with people accepting them.
- Personaly I feel like the Orchestra has accepted us like we were here forever. They are so friendly. When we came everybody said hello and introduced themselves – says Hiwote who sort of feels like a local, especially because she knows Croatian.
All of their families are glad that they've decided to come to Dubrovnik – Hiwote's because of her Croatian origin, Azusa's want to visit her as soon as possible and Alena's are really used to being all over the world: her dad is in Brazil, mother in Belarus and sister in Moscow.
When it comes to the future plans, they don't want to rush. They all think that it's too early to say if they want to stay in Dubrovnik for a longer period or not. For now they're just enjoying the experience.
New forces of Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra
The Voice of Dubrovnik
