On the eve of the opening of the “Mercedes Global Training” event in Dubrovnik representatives of Daimler AG for Croatia met with the mayor of Dubrovnik today.

Dean Torti, the marketing and PR manager for Star Import, the general importer of Daimler AG for Croatia, said the choice of Dubrovnik for this major event was not accidental. “Mercedes Global Training is organized every year and is intended for sales staff and sales coordinators to learn about new models before they are placed on the market,” commented Torti at a press conference held with the mayor of Dubrovnik, Andro Vlahusic.

Mercedes are based at two different locations in Dubrovnik, at the Radisson hotel in Sun Gardens, Dubrovnik and at Valamar Hotels in the Babin Kuk suburb of Dubrovnik. Over the past weeks hundreds of different classes of Mercedes cars have arrived in the city and over the past days more and more German number-plated Mercedes have been driving around the city.

At the press conference today Vlahusic took the opportunity to thank all involved in this project, adding that the city can look forward to an increase in the number of overnight stays as well as the marketing effect of having this top brand car company in the city.

The Dubrovnik Times has been informed from an inside source that on the last day of the Mercedes training a special event will be organised. An “unmanned” Mercedes will drive from the Radisson hotel in Orasac to the Old City of Dubrovnik. This has yet to be confirmed by Mercedes. According to information we have received the car will drive using GPS and a high-end computer system. Of course the road from Orasac to Dubrovnik will have to be closed during this “driver-less” journey, which should take around 30 minutes.

The Dubrovnik-Neretva County tourist board is currently presenting the tourism attractions of the region at one of the most important travel exhibitions in the world. The Destination Holiday and Travel Show in London opened yesterday, the 4th of February, and will continue until the 7th of February. This is the UK's biggest and longest-running travel show and has hundreds of leading and independent tour operators as well as over 70 tourist boards from across the globe.

This is the County tourist board sixth appearance at this travel exhibition and this year they are sharing a stand with the County tourist boards of Split, Sibenik, Zadar and Lika. The Destination Holiday and Travel Show attracted around 37,000 visitors last year and this year there will be over 300 exhibitors from all over the world at the fair in the Olympia Centre.

The British market has long been the most important one for the Dubrovnik region. The most numerous tourists in Dubrovnik last year, in terms of nationality, were from Great Britain. In 2015 around 14 percent of all of the tourists who visited the Dubrovnik-Neretva County were British. Of course the number of flights to and from Dubrovnik and the UK is the main reason for the growth in British tourists. British Airways even operates flights through most of the winter months to Dubrovnik.