From the 26th to the 29th of January the Croatian Tourist Board (HTZ) participated at the Fespo fair in Zurich and at the ITF Slovakiatour in Bratislava to promote Croatia's tourism.
According to data, around 240,000 Swiss tourists visited Croatia in 2016 and realized over a million overnight stays thus a significant increase was recorded both in arrivals and overnights.

Ranko Vlatkovic, the head of the HTZ office for Switzerland and Austria, said that Swiss tourists accounted for 1.22 percent of all visitors to Croatia. ''The Swiss market has great potential thus we will make efforts in attracting even more Swiss tourists''.

During the FESPO fair in Zurich the representatives of the HTZ met with numerous partners and tour operators such as TUI, Novasol and Croaticum which have already confirmed a great interest in Croatian destinations on the Swiss market.

On the other hand, according to data from the eVisitor and eCrew systems, around 410,000 Slovaks visited Croatia last year and realized 2.8 million overnight stays.
Nora Henterova, the head of the HTZ office in Slovakia, emphasized that the ITF Slovakiatour in Bratislava provided a unique opportunity to meet with representatives of tourist agencies from all over Slovakia as well as with a number of journalists of the most important Slovak media. She also added that Croatia's tourist offer was one of the most wanted among Slovak tourists.

This Sunday was perfect for all those that are repulsed by the crowds in Dubrovnik. Peace, calm and a rather small amount of people marked the last Sunday of January.

Sunny weather was perfect for a walk, especially in the Old City and by the sea. Rare tourists had a feeling like they have whole Dubrovnik for themselves and couldn't stop taking selfies. A perfect, peaceful Sunday. Don't miss our photo gallery.

Famous Dubrovnik painter Josip Pino Trostmann opened his exhibition dedicated to Saint Blaise today in the Art Gallery Talir. The exhibition features thirty oil paintings with the motif of Dubrovnik's patron saint, whose day will be celebrated soon.

Trostmann was born in Dubrovnik and already as a ten year old boy attended evening school of Ivo Dulcic portratis. He graduated on the Zagreb Academy of Visual Arts in 1963 and joined Visual Artists Association (HDLU) and was engaded in pedagogic work from 1968 to his retirement. He had a lot of exhibitions and is the winner of several pristigious awards and recognitions.

He dedicated his latest work to Saint Blaise and if you want to know more about Dubrovnik patron click here. Saint Blaise is celebrated on February 3rd but the Festivity already started – here is the full program.

With one of the most important days in Dubrovnik's calendar just around the corner it is essential to understand more about the patron saint of the city. The 3rd of February is the Day of St. Blaise, the day that Dubrovnik gives thanks to the saint who saved their city.

According to legend Venetian ships anchored before the city walls on the eve of the 3rd of February 971, in the middle of winter. The Venetians gained free access to medieval Dubrovnik under the pretence of stocking up on food and water for their journey eastwards. However, their spies carefully noted the number of guards on the city walls, as well as the amount of ammunition in the arsenal.

In the middle of the winter night, when the streets lay deserted, Priest Stojko, the parish priest, went from the city square towards Pustijerna and the Church of St. Steven. He found the church open, and inside, the troops of a heavenly army led by a grizzled old man. He addressed the priest with a request that he inform the city fathers of how the Venetians planned to attack Dubrovnik. The old man had repelled them from the city walls with his own army for a number of nights already. He was garbed as a bishop, with a mitre on his head, and a staff in his hand. When Stojko asked him to identify himself, he answered that his name was Vlaho, or in English Blaise.

So it was that on a winter’s night, that Dubrovnik met its patron, St. Blaise. The next day, his messenger did in truth confront the city fathers with the message. The Venetians knew that they had been discovered when they noted the hasty activity on the city walls and the closed city gates, and so moved on. Already in the following year, in 972, Dubrovnik began to celebrate a day in honour of the patron saint. His first church was built near the city gates. A century of prosperity and freedom would pass.

It was only in 1026 that the first remains of St. Blaise, the martyr and bishop of Sebaste, were transferred to Dubrovnik. The citizens of Dubrovnik marked the 3rd of February as their greatest holiday in memory of the night’s events.

Many locals and visitors decided to spend their Friday night in museums and join special manifestation Night of Museums that's been held last night all over Croatia. 

Croatian Museum Association is organizing the event Night of Museums in Croatia since 2005. A special program is organized every year on the last Friday of the month of January from 6 pm to 1 am, with free entrance to museums, galleries and other cultural institutions.

Dubrovnik offered a rich program that was enjoyed by many visitors. Take a tour through museums with wonderful photo gallery made by Zeljko Tutnjevic.

Night of Museums was a great hit last night in Dubrovnik! Rich program attracted many visitors, but there was one special event that caught our eye – Rock parade in the Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik. It was held as a part of the program of Festivity of Saint Blaise. Somehow, Museum and rock music made a perfect match.

Bands from Dubrovnik had to chance to present their songs and the whole event was a great pleasure to the visitors as they could listen to the music, dance and also see the exhibition. Just a reminder – the work of Francis Bacon is presented in the Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik and it's the first time that the work of this famous artist is presented in Croatia.

Rockers that performed are: DaRiva, Valetudo, Ad Libidum, Embassy 516, Didak Lazzarin, Material Damage, Mystica, Banditen, Strasse, Lapadske Tratincice, Mihael Staka and Vjetrovi s Dinare.

The promotional film of the Dubrovnik Tourist Board "Dubrovnik & Time" which was shown to the public in early March last year, has won an impressive number of prestigious awards in less than a year! Today in Vienna it was voted as one of the top ten films in the world - "Nominee for the Grand Prix for the best tourism film worldwide" and was awarded with recognition ‘’Festival of Festivals“-GRAND PRIX CIFFT 2016 by Julius-Raab-Hall- Austrian Economic Chamber.

Turkey: Home of turquoise was declared as a best movie at this manifestation. A small reminder – promo film of Dubrovnik Tourist Board won 15 prestigious film awards on the festivals all over the world since it was published – at Los Angeles, Maldives, Riga, Berlin, Azerbaijan, Portugal, Split, Zagreb...

Each running of the film attracts attention and brings delight to the viewers. This last prize, that placed Dubrovnik & Time iamon the then best films in the world represents recognition of Croatian tourism film and it's a great promotion of our country as a tourist destination.

New investments in the tourism sector in Croatia this year are on the horizon.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, tourist companies have announced investments worth more than 500 million Euros, which is 135 million more in comparison to the previous year. On the other hand, counties, cities and municipalities will receive around 300 million Euros, thus the total investments in the Croatian tourist sector will grow to almost 800 million Euros in 2017.

In order to respond to market challenges and demands for luxury, Croatia's offer this year will be enriched with 50 new or completely reconstructed hotels of the highest category. It is interesting to note that the average occupancy of high-class hotels is 20 percent more than of lower class hotels and facilities.

The new wave of investments along the coastline as well as on the continent this year will also bring newly landscaped walking trails, beaches, bike paths and many other tourist amenities in order to enrich the tourist offer of Croatia.

The Croatian Ministry of Tourism emphasized that a continuous increase of investments in the country only indicated that Croatia was an attractive tourist destination and a hot spot for large investments.

''We can be quite satisfied with the pace of investment in the tourism sector, whilst attending to issues of a tourist building land we will enable a new investment impulse in camps and additional attractions and facilities, commented Gari Cappelli, the Minister of Tourism.