Shopping fever hit Dubrovnik today as Black Friday attracted thousands of shoppers with huge discounts. The American shopping phenomena of Black Friday became popular in Croatia a few years ago but now most shops have got into the swing of this day of sales and offer healthy discounts. TV commercials have been running for the past few days advertising special offers to mark the day.

Every shop in the main shopping centre in Dubrovnik, SUB City, had their own discounts, from 20 to 70 percent. And the chance to save money brought masses of shoppers to the centre. Just the traffic jams to get into the centre stretched for a few hundred metres and it was a challenge to fins an empty space. “This is one of the busiest days of the years so far, the cars keep coming and coming,” commented one of the centre’s security guards. It seems that Black Friday is also now a Croatian shopping tradition.

SUB City has a busy Black Friday 

According to estimates by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), in December this year Croatian citizens will spend a little more than 12 billion Kunas or half a billion more than in December 2015.

Tomislava Ravlic, the assistant director of the HGK Trade sector, commented that products that are frequently bought during the Christmas and New Year holidays are mostly toys and childrens items as well as footwear, clothing and electronic equipment. She also added that the most intensive shopping period is between the 19th and the 24th of December.

''The figures in the last two years show that there is an increase in purchases paid with credit cards in the last quarter. On the other hand, the European trends show that citizens are increasingly turning to domestic products, and therefore I would like to invite everybody to buy Croatian products”, added Ravlic, inviting consumers to give priority to Croatian products and retailers to offer as many local products as possible.

She explained that with the purchase of Croatian products consumption would be encouraged as it is, with exports and investments, one of the most important factors in launching a new business cycle.

The General Director of Dubrovnik Airport, Roko Tolic, has been named the manager of the year for 2016, in the category of public companies, by the Croatian Association of Managers and Entrepreneurs, CROMA.

Along with Tolic another Dubrovnik director is also on the award list for this prestigious recognition, Mario Raic, the Director of the iconic Dubrovnik restaurant group Nautika Ltd. Raic will pick up the best young manager for 2016.

The award ceremony will be held today in the Zagreb hotel, Westin Hotel, at the 26th annual meeting of the CROMA. This will be the 24th time that the Croatian Association of Managers and Entrepreneurs have honoured the most successful managers and entrepreneurs in the category of large, medium, small, public and foreign companies, as well as the prize for the best project managers.

Congratulations to our two Dubrovnik winners.

The final match of the 2016 Davis Cup World Group between Croatia and Argentina will be played at the Arena Centre in Zagreb from the today until the 27th of November.

The national tennis team of Argentina will be trying to win its first Davis Cup after losing in four finals, whilst Croatia is aiming to win its second Davis Cup trophy after winning one in 2005.

It is interesting to note that the legendary Argentine footballer Diego Maradona arrived in Zagreb on the 24th in order to cheer for his national team in the final of the Davis Cup. Maradona is also known as a tennis fan, he was in Moscow in 2006 when Argentina lost the final match against Russia and in quarterfinals of the Davis Cup in Buenos Aires when Argentina beat Croatia 3-2 in 2002.

“It is nice that he is coming here and that he loves tennis”, said the Argentina’s tennis player Leonardo Mayer after training a few days ago.

This will be the fourth time that the FIFA Player of the 20th century has visited Croatia. Maradona played for Argentina against Croatia in Zagreb in 1994, and also in a charity match on the Croatian coast in Novi Vinodolski in 2005. He also visited Dubrovnik in 2014.

An interesting fact about Maradona is that his grandfather on his mother’s side emigrated from the island of Korcula to Argentina. Diego once said that he named his daughter Dalma after the Croatian region of Dalmatia.

According to the Croatian government PR statement on the 23rd of November the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanjahu contacted the Greek Prime Minister and the Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic asking for an air assistance in fighting forest fires that broke out in northern and central Israel.

The lack of rain and very dry and strong easterly winds spread the fires across the central and northern part of Israel. Dozens of houses were destroyed or damaged but there are no dead or injured. Local meteorologists forecast that the dry and windy weather will continue for several days.

In a statement released by the Netanyahu's office said that Croatian and Greek Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Alexis Tsipras "immediately respond" to his request "and promised to send planes as soon as possible".

At the proposal of Damir Krsticevic, the Croatian Minister of Defence and with the consent of the Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, the government decided to help Israel out by sending two Canadair CL-415 planes which are part of the Croatian Air Forces fleet.

The current Miss Croatia, Angelica Zacchigna, was the centre of attention in Dubrovnik today as she was the star of a photo shoot on the historic streets. The reason for the photo shot was to show off the dress that Angelica will wear on the 26th of November when she appears in the Miss World competition in Washington.

And the Miss World pageant will have a touch of Dubrovnik as the dress she wore today was designed by Džemila Dilberović.

Angelica became Miss Croatia in June this year and now hopes to win the main title in the US this month. Her photo shoot in Dubrovnik today certainly proved an added attraction for the numerous tourists in the city.

Famous Croatian cellists Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser, known by the name 2CELLOS have published a new amazing cover of the song 'The Show Must Go On' by one and only Queen. They have chosen the date carefully, to pay tribute to Freddie Mercury, who has passed away 25 years ago. 

- For the first time we worked on a Queen song. We did it to celebrate one of the greatest artists ever: Freddie we've been missing you for 25 years! – wrote 2CELLOS on their official Facebook page. The video was filmed in Zagreb. 

It's quite touching to listen this cover, especially on this day. What to say then ''Inside my heart is breaking, my make up may be flaking, but my smile still stays on''...

The Christmas decorations in the Old City of Dubrovnik are looking better than ever and tomorrow they will get a new attraction. The advent candles have been installed on the Small Onofrio Fountain at the end of the Stradun and give a special festive feel.

The first candle on the advent decoration will be lit this Sunday and then every Sunday until Christmas.