''For Croatian tourism the British market is strategically important, this year it placed as the 7th among the top ten world markets with which Croatia recorded the highest tourist traffic and there is great potential for further growth'', said Ratomir Ivcic, the director of the Croatian Tourist Board (HTZ) at the World Travel Market (WTM) in London.

The World Travel Market (WTM), one of the world's largest tourist exchange markets began on the 7th of November in London and will last until the 9th of November. It gathered more than 5,000 exhibitors from around 200 world countries, whilst Croatia is led by the HTZ and more than 50 individual exhibitors, companies and tourist boards.

On the first day of the event the Croatia's exhibition place was visited by numerous business partners from the UK as well as from other world markets, who discussed cooperation and operations with Croatian hoteliers, transporters and others. They were all optimistic because great results were recorded this year from the British market.

''The UK market is very important to us because its guests are at the top of the average daily consumption of over 120 Euros, whilst over the last five years the arrival of British tourists has been increasing constantly. In addition, they are among those who accepted and understood the best new brand messages and promotional activities from the Croatian Tourist Board'', explained Ivcic.

In the first ten months of 2016 more than 624,000 British tourists visited Croatia and achieved almost 3.3 million overnight stays or 25 percent more in comparison to 2015. The similar trend of growth is expected in 2017.

Ivcic also emphasized that the British mostly opted for Dubrovnik, but also for the Split region and Istria. As these are mostly air guests, ten more new flights are planned for next year. Thus the tour operator Thomson as part of the TUI Group will introduce two new flights in 2017 from Great Britain to Pula and Dubrovnik, Jet2com announces four new flights to Dubrovnik, Pula and Split, Thomas Cook will operate a new flight to Split, whilst Ryanair and Easyjet also announced new flights for Croatia in 2017. They all expect an increase in tourist arrivals of up to 100 percent in comparison to this year.

Every now and then Dubrovnik pops up as a topic in world media. Recently British Telegraph has published a list of 10 fascinanting things you probably didn't know about Dubrovnik. 

1. It once saved an English king's life
- Richard the Lionheart was caught in a storm in 1192 off Croatian coast and legend says he promised to God that if he survives he'll build a cathedral on the land where he gets off the ship. It was on Lokrum, but apparently, he was convinced to make it in the Old City.
2. It’s best mates with the USA
- Dubrovnik had a key role in the blossoming independence of the United States. The newly-born US did a deal with Ragusa and hides arrived from Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia. It is also said that Dubrovnik was the first state in the world to recognise the United States of America back in 1783.
3. Its thicker-than-thick city walls have never been breached
- The City Walls are truly a wonder of Dubrovnik.
4. It was involved in Europe’s most recent war
- Dubrovnik was really affected by Croatian War of Independence or the Homeland War – 88 civilians and 194 military personnel died and there was a severe damage on the buildings.
5. It’s a regular on the silver screen
- Game of Thrones, Star Wars and now Robin Hood!
6. It’s cut off from the rest of Croatia
- The city of Neum, placed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, cuts Dubrovnik from the rest of Croatia. Republic of Dubrovnik was forced it to sell two patches of land to the Ottomans, and the Bosnian corridor was one of them, all in order to raise a bit of cash and halt the Venetian forces advancing from the north.
7. It’s home to the world’s oldest pharmacy
- Europe's longest operating pharmacy, and one of the oldest in the world, is located inside Dubrovnik's Franciscan Monastery, founded in 1317.
8. It has some famous fans
- Lord Byron called it 'Pearl of Adriatic' and George Bernard Shaw said: ''Those who seek paradise on earth should come to Dubrovnik''.
9. It's always been against slavery
- 600 years ago slavery was banned in The Republic of Dubrovnik and just to compare: the slave trade was not banned in Britain until 1833, and in the US until 1865.
10. It shows its age
- Due to its age and civilised start to life, Dubrovnik lays claim to a number of world firsts (not just the pharmacy). It has one of the earliest medieval sewage systems, installed in 1296, and still used today, as well as one of the first quarantine facilities, established in 1377. Likewise, the orphanage set up in 1432 as part of the Monastery of St Clare was one of the first such institutions in the world – writes the Telegraph.
For more details visit the original article.

The British national air carrier, British Airways, will add another Croatian destination to their schedule for 2017. From the 1st of July British Airways will fly twice a week to Pula from London’s Heathrow Airport.

This will be the fourth destination that British Airways fly to in Croatia, after Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik.

The flights to Pula will be operated throughout the summer season, from the 1st of July until the 30th of September. And Pula Airport has announced that the new route comes after several years of negotiations between the airport and the national airline.

A Croatian song is going to be played on Mars! Among many popular songs of Queen, Ramones, Rolling Stones, Sting etc., a Croatian hit back from the 1980s performed by the legendary singer Miso Kovac has found its place on the music list or to be more precise on the Mars billboard.

Three years ago when the Curiosity rover celebrated its first anniversary of its mission on Mars, the Croatian daily news ''24 sata'' decided to send NASA its music request. Thus they sent lyrics of the 1980s hit ''Poljubi zemlju'' (Kiss the land) translated into English and three years later ''24 sata'' have received a reply from NASA.

''The lyrics are extremely touching and we are sure it sounds beautiful in Croatian. Thank you for sending it, it has made the selection of songs which will be played (on Mars)'', NASA wrote to ''24sata''. The American space agency also added that the song would be played soon on the rover Opportunity which was the only active rover currently on Mars.
“When they play my song on Mars it will be my biggest music success, and the biggest for a Croatian musician ever”, said Miso Kovac after hearing the news.

It’s on, it’s off and now it’s back on again. The Mayor of Dubrovnik, Andro Vlahusic, has announced today that the Dubrovnik Winter Festival 2016 is back on again.

The festival had been cancelled by the Mayor on Saturday after the Ministry of Culture had forbidden the placement of the festive stands along the Stradun as it feared cooking oil from the stands would damage or block the drains.

But today, speaking to Dubrovacki Vjesnik, the Mayor has stated that the festival is on again. He added that the Deputy Minister of Culture, Davor Trupkovic, will visit Dubrovnik next week to discuss the festival and problems that have arisen in the organisation. It is believed that all outstanding issues around the festival will be discussed and that a solution will be found.

On the 28th of October the Ministry of Culture released a decision banning the preparation of food on the Stradun due to fears that the cooking oil used would be poured into the historic sewers of the Old City. They therefore proposed that the food stands be moved to other squares in the city or just outside of the city walls. On learning this decision the Mayor decided that such restrictions would make the Dubrovnik Winter Festival impossible and cancelled the whole festival on Saturday. However the news that the festival would be cancelled caused an uproar in Dubrovnik and with the local elections so close and the massive negative publicity it seems that a deal has been done to solve the issues.

The executive producer of the film "Robin Hood: Origins" E. Bennett Walsh and his associates visited Mayor of Dubrovnik Andro Vlahusic again today. At the meeting, which was also attended by Head of the Department for Mayor Affairs Igor Deranja, they discussed the final details of production of the first film of the planned trilogy that will turn Dubrovnik into a medieval Nottingham.

Producer Walsh presented the final draft to the scenography and introduced him to plan of preparatory work , as well as the filming that will start in the second half of February 2017. The first elements on the stage and scenery will begin to be installed in December of this year, first in the area under the bridge on Ploce. Filming will take place on the part of the main street, the street of St. Dominic, in the area behind the Cathedral and at the foot of the fortress Minceta.

-We've chosen Dubrovnik because a number of previous successfully implemented projects, but if we didn't find it, I'm not sure any other city could represent an adequate alternative - said Walsh.

The budget of the first sequel to "Robin Hood: Origins", which is a sort of "prequel" to the famous story of the mythical hero, is about 90 million dollars, while additional 100 million is pllaned for the marketing and promotion. As already announced, Dubrovnik will be the "heart" of marketing campaign.

After the meeting in the Mayor's Office film crew visited the Dubrovnik bishop Mate Uzinic and presented him the contents of the film, parts of the script and all aspects of the new large production studios Lionsgate.

The film crew in the expanded edition of 60 people arrives in Dubrovnik in two weeks.

One more international success for Croatian technology. BlinkID will be used in the upcoming presidential elections in the US on the 8th of November 2016.

''The techology BlinkID developed by the Zagreb company ''Microblink'' which converts mobile phone into scanners of personal data will be used in the US presidential elections'', confirmed the co-founder of the company Izet Zdralovic. He also added that their techology was already being used in applications for the registration of American voters for the upcoming elections which helped make it easier for voters who wanted to register by phone.

The BlinkID techology will also be applied on the voting day for the identification of voters.

The MicroBlink company uses the most advanced neural networks and deep learning techniques to provide the fastest and the most accurate text recognition using a smartphone camera. In just three seconds using their mobile phone BlinkID enables users to scan and process identification documents such as passports, ID cards and drivers licenses.

''We have signed contracts with a number of private companies and non government organizations in the United States for using this service. It is important to emphasize that the US market is very open for new techologies. Any company or organization can make a similar application for each country and put it on the market'', explained Zdralovic.

Direct flights between Croatia and America are back in focus. Zagreb International airport is considering the introduction of direct connections between the Croatian capital and New York.

According to a statement from the Zagreb Airport “The introduction of a direct line from Zagreb to New York City is the focus of our negotiations. We are talking, but we have not yet reached a final agreement."

In June this year the first direct flight from Belgrade to New York was launched. An Airbus A330 landed at "Nikola Tesla" airport in Belgrade after a nine and a half hour flight from New York's JFK airport.