The Croatian Ministry of Defence reported that on the 30th of October two Croatian Air Force MIG 21 jets intercepted and identified a British passenger plane that entered Croatia's airspace.

The Boeing 767 of the British company Thomson Airways was en route from Manchester to Heraklion on the island of Crete and was intercepted between 11 am and noon because Italian air officials were unable to establish contact with the plane. Acting on an order from the NATO Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) located in Torrejon, Spain, the mission of interception Alpha Scramble took place at an altitude of 12,500 meters, in the airspace above northern Dalmatia.

Radio contact was soon established with the civilian aircraft which continued its journey to Greece, whilst the Croatian jets returned to its base at Zagreb Airport.

The successful implementation of this task demonstrated the rapid transmission of data and commands between operational centres of the NATO member states and rapid response of the Croatian Air Force and Air Defence. Once again it confirmed the ability of the Croatian system for control and protection of the airspace as well as all the benefits of participation in an integrated system of air defence of NATO.

The rumbles of an earthquake were felt in Dubrovnik this morning between 10.30 and 10.40. The epicentre of the earthquake was around 100 kilometres northwest of Dubrovnik in a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nevesinja, which is around 60 kilometres south of Sarajevo.

The epicentre of the earthquake measured 4.3 of the Richter scale. And the quake was felt in Dubrovnik, although there was no material damage.

At the Days of Croatian Tourism event held on the island of Brac last week, a tourist voucher the so called “Cro Card” designed by the consulting company Horwath HTL was presented to the public.

It is predicted that with the introduction of the tourist voucher or the “Cro Card” an amount of about two to four billion Kunas of direct net income will be generated, whilst the tourist sector could directly or indirectly provide almost 21,000 new job openings.
During the year employers would pay a certain amount of money to their employees for the expenses on the domestic tourism and hospitality services in order to reduce dependence of the Croatian tourist industry solely on foreign guests and to encourage stronger consumption of Croats on the domestic field.

''Our analysis predicted three possible scenarios, with a maximum amount of up to 10,000 Kunas which employers would ''pay'' into special cards for their employees. Fifty percent of that amount would be intended for accommodation expenses, 30 percent for hospitality services and the rest for tourist and cultural attractions'', explained Sinisa Topalovic, the director of the Horwath HTL adding that his company calculated that the idea of a tourist voucher should generate between 150 and 600 million Euros of new investments within a period of three to six years.

The Cro Card is also intended to encourage more consumption on the continent thus the coastal Croatia region would be excluded from this application during the peak season.
''Apart for the tourism industry and Croatian workers this project would be worthwhile to employers because through these payments they could achieve tax deductions in the amount of 25 percent up to 100 percent of the amount paid'', concluded Topalovic.

Yet another warm and sunny weekend in Dubrovnik as the Indian Summer in the city continues.

This weekend temperatures were in the low twenties and tourists and locals enjoyed the warm sunshine. The forecast for the next few days is for more sunshine and temperatures around twenty degrees.

Check out the photo gallery of a sunny Sunday by Zeljko Tutnjevic.

Dubrovnik Airport is on course for a record breaking year, with figures just in from the first nine months of 2016 showing excellent results. From the beginning of January until the end of September Dubrovnik Airport handled an amazing 1.743 million passengers.

After the capital Zagreb, which has handled 2.12 million passengers, and Split, through which 2.05 million passengers have travelled, Dubrovnik is the third busiest airport in the country this year.

These figures for the first three quarters of 2016 is a huge 15.6 percent increase over the same period from last year.

The long traffic jams and tailbacks at the border crossing between Dubrovnik and Trebinje could soon be solved. According to a report in the Sarajevo Times the outdated border will be completely overhauled with a new modern border crossing in the pipeline.

It has been announced by the Bosnia and Herzegovinian authorities that the new border crossing will have several lanes and even a lane just for trade. The border crossing at Ivanica is a huge problem during the summer months as, due to its poor organisation, traffic is often backed up for hours.

“There will be several lanes for entrance and exit, with all necessary premises for officials of the Border Police and other inspection services. The border crossing will be entirely compliant with the standards of the European Union,” commented the spokesman of the Indirect Taxation Authority Ratko Kovačević. It is reported that an international tender to carry out the works will be announced this week.

And with the possible solution of the Bosnian border in the planning stage the Croatian border is also expected to get a facelift. It is expected that the Croatian border control will be reconstructed this winter in preparation for the next summer season. With both borders upgraded the hours-long delays should be a thing of the past.

The 2Cellos have been filming their latest video in Dubrovnik. The popular cellist duo Stjepan Hauser and Luka Sulic, aka 2Cellos, filmed on the Lovrijenac Fortress with spectacular views over the island of Lokrum and the Old City of Dubrovnik.

“It's good to be back in Dubrovnik!” wrote the 2Cellos today on their Facebook page. Even though there is no official announcement of a new video the photo of the duo on the terrace of this historic fortress, along with their instruments and costumes, it is believed that the 2Cellos were filming a new video. And as the duo were in the location of one of the most famous Game of Thrones locations it could well be that a Game of Thrones version is in the pipeline.

Game of Thrones looks certain to bypass Dubrovnik in season seven. The HBO series has already started filming in Northern Ireland and Seville in Spain but Dubrovnik is still off the radar for this year. It would seem that Kings Landing is not needed in the penultimate season of Game of Thrones.

There were already rumours earlier in the year that the writers hadn’t included Dubrovnik in season seven as the plot changed from, Winter is Coming, to Winter is Here, and colder, darker locations were required for filming. “Now that winter has arrived on Game of Thrones, executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing,” HBO programming president Casey Bloys says.

In past seasons Dubrovnik welcomed the cast and crew of Game of Thrones in August or September, but as this year comes to an end there is still no sign of HBO. However Dubrovnik was also not rumoured to be a location at all in season six, but the crews did turn up for a few days to shoot some scenes near the Old City. So although for the time being it looks like the city is indeed to “warm” for winter the possibility of HBO turning up still can’t be written off.

In season six the Spanish city of Girona stood in as Kings Landing in the serial, however HBO have confirmed that they will not be returning to Girona at all in season seven. It has also been confirmed that season seven will be seven episodes in length compared to the normal ten episodes. And it would seem from information that most of the locations for season seven are in Spain, Northern Ireland and Iceland.

Filming locations for the Game of Thrones in Dubrovnik - Dubrovnik Tourist Board