Croatian business turned a net loss into a net profit according to new figures just released showing that in 2018 Croatian businesses earned 28.3 billion Kuna. If you take into that in 2017 Croatian businesses made a net loss of almost 3.1 billion Kuna this is quite an impressive turnaround.

The figures from the state Financial Agency show that there are 131,117 businesses across the country that are in the taxation on profit bracket and in 2018 they earned revenues of 751.2 billion Kuna, with their expenses around 715 billion Kuna. It must be pointed out that the real figure on profits would be higher if banks, insurance companies and financial institutions were also calculated. However, the profit and these three large organisations are separate from the rest of business.

Compared to 2017, the profit earned by businesses rose by 15.2 percent while the loss dropped by 57.4 percent. This all resulted in a net profit of more than 28.2 billion Kuna. In 2017, a net loss of slightly below 3.1 billion Kuna was incurred.

The Croatian company with the highest revenue was the petrol and oil giant INA, in 2018 they reported revenues of 18.4 billion Kuna, which also gave them the largest profit in 2018 at 1.3 billion Kuna.

Croatia Airlines has shown an ecological-friendly face by banning plastic cups on all of its flights. The national airline of Croatia stated that “In line with current trends and legal requirements in the area of environmental protection, Croatia Airlines is discontinuing the use of plastic cups on all flights."

And for the flights between the Croatian capital and Dubrovnik the plastic cups have been replaced by rather snazzy paper cups featuring an image of Dubrovnik as well as the slogan of the Dubrovnik Tourist Board – Dubrovnik, A City for All Seasons.

By switching from plastic cups to paper cups Croatia Airlines will remove some 26 tonnes of plastic waste per year. A great example of green thinking by Croatia Airlines.

Summer will finally arrive in Dubrovnik this week with temperatures expected to stat soaring from Thursday. After the worst May on record, in terms of both rainfall and low temperatures, for decades the start of June looked just as unsettled.

However, weather forecasters have predicted that this Thursday the summer will finally start all over Croatia with temperatures expected to hit a balmy 25 degrees on Thursday and rise to 27 degrees at the weekend. And then after the rain and grey skies have finally broken the whole of the Dubrovnik region will be in for temperatures in the high twenties with endless blue skies and blazing sunshine.

The rest of June looks like being a “normal” Dubrovnik summer with temperatures in the mid-thirties and not a drop of rain in sight.

Croatian Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic began an official visit to Japan by meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, parliament said in a press release on Monday.

The two officials said political relations were very good and friendly, and welcomed the political dialogue established at all levels, notably parliamentary.

As for economic cooperation, they cited several good examples and underlined the joint wish to boost it further.

Jandrokovic and Abe singled out as positive examples of Japanese investment in Croatia the Kali Tuna and Yazaki companies. Jandrokovic invited Japanese investors to follow their example, saying they were welcome in Croatia.

Abe mentioned the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where numerous Croatian athletes are expected, which will be an excellent opportunity to further promote Croatia and its tourism as well as contribute to more Japanese tourists visiting Croatia.

After a full 28 years the first direct flight from the US to Croatia will land this Friday at Dubrovnik Airport. American Airlines will connect Dubrovnik and Philadelphia will nonstop flights three times a week from June until September, and in September the airline will add an extra flight to make it four flights a week.

There is also hope that the airline, if results are as positive as predicted, will decide to extend the flights to an all-year-round service. This move to add an extra flight a week in September was a result of huge interest from passengers looking to visit the pearl of the Adriatic.

American Airlines' Vice President of Philadelphia Hub Operations, Jim Moses, commented to the specialised website EX-YU Aviation that, "Dubrovnik has been a place of interest for several years. It has grown in popularity among US travellers, but remained unserved by US airlines. American Airlines saw an opportunity to fill that gap".

According to statistical information on the behaviour and visits of users of the popular travel advice website TripAdvisor, Croatia is at the top of the list of countries with the highest growth in search and popularity in the first four months of this year.

Namely, the popularity of Croatia has risen by a whopping 27 percent. And the most sought after destination in the whole of Croatia is, Dubrovnik.

In fact, in the category of cities Dubrovnik had an impressive 46 percent growth in popularity, and another Croatian city came in second place in this category, with Split seeing a great rise in interest on the world’s most used travel website.

"These are excellent indicators for Croatian tourism if we know that in April, for example, more than 280 million world travellers sought key tourist information through TripAdvisor," commented the Director of the Croatian Tourist Board, Kristjan Staničić.

In second place after Croatia came Slovenia with a 22 percent growth.

In the category of cities, after Dubrovnik and Split, the biggest growth in popularity was recorded in Salou in Spain with a 39 percent growth, Ayia Napa in Cyprus and Marmaris in Turkey with a 31 percent growth and Ibiza with a 29 percent increase.

The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, will make his first official visit to Croatia this week and a visit to Dubrovnik will be his first destination.

The European Commission President will have an informal working dinner in Dubrovnik on Thursday evening with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. Juncker will then travel to the Croatian capital of Friday where he will meet with President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović.

Juncker comes to Croatia from Ljubljana, where he will attend the Summit of the Three Seas Initiative Thursday. Ten representatives of EU member states will gather at this gathering, including the Croatian President and US Secretary of State for Energy Rick Perry.

The first flight from the largest low-cost airline in the world landed at Dubrovnik Airport today. On a flight from Dublin Airport the Ryanair plane landed today and made history as the first every aircraft from the Irish budget airline to land at Dubrovnik. Not only will these new flights open Dubrovnik to more Irish tourists but will also allow Dubrovnik citizens to visit the Emerald Isle at reasonable prices.

Ryanair will operate four flights a week between Dublin and Dubrovnik until the 25th of October. “We hope that as well as Dublin that Ryanair will expand their destinations from Dubrovnik in the near future,” commented the director of the Dubrovnik Airport, Frano Luetic.

With prices starting from only 30 Euros return this new connection is sure to prove popular and today’s flight was almost full. Ryanair announced that the flights to Dubrovnik will be operated by Boeing 737-800 with a maximum capacity of 189 seats.
“Dubrovnik Airport will be connected with 70 international destinations with direct flights this summer season. The arrival of Ryanair certainly means a lot for Dubrovnik and we hope that apart from Dublin Ryanair will connect Dubrovnik to other European destinations in the future. And also that they will extend the period that they fly to Dubrovnik,” commented the director of the Dubrovnik Tourist Board, Romana Vlasic.