The number one tennis player in the world seems to have certainly had a vacation to remember in the south of Croatia. Novak Djokovic, fresh from lifting the cup in the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, took a family cruise around the island of south Croatia.

He spent a lot of his summer break on the small islands doted around Korcula, where he was spotted numerous times. Yesterday Djokovic and his wife arrived in the picturesque town of Cavtat, presumably to catch a flight home after his holidays.

Djokovic (32) is a huge fan of the Adriatic coast and is quoted as saying that the Croatian coast is the most beautiful in the world. “I have visited many countries, but somehow I feel the best, it is the same language and for me the same culture,” commented Djokovic.

Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli on Wednesday said that it was time for tax changes in tourism and recommended a VAT rate of 13% on food and beverage services to be part of the fourth round of the tax reform.

"I've been asking for that from day one," Cappelli told reporters ahead of a government meeting. He informed that he is calling for a VAT rate of 13% on all food and beverage services and added that it was time for that to occur in the fourth round of the tax reform.

Asked whether that would lead to lower prices, Cappelli said that VAT is not the only problem and that the entire tax reform needs to be observed. He said it was time for "tourism to feel an additional step in the fourth round" of the reform and that it was necessary to improve quality and increase wages to make tourism more competitive.

He recalled the recent reduction of VAT on food and accommodation for personnel who work outside their usual place of residence. "I think that it is time for an extra step, either through personal income or VAT, which would create the opportunity to increase wages and for tourism to start breathing in that segment," he said.

Asked to comment on some cases of "rudely high prices," Cappelli said that the state would not intervene in that but that these cases were not good.

"I'm reading about what is going on. Gone are the times when you could make easy money in a month or two. Tourism has become real business," he said.

Asked whether it was time to discourage apartment-style accommodation, he said 70% of apartments had 3 stars and that he would insist on a reclassification and for quality to be improved.

The Dubrovnik – Neretva County will be richer for two new port facilities as the Prefect of the County, Nikola Dobroslavic, presented the projects yesterday.

"We wanted to share with you and the public the fact that we have decided to finance two port infrastructure projects in our county worth 100 million Kuna,” commented Dobroslavic at the press conference yesterday. The first of the projects is the construction of a new passenger terminal in Vela Luka on the island of Korcula.

And the second the reconstruction and of the wave breaker in Korcula harbour. The Prefect of the County also mentioned that a few days ago he announced the plan to finance the reconstruction of the coastline in Donje Celo on the island of Kolocep. In a project worth 24 million Kuna.

Revenue from the traditional humanitarian "second hand" sale organised by the Dubrovnik Foreign Circle, which was held in April this year, will, as always, will be donated to local associations.

The total revenue of this year's sale amounted to an impressive 98,500 Kuna and that total will be divided between three societies: Two Stairs (Dva Skalina), which supports children with developmental difficulties and their families, Sweet Life (Slatki Zivot), helping children with diabetes, and SOS Dubrovnik Cats, a small association that takes care of cats and with their sterilization.

For the association of “Dva Skalina”, the Dubrovnik Foreign Circle are buying equipment for playgrounds tailored to children with special needs. For the society Slatki Zivot, the club of foreigners are financing the transport of members of the society to health/spa centre.

Over the past ten years the Dubrovnik Foreign Circle has donated an impressive 449,300 Kunas to various humanitarian organizations in Dubrovnik, a fact that all members of the club can be extremely proud of.

"We thank all the volunteers who participated in the "second hand sale" action, especially the young people from the Croatian Red Cross, and the management and staff of Hotel Park," commented the Dubrovnik Foreign Circle in a statement.

Cruise Lines International Association and the City of Dubrovnik signed a cooperation agreement yesterday agreeing on a joint innovative to preserve and protect the cultural heritage of Dubrovnik through responsible tourism management and to make Dubrovnik an example of sustainable tourism in the Adriatic and beyond.

The agreement was signed by the President and Director of CLIA, Kelly Craighead, and the Mayor of Dubrovnik, Mato Franković, and focuses on investments, cooperation and best practices in the long-term management of the destination for the benefit of residents and visitors.

“Dubrovnik is above all our home. We want to host visitors and share it in a way that protects and preserves it. We hope that this co-operation agreement will encourage all relevant stakeholders, including other destinations, to make tourism and the community sustainable via joint efforts,” commented Mayor Frankovic.

The Dubrovnik Port Authority has taken a huge step in order to monitor the quality of the environment and the air of the busiest cruise ship ports in Croatia.

Given the ever more frequent topics related to environmental protection, air pollution, the sea, the land and their causes, and just who and indeed what is “guilty” an air quality measuring station has been installed at the Port of Dubrovnik.

As part of the Inter-PASS Intermodal Interconnection between ports and airports, a project approved by the INTERREG ADRION program, an ECO measuring station was acquired for the purpose of monitoring air quality, relative humidity, atmospheric air, air temperature, nitrogen oxide and monoxide concentrations, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, UV index with display results on the screen and atmospheric conditions in the Port of Dubrovnik.

The device was set up at the beginning of 2019 in the Dubrovnik Port Authority, in co-operation with Croatia Telecom d.d., and the results are now visible. The total value of the project was 1.49 million Euro and is under the control of Hrvoje Kulušić, the assistant Director for Operations, Development and Maintenance.

Over the next few days, the data will be visible on the web site of the Dubrovnik Port Authority, which will allow visitors to see the current status indicators and to monitor the quality of air in the port.

“Environmental protection is of the highest value to the Dubrovnik Port Authority and we are working to fully orientate all our efforts in this direction,” stated the Port of Dubrovnik. Adding that “preserving the quality of the environment, with rational use of natural resources, is one of the most pressing problems of further technological or economic development of the country. The main goals can be qualified as prevention of pollution of the seas, coasts and a more secure environment for citizens and visitors.”

The Dubrovnik Port Authority has aligned all its regulations and plans to fall in line with regulations related to ecological standards and norms and is in the step with the world's leading environmental protection measures and principles.

It is open, after a six-year break the fish market in the Old Port of Dubrovnik has finally been reopened. The newly opened fish market, which will breathe some life back into the Old City, was opened by the Mayor of Dubrovnik, Mato Frankovic, yesterday.

"Six years ago, someone turned off the light, closed the door to say goodbye to the fish market. It seemed impossible to reach the suitable technical conditions, and although there is only a small number of fishermen, it is very important for the city to have this market in function because it marks the identity of the city. If we lose all urban elements, then we will lose people,” concluded the Mayor of Dubrovnik.

For centuries the fish market had been an important landmark, both as a source of fresh produce and as a meeting place, for the city and its inhabitants. Six years ago it was closed, mainly due to unsuitable safety conditions, but now after a lot of hard work and effort the fish market is up and running again.

And although the small population of the historic core may not be numerous enough to support such a market there could well be interest from the hundreds of guests renting rooms inside the city walls. Buying fish caught in the Adriatic Sea, literally within minutes of them being caught, and then sold in a historic market could, and probably should, become a tourist attraction as well as a source of fresh seafood for locals.

The Central Bureau of Statistics has published data on the external and internal migration of the Croatian population from 2009 to 2018, as well as data on migrations per counties from 2014 to 2018.

In 2018, 26,029 people moved from abroad to the Republic of Croatia and 39,515 people moved abroad. Therefore, the balance of migration of the Croatian population abroad was negative and amounted to -13,486, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.

Out of the total number of immigrants into the Republic of Croatia, 39.8 percent of the people moved from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and most of the total number of people leaving the country went to Germany, a massive 55 percent.

In 2018, 39,515 people moved abroad. Most of them were between the ages of 20 and 39 and most of them were from the City of Zagreb, followed by the Osijek-Baranja County and the Vukovar-Srijem County.

Source - Croatian Bureau of Statistics