The Dubrovnik MEP and former mayor, Dubravka Šuica, participated last night at the humanitarian fashion show "Created with Hearts", where the new official uniforms of the Croatian National Tourist Board were presented at the Mimara Museum.

The main motive of Šuičin's outfit was the iconic Dubrovnik landmark the church of St. Blaise. The collection was created by the popular fashion duo ELFS, and Šuica walked down the catwalk as one of the guest models, women from different areas of public life. All Elf models carry the stylized motifs of Croatian tourist destinations.

The revenue from the fashion show will be paid to associations "Dar" from Osijek for children with autism and the Croatian Association for Early Childhood Intervention - HURID from Zagreb.

The Greek national airline, Aegean Airlines, will connect Croatia with Germany during the winter season. The airline has announced that they will operate scheduled charter flights between Leipzig and Split from November to December.

Once a week these two destinations will be connected on behalf of the travel operator Reiseservice Deutschland and the flights to Split will start on the 3rd of November and last until the 15th of December. Aegean Airlines will also connect Leipzig and Dubrovnik from the 12th of February 2019 to the 26th of March with an Airbus A320.

Not only are the prices in the Croatian real estate market rising but also the monthly rent of an apartment is on the way up. The specialised website Crozilla.com has released data showing that rental prices in the capital Zagreb meaning that an apartment that cost 350 Euros last year is now on the market for 400 Euros.

Not only is the price rising but also the demand, in fact in September alone demand for apartments ranging from 20 to 40 metres squared was up 14 percent on last year.

For apartments of between 40 and 60 square meters, the advertised values, compared to the previous year, increased by 19.4 percent on average in Zagreb. In fact, these smaller, so called commercial apartments, saw the largest price increase but also larger apartments rose. The average price of a 100 metre squared apartment rose by 8 percent.

And whilst the rental scene in Dubrovnik and Zagreb is fundamentally different the rental prices in Dubrovnik have also risen. However, the main problem for tenants in Dubrovnik is actually finding a landlord that will rent on an annual basis. The vast majority of apartments in Dubrovnik are rented through the summer season to tourists and then a portion of these are then rented to students through the winter period.

2018 will be a year to forget for Croatia’s national airline, Croatia Airlines. Disputes with the staff, two planned strikes that were called off at the last minute and a failure to find a strategic partner and now comes news that the national airline has made a loss in the first three quarters of this year.

In the first three quarters of this year Croatia Airlines posted a net loss of 34.4 million Kuna (€4.6 million). Even though the airline made a profit in the second quarter of 4.9 million Kuna, and in the third quarter of 45.2 million Kuna, it wasn’t enough to cover the heavy losses incurred in the first quarter of 84.5 million Kuna.

The two announced strikes evidently led to a drop in earnings as passengers moved their flights to other airlines and this combined with an increase in fuel prices have meant that 2018 is on course to be a negative year for the flag ship airline.

In order to encourage tourist visits during the winter, for the fourth year in a row the Dubrovnik Tourist Board is organising ˝Winter Saturday Mornings in the City˝ for tourists who are staying in Dubrovnik.

Every Saturday, beginning today until 30 March 2019, a free tour of the Old City with an English speaking guide will be organised for the guests of the city beginning at 10 am in front of the Tourist Information Centre (TIC) Pile, located at Brsalje 5.

The offer is meant for individual visitors and does not apply to groups. Following the tour of the city with a professional guide, the Dubrovnik Tourist Board is also sponsoring a free performance for all visitors by the folklore ensemble FA Linđo beginning at 11:30 am in front of the Church of St. Blaise (in case of rain the performance will not be held). This free program will be a great addition to the various entertainment programs offered during the winter months.

Croatian football fans might not have far to travel to see their national team in action in the 2030 World Cup. A joint bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup has been put forward by Serbia, Romania, Greece and Bulgaria.

The Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, told the media on Friday that these four countries had come together to propose to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup.

Speaking to the media after a quadrilateral meeting in the Bulgarian city of Varna on Friday, Vucic said that the idea came from Greek Prime Mister Alexis Tsipras, and was agreed with the Prime Ministers of Bulgaria and Romania, Boyko Borisov and Viorica Dancila. The four countries also plan to bid for the 2028 European Championship, Vucic added.

Officially filed bids to host the 2030 World Cup so far include a joint Uruguay-Argentina-Paraguay bid, and another one by Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.

Croatia had their best ever World Cup showing this year in Russia where they reached the finals in Moscow and finished second to the winners France.

The swimming season in the wider Dubrovnik region is still open as these happy swimmers in Cavtat proved this morning as this photo sent by a reader of the Dubrovnik Times shows.

The predicted warmer weather for the south of Croatia this weekend didn’t really come true but with air temperatures around 25 degrees and sea temperatures measured at 20.5 this morning it was a good opportunity to hit the beaches.

Even though we have moved into the first weekend of November and there are only 52 days left until Christmas the Adriatic is still warm enough to enjoy. It looks like this year Dubrovnik will move straight from summer to winter and bypass autumn.

Drama this early morning in the sea near Korčula when the tourist boat “Etna” caught fire. The County Emergency Centre received an urgent call at 4:27am regarding a fire on the Etna tourist boat, which was located near Račišće on the island of Korčula.

The members of fire brigade from Korčula, the Harbour Master's Office in Korčula and the Maritime Police were immediately sent to the intervention.

The boat was completely engulfed by the fire at 5.20 am burned and sank. There is no danger of sea pollution because the oil tank was taken off the ship and taken to the coast. There were no injured persons in the accident.