Whilst Germans love to spend their summer vacations along the Adriatic coast it isn’t all one way traffic. According to the latest data from the German National Tourist Board (GNTB), Croatian tourists are among the top ten fastest growing foreign markets in Germany.

The data showed that Croatian tourists achieved an increase of 14.6 percent in terms of overnight stays in Germany in 2016. Most of them or 42 percent travelled to Germany for a holiday vacation and on average spent 66 Euros a day.

Noting that Croatian citizens-tourists in Germany realize four overnight stays on average, Tijana Djuricic, the representative of the regional Belgrade office of the GNTB for Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia, emphasized that among all these countries Croatian tourists had recorded the largest increase in overnight stays (42,000) in Germany in 2016.

''We are very pleased with the fact that Croatian tourists do not travel to Germany mostly to visit their relatives (27%), but on vacation (42%) and for business reasons (31%). Our data also shows that 51 percent of travellers from Croatia are aged 35-54, followed by younger population aged 15-34. Most of them (61%) travel by car, whilst a significantly lesser percent of them travel by plane, bus and train'', commented Djuricic.

She also added that Croats are the number one in the region in terms of online bookings, and that their favourite destinations are Bavaria, and the regions of Baden-Württemberg and Hesse.

Picture postcard Bavaria 

Golf has arrived in Dubrovnik! No, it isn’t the grand opening of the multi-million dollar golf resort on the top of the Srd Mountain, it’s a much smaller affair. The ACI Marina in Dubrovnik have opened a “Golf Range Concept.” It isn’t so much a golf course more of an opportunity to train and practice your swing and putting. This unique golf training course and mini golf course will be opened at the end of May this year and is the brain child of a company from Zagreb called Sport Concept Ltd.

The basic idea of a gold range concept is building golf training course on artificial tennis courts and will include six practice putting holes, a sand bunker, a chipping green to improve your short game, a driving net for bringing out the woods and a mini golf course with nine different holes. ACI Marina will become the first marina in Croatia to offer this unique attraction to its guests. And is reported that this is a pilot project for ACI Marina and if it proves popular with guests the same courses will be introduced in every ACI Marina in Croatia.

As the golf concept uses artificial grass, grass specifically designed for golf practise courses, it can be open in all weather and will be open all year round. Equipment will also be available to rent at the course so there is no need to lug your golf bags to Dubrovnik. And a golf “animator” will also be on hand to teach new golfers and give information on the course.

''The visit of the Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Davor Ivo Stier to Moscow is very important for the Croatian business community in Russia and will improve the political and economic relations between the two countries'', commented the representative of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) in Russia Jakov Despot in Moscow a few days ago.

According to Despot, the crisis and problems in the political relations between Russia and Europe led to a significant exports decline of Croatian companies to the Russian market. However, things have improved to a certain extent lately.

On this occasion, the head of the Croatian diplomacy emphasized that a new phase in relations between Zagreb and Moscow began after eleven years of stagnation. ''It has been almost eleven years since the last visit of the Croatian Foreign Minister to Moscow. Therefore, what we are doing here today is the opening of a new phase in the dialogue between Croatia and the Russian Federation'', commented Stier at a press conference.

On the other hand, Stier's counterpart Sergey Lavrov commented that this visit took place two days before the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the two countries, and that ‘’the political dialogue is developing dynamically and there is an effort on strengthening the relations between Croatia and Russia’’.

Two countries also expressed their interest in the development of further cooperation especially in the field of economy, thus the two ministers agreed and announced the meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission for Cooperation in Moscow in early autumn.

It is interesting to note that there is some unofficial information about a possible meeting of the Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic with Vladimir Putin ''as soon as conditions allow''.

After three and a half year project the reconstructed Rector’s Palace in Slano was reopened last week. The Association of Friends of Dubrovnik Antiquities invested around 15 million Kuna into the reconstruction project and now this important landmark in Slano is back and shining again.

This is the first of the 11 Rector’s Palaces that the association looks after that has been restored. During the time of the Republic of Dubrovnik the Palace in Slano was the seat for the Rector of Primorje. In 1806 the palace was burnt to the ground. Then again in 1991 the palace suffered a similar fate. Now the palace has been completely restored and is sure to be an attraction for tourists.

Once again the renowned cellist Ana Rucner will welcome in the first day of summer with a spectacular concert overlooking Dubrovnik. As the sun comes up for the first day of summer 2017 Rucner will perform a concert on the Srd Mountain. This is the sixth year that this concert has been held and entrance is free of charge. You will have to get up early as the concert starts, well at the crack of dawn of course, at 5.00am.

Rucner is one of the most innovative classical artists to emerge over the past several decades with numerous national and international awards. Rucner is one of Croatia’s most successful performers whose shows are well received all over the world. And with two concerts, in Zagreb and Osijek, she recently marked 15 years of artistic activity.

On the 21st of June at 5.00am Ana’s cello along with beautiful vocals from guest performers, will be the perfect start to summer in Dubrovnik. And as the date also coincides with World Music Day is seems a fitting way to bring in summer.

The Rail Freight Mediterranean Corridor Conference “Extension to Croatia” was held in the Croatian capital of Zagreb on the 23rd of May 2017.

The theme of the conference was the expansion of the Mediterranean Rail Freight Corridor 6 to Croatia. Based on the EU regulation 913/2010/EU, the Mediterranean Corridor 6 links the Iberian Peninsula with the Hungarian-Ukrainian border and was established on the following route: Almería – Valencia / Algeciras / Madrid – Zaragoza / Barcelona – Marseille – Lyon – Turin – Milan – Verona – Padova / Venice – Trieste / Kopar – Ljubljana – Budapest– Zahony (the Hungarian-Ukrainian border).

However, the EU regulation has been supplemented by a new regulation which will extend the Mediterranean Corridor to the Republic of Croatia on the following routes of Rijeka-Zagreb-(Budapest), and (Ljubljana)-Zagreb.

Croatia became actively involved in the Mediterranean Rail Freight Corridor 6 on the 10th of November 2016 to have more effective cooperation between EU member countries. And now as a member of the rail freight corridor Croatia will have better quality and better delivery of rail freight services.

Gentlemen start your engines! Screeching tyres, mind blowing speeds and the thunder of engines could be heard at the Dubrovnik Airport yesterday but it had nothing to do with aviation. Millions of dollars worth of high end sports cars including Porsche, Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, McLaren sped over the runway of Dubrovnik Airport in an event organised by the Hoefnagels Grand Tour.

StreetGasma, as the day of racing was named, crowned the final day of a multi-day rally all over Europe. Hoefnagels Grand Tour is a unique tour in which participants do not know the route and the destination in advance all the directions are received on the race day. The rally is run once a year, and these premium cars cross over 2,000 miles of different European landscapes within a week. In all destinations drivers enjoy VIP treatment, stay in top hotels and taste original delicacies.

Photos - Tonci Plazibat 

HBO have released a new teaser trailer for the upcoming seventh season of Game of Thrones. This penultimate season of the most popular series of all time was only briefly recorded in Dubrovnik, with three days of filming back in December 2016. Dubrovnik acts as the centre for the whole series as King’s Landing and has featured since season 2. The new seventh season of Game of Thrones is set to be released on the 16th of July this year and then filming will begin for the eighth and final season.

The first season averaged a gross audience of 9.3 million viewers per episode. For its second season, the series had an average gross audience of 11.6 million viewers. The third season was seen by 14.2 million viewers, making Game of Thrones the second-most-viewed HBO series (after The Sopranos). For the fourth season, HBO said that its average gross audience of 18.4 million viewers had passed The Sopranos for the record. By the sixth season the average per-episode gross viewing figure had increased to over 25 million.