It is sad but true, but according to data from the European Union Statistics office (Eurostat) 8,7 percent of Croatians aged 16 and older cannot afford to go out with their friends or family for a drink or a meal at least once a month. On the other hand, 9,3 percent of Croatians do not have enough money to participate in leisure activities on a regular basis.

In comparison, in 2014 around 13 percent of the EU population aged 16 and older reported that they couldn't afford to go out with their family or friends for a drink or a meal at least once month, whilst 17,8 percent didn't have enough money to regularly participate in leisure activities.

In Croatia, slightly more than 4 percent of young people aged 16 to 24 cannot afford a drink or a meal out, whilst 6,5 percent of them cannot afford to participate in leisure activities on regular basis.

As far as working Croats (aged 25 to 64) are concerned, almost 9 percent of them cannot afford a drink or a meal out with their family or friends, whilst 10,5 percent cannot afford regular leisure activities.

As far as some other EU member countries are concerned, surprisingly in Germany 14,3 percent of its population cannot afford a drink or a meal out (8,5% of young people, 15,8% of working age people and 12,9% of the elderly), whilst 12,5 percent are not able to regularly participate in a leisure activity (7,6 % of young people, 14,2% of working age people and 10,2% of the elderly population).

On the other hand, in Sweden the share was below one percent in all age groups. Less than 5 percent of the population feel unable to go out with friends/family for a drink/meal at least once a month also in Finland (1,5%), Denmark (3,2%), the Netherlands (3,3%), the Czech Republic (3,4%) and Luxembourg (4,1%).

The world famous chefs have been visiting Croatia for years and spreading the word about the quality of Croatia's gastronomy. But after the American chef and travel writer Anthony Bourdain visited Croatia in 2012 and from the Croatian coast said to the world ''If you have never been here, you're an idiot'', Croatia was launched among stars on the global scale of gastro tourism.

During his visit, Bourdain made another sequel of his popular TV show ''Anthony Bourdain: No reservations'' in which he recounted his food and wine experience along the Croatian coast. He was absolutely delighted and left speechless with the food in Croatia, whilst he heaped praises on Croatia's fine wines.

The world famous chef who visited Croatia this October was Buddy Valastro aka Cake Boss. He said that he had expected nice people, good food and a warm welcome in Croatia, but his expectations were far exceeded. This was Buddy's first visit to Croatia and Zagreb which he liked a lot. ''Whenever I'm in Europe, it feels like home. This was a very short visit, but I definitely must come back with my family to visit the beaches and the Croatian coast everybody talks about so much'', concluded Buddy.

Cake Boss

Last year Croatia was visited by Donal Skehan, a young Irish chef and the Food Network star. On this occasion he was in Istria filming the material for the second season of his travelogue TV show ''Follow Donal''. This was his second visit to Croatia, the first time he visited the country was in his childhood when he sailed along the Dalmatian coast. Istria was chosen because he had heard a lot of its rich gastronomic scene, but once he was in Istria he couldn't hide the surprise with the abundance of groceries, food, fine wines and olive oil. He was most delighted by the search for truffles for which Istria is very famous.

Two years ago the beauty of the Croatian gastronomy was discovered by the famous Dutch chef Rudolph van Veen who participated in the gastro event ''Impress Rudolph'' by cooking live with the finalists of the event. Although he had visited countries in the region, he was especially surprised by the cooking time of Croatian dishes because the average time that people spend on cooking a meal in the Netherlands is seven minutes. FOX TV Croatia with the support of the Royal Netherlands Embassy organized Rudolph's visit to Zagreb and his participation in the gastronomic event.

Andrew Zimmern, the renowned chef famous for his TV show ''Bizarre Foods'' also discovered the local gastronomy and bizarre dishes on Croatian menus. Last year he was in Croatia filming an episode for his new season series broadcasted on the Travel Channel. Shortly after his stay in Croatia he gave an interview to Fox News and described Croatia as one of the best destinations, the country in which ''one can pull out fresh seafood and eat it immediately'' due to the exceptional clearness of the sea which is not the case in other Mediterranean countries.

Andrew Zimmern

Stand up comedian, musician and filmmaker Kenny Sebastian has recently published a video on Youtube called ''That time I went to Croatia'', featuring Sarah Jane Dias, Varun Thakur and Abish who sadly didn't make it to Croatia. Video is funny, relaxed and full of beautiful scenes from Croatia.

First they visited Zagreb and the famous Museum of Broken Relationships and then they came to Dubrovnik. They had fun on Lokrum but their favorite part was Game of Thrones City tour, which was led by Dubrovnik tourist guide Iva Nikolic, who is also part of the video. 

- They were really great and funny. The video doesn't really show how much fun we had, that is one of my favorite tours this year. Great number of Indians in the tours that I led after heard about them, so this is truly a great promotion for our City – Iva commented.
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Festive atmosphere in Dubrovnik has started weeks ago and now, just 20 days before Christmas, snow has covered all the festive stands placed on Stradun! Ok, we admit, it's fake snow but it brings that winter touch – it's hard to get the Christmas feeling since it's so sunny and quite warm. Take a look how the stands were decorated in photo gallery and video made by Dubrovnik Winter Festival. We are sure they have many more surprises hidden in their sleeve!

The first weekend in December was marked with bright sunshine, not really a Christmas feel, but at least the Old City has its festive face on.

The Dubrovnik Winter Festival has certainly helped attract more citizens to the historic core this winter, every day the festive stands throughout the city are busy.

Check out our photo gallery from this weekend

Father Christmas visited Dubrovnik early this year and handed out “sweet presents” to the awaiting children. And he arrived in the Old City in style not in a sleigh being pulled by Rudolph and the rest of the reindeers but in a shining red old-timer.

With a bellowing “Ho-Ho-Ho,” children quickly gathered around the festive visitor and were soon treated to handfuls of sweets and chocolates. Presumably Santa won’t forget Dubrovnik when he delivers more presents on the 25th of December.

Check out our Father Christmas in Dubrovnik photo gallery

As you drive along the coastline of the Dubrovnik – Nertva County you are greeted with a sign post from the local tourist board and a photo attracting you to spend time in the area. Now from village of Orasac, to the north of Dubrovnik, are hoping that the aerial photo on their sign will attract even more attention.

“We had realised that the old sign was in need of changing and were looking around for alternatives,” commented a representative of the district of Orasac. “We knew that Craig Derrick from the photo studio Adriatic Images had once lived in the village and we asked me for help. He kindly agreed to help and provided a few images of which we selected one fantastic aerial photo of the whole village,” he added. Concluding that Derrick had donated the aerial image free of charge and that he believed the photo would catch the imagination of passing tourists.

“I was only too happy to help the village and only hope that my image will help attract even more tourists to this special destination,” commented Derrick to The Dubrovnik Times. Maybe more tourist boards and destinations will now follow suit and upgrade their photos to aerial views.

New aerial view for Orasac 

The largest ferry company in Croatia has had a record breaking year. For the first time ever “Jadrolinija” has transported over 11 million passengers on its various routes. The landmark was reached on the 2nd of December when Elizabeta Skunca arrived in Rijeka on a Jadrolinija ferry from the island of Pag.

According to information from the ferry company, which is still a public company, 11 million passengers and 2.7 million vehicles have been transported this year.

The vast majority, unsurprisingly, of passengers were transported through the summer months in the main tourist season in Croatia. In fact around half of the 11 million boarded a ferry in the months of July and August.

“This is a prelude to 2017, which will be a big year for Jadrolinija as it celebrates its 70th anniversary, and it also marks 145 years of continued passenger travel on the Adriatic Sea,” commented the CEO of Jadrolinija Alan Klanac.

Photo Zvonimir Barisin / CROPIX