“Is this one of the sets for Star Wars...how cool,” shouted a group of Korean tourists today on the Stradun in Dubrovnik. Filming of the eighth episode of Star Wars begins on the 9th of March but already the set on the main street in the Old City is taking shape. Souvenir shops, bakeries and jewellery boutiques along the historic street now have a sci-fi facade. Shoppers were also seen entering the shops and trying to press the fake buttons that have been installed in the fibreglass sets.

Although the production company stated that the set would be under high security today there were only a few security guards present. Whilst the filming is taking place security levels will raise, as one waiter on the Stradun explained to The Dubrovnik Times today, “they have asked us to close the cafe bar at 2 o’clock in the afternoon so that they can film in peace.” In fact the Stradun will be closed during recording dates and pedestrians will be diverted onto a parallel street. The filming of the VIII episode of Star Wars in Dubrovnik begins on the 9th of March and continues until the 16th of March.

Check out our photo gallery from the set today.

It was a day of preparation and pruning for employees of the Dubrovnik parks department today. They had their hands completely full getting things ready for the summer season. With the help of the Dubrovnik fire brigade branches were trimmed on the plane trees on the Pile area in order to eliminate the danger of falling branches, as was the case last summer.

The director of the parks department commented that today’s action was part of the annual overhaul and that the palm trees on Pile would also be treated for red palm weevil, a species of beetle that has been attacking palm trees in the Dubrovnik region.

High up in the trees on Pile 

The travel section of the popular UK daily newspaper “The Daily Mail” featured Dubrovnik on its front page today with the headline, “Adventures waiting to be discovered...”

The Daily Mail is one of the most popular newspapers in the UK with a daily circulation of around 1.7 million copies; it is also one of the oldest being founded in 1896. In fact after The Sun newspaper it is Britain’s second biggest selling newspaper.

The travel section highlighted the destinations that are popular for 2016 and Dubrovnik and Croatia were included. The UK is the top marker for Dubrovnik’s tourism industry with the most numerous guests to the city over the past five years coming from Great Britain.

Zagreb will be connected with direct flights from Seoul this summer season. Korean Air has announced that they will resume operations on the link between the South Korean capital and Zagreb.

Korean Air is the largest airline in South Korea. Korean Air operates flights to a range of European destinations including Prague, Frankfurt, Milan, Rome, Vienna, Paris, Moscow, Madrid and London.

Flights will start on the 20th of May and in total eleven planes from Korean Air will land at Zagreb Airport, from May to October. Around 350,000 Korean tourists visited Croatia in 2015, according to information from the Korean Embassy in Zagreb, and this direct air link will help to make those numbers even larger this year.

If you’ve ever visited a Croatian family home and you're not Croatian yourself you might think people there are plotting to kill you by trying to induce a lethal surge of cholesterol in your system. Especially if the home is populated by a granny or two. They can be pretty relentless in offering homemade food to all those who venture over the threshold.

Traditionally, when it comes to feeding our guests we tend to go a bit overboard as a nation. Our intentions are good, homemade food is usually nothing short of mouth-watering, but you better leave your caloric intake guidelines at home. Recommended serving size? Hah! We laugh in the face of international nutritionists. Yes, you can always choose not to eat what’s put in front of you. If you like causing international scandals, that is.

The lifestyle of Croatian Millennials may be similar to their Western counterparts, which was not the case with past generations, but we are still keen on putting out a decent spread when entertaining guests. My wife and I are no different. Just the other day we were expecting company and were preparing more food than would be humanly possible to eat. She was in charge of most of the preparation so she retreated in the kitchen some two hours before the guests were due to arrive and began churning out dishes as if we were catering a Christmas party for the European Parliament.

Ten minutes before guests arrived we packed the table with food until there was no more room for a toothpick. When our friends finally showed up, my wife did another very Croatian thing when hosting a dinner party:
“Hi! Welcome. We’ve had one hell of a day at work so I just whipped up a little something to eat at the last minute. Gosh, I hope it’ll be enough.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bozidar Jukic is a Dubrovnik local with too many interests to name them all, with writing being at the very top of the list. He is a lover of good food, music and film, and a firm believer in the healing power of laughter. His professional orientation is towards tourism and travel so it comes as no surprise he spends most of his time alongside Mrs. Jukic running their own local tour company. Their goal is helping travellers from all over the world get a more intimate experience of Dubrovnik and what it has to offer. To find out more about their work, visit their website or Facebook page.
www.insiderholidays.eu
www.facebook.com/insiderholidays

The Dubrovnik Police Authority carried out an action yesterday to crack down on drivers using their mobiles phones. The penalty for taking on your mobile phone whilst driving in Croatia is 500 Kunas, unless you are using a hands free device.

In yesterdays police action 132 drivers were stopped for driving offences with a 120 of them due to talking on their mobiles phones.

Zadar is looking to forge ahead in the Croatian tourism market; it is already one of the fastest growing destinations in the country and has just been awarded the prestigious “Best European Destination in 2016,” recognition.

However the city isn’t resting on its laurels, plans have been released of a project to construct five new hotels in Zadar. According to an article published by a local media outlet kalelargainfo.hr the first hotel to be built will be a five-star Hyatt in the centre of the city.

After the Hyatt hotel comes news that a Hilton is planned to be constructed in Zadar as well, as the destination attracts another international brand name. The plans for the city centre don’t stop there as apart from the new hotels there are plans to add other tourist attractions.

The Hyatt Hotel in Zadar should be completed by the summer season of 2018 and will be the first Hyatt hotel in Croatia.

The news in Dubrovnik is being dominated by the upcoming filming of Star Wars Episode VIII and as the set goes up along the main street, the Stradun, the excitement is rising. Already the scenes of Dubrovnik as a location for Star Wars have filled social media and the international press, with even a report on the BBC today.

Check out our photo gallery by Tonci Plazibat