The Mayor of Dubrovnik Andro Vlahusic is on an official visit to the United States where he will meet representatives of the producers of Star Wars, LucasFilm.

The eighth episode of Star Wars is planned to be partly filmed in Dubrovnik this year. And according to an inside source the mayor will meet with senior representatives, quite possibly George Lucas, on his trip to the United States. Lucasfilm are based in San Francisco, California and was founded by George Lucas in 1975. In 2012 Walt Disney purchased Lucasfilm for $4 billion.

During his trip to the United States the mayor of Dubrovnik also participated in the celebrations of the St. Blaise festivities in Los Angeles. The festivities in Los Angeles are traditionally organised by the Libertas Foundation and this year was a double celebration as the foundation also marked their 25th anniversary. The mayor thanked his hosts for their generous hospitality and wished them every success in their future endeavours.

Fresh on the heels that the Russian airline Red Wings has been granted permission to operate daily flights from Moscow to Dubrovnik comes news that another Russian airline is to fly more regularly to the city. S7 Airlines started operations between the Russian capital and Dubrovnik last summer season with once-weekly flights.

According to the Russian airlines recently released flight schedule for this year S7 has increased the number of flights per week to Dubrovnik. From the 2nd of June S7 will fly twice a week to Dubrovnik from Moscow, on Thursdays and Sundays, until the 4th of September. The flights leave Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport at 13.00 and arrive in Dubrovnik at 17.05. Tickets are already available online at start at around 200 Euros for a return ticket.

S7 Airlines has a fleet of 58 aircraft and operates to 87 destinations worldwide. It is also a member of the “Oneworld” airline alliance which includes British Airways, Cathy Pacific and American Airlines.

After a record year in 2015 this year has also started on the right foot for Zagreb Airport. January this year was the best January for Zagreb Airport since it started operations 54 years ago. In total Zagreb Airport handled 156,947 passengers in the first month of this year, an increase of 4.2 percent compared to the same month from 2015. According to information from the specialised website EX-YU Aviation this was the 23rd month in a row that Zagreb Airport has experienced a growth in passenger numbers.

Although the number of flights through Zagreb Airport in January 2016 was slightly down on 2015, by around 2 percent, passenger figures rose. This is an indicator that flights to the Croatian capital had a higher capacity percentage. Also the reintroduction of flights by the LOT from Warsaw assisted in pumping up the numbers.

Construction work on the new Zagreb Airport is well underway and due to be completed by 2017. The construction of the new Zagreb Airport is an investment worth 331 million Euros. The new terminal will spread over 65,000 square metres. Once opened the new Zagreb Airport will attract even more international airlines to the capital.

Visualization of new Zagreb Airport planned to open in 2017

With the lowering of the flag of St. Blaise and a service at noon today in the Church of St. Blaise in the centre of Dubrovnik the 1044th Festivity of St. Blaise officially ended. The closing ceremony traditionally takes place on the first Sunday after the Day of St. Blaise.

However the completion of the religious aspect of the festivities doesn’t mean that the end of the events connected to St. Blasie has ended, indeed 2016 has been declared as the Year of St. Blaise. Throughout the whole year there will be events dedicated to Dubrovnik’s patron saint.

The film world really has fallen in love with Croatia. After Dubrovnik was chosen to be one of the main locations for the Game of Thrones serial, and the news that the eighth episode of Star Wars will be partly filmed in Dubrovnik, comes news that a new film starring Eric Roberts will be filmed in Croatia.

“Someone Dies Tonight,” is an action-thriller that is due to start filming in Croatia next month, and the star is the brother of Julia Roberts, Hollywood actor Eric Roberts. The film production Dream Team Pictures, based in Germany, and Mind Films International, from India, will jointly produce the film.

According to reports the filming will take place in Eastern Croatia, in the Osijek County, and will last till May. The film is due to be released in 2017 and the film also features the cast of Maik van Epple, Jenny Paris, Claudiu Raymond, Roni Lepej, Nina Stern, Angelo Borer, Vjekoslav Jankovic, Vjekoslav Katusin, Igor Mihalj, Alen Borbas and Costas Mandylor.

Finally some good news regarding the Croatian economy, the European Commission have stated that their outlook for Croatia’s growth in 2016 is a rise of 2.1 percent. The EC had previously estimated that Croatia’s growth this year would be 1.4 percent but this week revised that figure to 2.1 percent.

“Growth likely decelerated in the fourth quarter, but all in all, Croatia’s economy is expected to have expanded by 1.8% in 2015. Benefiting from the strong momentum gathered in the second half of 2015, the recovery is forecast to gain ground in 2016,” the EC said in their report.

One of the main reasons for this promising financial forecast for 2016 was domestic demand accompanied by continued investments driven by EU funds, meaning that GDP is expected to grow by 2.1 percent this year.

However the European Commission warned that the high public and private debt in Croatia was holding back the economy. In 2014 the debt to GDP ratio in Croatia was 85.1 percent, that figure rose in 2015 to 86 percent, whilst the forecast for 2016 is for this figure to reach 87.4 percent.

While most of Europe is under snow, ice, floods or freezing clouds Dubrovnik is bathing in warm, winter sunshine. The cold northerly winds that blew last week in Dubrovnik slowly ceased and then out came the sunshine.

Whilst this weekend was full of sunshine and temperatures soaring up to the high teens don’t pack your umbrella away just yet as the forecast for next week is for rain and cooler temperatures.

Check out our photo gallery by Tonci Plazibat from Saturday morning in the Old City.

The day I’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. It took seventeen years to come around, but patience is a virtue, and I have been very virtuous. To be honest I never thought that the day would actually arrive; I was the most surprised person in the country when it did arrive. Yes the day has arrived that Croatia has a Prime Minister who speaks worse Croatian than I do.

Well that’s probably being a little hard on Mr. Tim, let’s say that our levels are on a par, it is just that I have a Dubrovnik accent, or I should say an English/Dubrovnik accent. I wonder if there is space in Tim's Team for another speaker of broken Croatian....over here Mr. Tim.

I don’t know about you but I can understand Tim perfectly when he delivers speeches. The media has been falling over themselves to poke fun at his errors and misuse of words, even the strange accent, but for me he is as clear as a bell. I can even hear the Canadian twang behind the Croatian, I’m loving it. And according to his Wikipedia site Mr. Tim and I have something else in common, “He is the first non-partisan Croatian Prime Minister,” I mean the non-partisan part of that sentence by the way.

How successful can a “non-partisan” be in politics, it will be a tough and rough ride for Mr. Tim because the odds are definitely not in his favour.

I have been scratching my head to try and remember a successful “independent” politician, whilst there are a few the vast majority were voted for in an election, unlike Mr. Tim, and then they mostly never reached any political heights. Although I believe that at certain George Washington was elected as president of the US whilst not being affiliated with any political party. Although you also have to consider that Washington was the first president, and people actually voted for him, so that’s not really helpful in motivating our Croatian/Canadian.

But wait there is another example closer to home. The current President of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga, I believe is also an independent, although she again was voted for and even had some kind of political background. Oh, Mr. Tim I am really trying to make this easier for you, but to no avail.

Maybe it is just a trend to want Canadian leaders; they seem to be En Vogue after Justin Trudeau stormed into power as the new Canadian Prime Minister. Fresh and full of ideas, Trudeau was asked early on why he had chosen a gender-equal, 15 men and 15 women, in his cabinet. His answer stopped the reporter dead in his tracks, “because its 2015.”

Even one of the oldest and most important institutions in England, the Bank of England, has a Canadian on the top position. Does anybody else see a pattern forming here? Since it was established in 1694 the Bank of England has always appointed an Englishman in the role of Governor. But now two years before Mr. Tim got hold of the tiller in Croatia the Bank of England appointed the first foreign Governor, the Canadian Mark Carney. Is this a silent Canadian plot to slowly rule the world? Mark Carney became the first non-Briton to be appointed to the post, but also made a commitment to the Prime Minister to take up British citizenship.

But wait Tim has an economic background and so does the Governor, is this a plot to conquer the world through financial control. The Canadians have already tried to control the world through music. Everything started well when the Quebec born mega star Celine Dion hit the radio waves of the world. But that plan went quickly downhill when the Ontario born Justin Beiber wiggled onto the scene. They even tried to conquer the world through drama. And once again the plan was on course when Donald Sutherland filled our movie screens, the plan started to get shaky when Michael J. Fox was added into the mix and was completely flushed down the toilet when Keanu Reeves sped across our screens. The even tried dominating with sport, which worked fine when they played their own sport of ice-hockey and they had the legendary Wayne Gretzky whacking the puck at 200 Mph and scoring goals for fun. But yet again there was to be a “hole in the dam” his name was Ben Johnson. He also moved at 200 Mph at the 1998 Summer Olympics, but that was thanks to a drug cocktail. He later lost the gold medal and was the shame of Canada.

I am presuming that Mr. Tim can’t sing, doesn’t act and isn’t a drug addict...so he must be part of a financial Canadian army. I am off to learn the words to “O, Canada, Our home and native land.” Just in case!