According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (DSZ) in the first nine months of this year sea ports in Croatia achieved growth of 6 to 9 percent in comparison to the same period last year.

The Croatian sea ports recorded 271,500 ships' arrivals and 27 million passengers, whilst with 13,3 million tonnes of goods they were in red i.e. recorded a minus of 9 percent.
Similar trends in the sea ports in Croatia continued in this year's September with 11 percent more ships than in the same month last year or 39,000 ships, whilst an increase of 14 percent was achieved with a little more than 3.7 million passengers. However, turnover of goods in September in the sea ports was 1,1 million tonnes of goods which was a 35 percent drop compared to the same month last year.

The DSZ data on turnover in selected sea ports show that this September only the port of Split recorded an increase in freight traffic of 3.6 percent or 169,400 tonnes of goods. The other four ports - Omisalj, Bakar, Ploce and Rijeka - had a drop in traffic of goods in comparison to last year's September, ranging from about 12 percent in the port of Rijeka to about 56 percent in the port of Omisalj.

As far as passenger traffic is concerned, the port of Split recorded the highest number of passengers in September - 556,800 or 9.3 percent more in comparison to previous September. Split is followed by the port of Dubrovnik with 421,500 passengers or an increase by 32 percent and the port of Pula (with the port of Brijuni and Fazana) with 128,100 passengers or an increase of 68 percent.

International passenger traffic in most seaports declined in comparison to last year's September.

Dubrovnik is a magnet for bloggers and travel writers. Year after year the volume of interest has been turned up to near maximum. This week The Dubrovnik Times caught up with April Martin who writes an intriguing blog entitled “April Everyday.” She recently spent time in Dubrovnik and wrote a handful of articles about her adventures. From the island of Lokrum to the iconic Old City Walls, April pretty much let her feet do the walking and her keyboard do the talking.

First impressions count, what flashed through your mind as you entered the Old City of Dubrovnik for the first time?

I was just in awe of the city. I'd done a little research before we left, but seeing it for myself in real life was amazing. Walking through Pile Gate for the first time and seeing the old buildings, hearing the sounds and even how well restored it was. I couldn't wait to start exploring all of the little streets and alleyways leading around the city.

You mentioned that you had done some research on the city before you arrived, had this prepared you for being “up close and personal” with the historic city?
I'd wanted to visit Dubrovnik for a while and after seeing so many things online about it decided that we just had to go this year. I'd done a little bit of research before we left on things to do and places to eat and my parents had visited a few years ago while on a cruise and absolutely loved it so I'd heard so many great things about it before we left. It was so much more amazing than I had imagined it to be! The food was incredible and there was just so much to see and do around the area and I just couldn't get over the colour of the sea! I just wanted to dive right in. I definitely wasn't prepared for the hills though!

As a world traveller how would you compare Dubrovnik with other European destinations that you have visited?
I feel like Dubrovnik was so full of history in comparison to some of the other places that we've visited throughout Europe. Knowing that the walls were initially built around the 13th century was amazing and reading about the history of the city and how it's survived and been rebuilt after so many wars and natural disasters is just incredible. I also loved that although it was a city, it had a very small town feel to it and everything was within walking distance around the Old City which was great!

If you could only take three items in your rucksack what would they be?
I definitely couldn't go anywhere without my camera. I love to take photos of pretty much everything and I always enjoy looking back through my blog at trips that we've been on and remembering all the little details too. I'd be so lost without it! I'd also be sure to take a really good pair of shoes! I always want to see the most of the place that I'm visiting and I've had so many situations with sore shoes to know now to always carry a good pair of shoes. I'll always carry a second pair in my day bag while walking around too, just in case! And of course, a phone with internet. I can't go anywhere without checking Google Maps when I'm out exploring somewhere new or finding little secret places to explore. It's always so handy. And I absolutely love Instagram too, so I always have to update that while we're out exploring too!

Which part of your trip to Dubrovnik will you remember with a smile of your face?
I think watching the sunset over Dubrovnik from Mount Srd was just amazing. We sat up there for a few hours just watching the city, the tourists and the boats out on the water and it was just so peaceful up there. It was definitely one of our favourite moments from the trip.

What will be your lasting memories of Dubrovnik?
Walking along the Old City Walls was incredible and seeing the contrast of the orange roofs against the bright blue sea of the Adriatic with the mountains in the distance was one of my favourite views. Watching the sunset over Dubrovnik at Mount Srd was stunning too, and even on our last day even though everything was closed because of a storm, we loved sitting at the Old Port with all the stray cats watching the waves crashing along the pier for a good few hours. It was such an incredible city and we absolutely loved our time there! I can't wait to explore more of Croatia!

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Keep in touch with the adventures of April Martin 

Blog: http://www.aprileveryday.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/aprileveryday
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/aprileveryday

Dubrovnik will have a new flight connection from the UK for 2017. The British airline, Thomson Airways, have announced that they will operate a weekly flight from Doncaster/Sheffield Airport to Dubrovnik from the 4th of May.

The flights will operate every Thursday to Dubrovnik until the 10th of August 2017. Prices start at around £250 for a return ticket and are already available to purchase online at the airline’s website and the flight time is around 3 hours.

Record amounts of coffee, beer and wine were consumed in Croatia this year – it was one of the conclusions of the second HoReCa conference, which was held in Opatija this weekend – reports Poslovni.hr.

During the conference, which brought together the leading Croatian distributors and manufacturers of beverages, trends were analyzed, as well as the state of the HORECA channel, accompanied by the discussion of expectations for the next year.

All conference participants agreed that the year 2016 was marked by a very successful tourist season which resulted in record consumption in almost all types of drinks, while the brewers pointed out that thanks to the maintenance of the European football championship this year was a record for the beer industry too. With the traditionally high consumption of beer, Croats are increasingly becoming a wine nation, and one of the traditional features of Croatian identity - relaxed drinking coffee becomes contagious even among tourists.

After record-breaking results at the peek of the tourist season and the achievement of three million arrivals for the first time in history, Dubrovnik as a leading Croatian tourist brand continues to record excellent tourist traffic – even in November. This month our city hit a record of 1,704 arrivals, six times more than in 2015 and 3347 overnight stays, which is four times more than last year. Last weekend majority of guests were from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, USA, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and the United Kingdom – who all enjoyed the festive decoration of Dubrovnik and lovely atmosphere of Dubrovnik Winter Festival.

- Dubrovnik Winter Festival was initiated and became a recognizable brand of Dubrovnik in the winter, with excellent results of the arrivals from the region but also guests from distant markets. We are proud that in addition to millions of summer photos by which Dubrovnik has been recognized in the world, now there is one winter, magic, vivid Dubrovnik – said Vlaho Margaretic, Head of the Department for entrepreneurship, tourism and sea.

It's easy to see that Dubrovnik is getting different during the winter. Dubrovnik Winter Festival has made one of the most beautiful towns in the world attractive to tourists even when you can't swim or sunbathe. Because Dubrovnik is much more than just sea and the sun – Dubrovnik is beautiful at any season.

Be careful when driving on the roads of the Dubrovnik – Neretva County. Figures just in from the police show that just last week there were an incredible seventeen road traffic accidents, in other words over two a day. Ten of the accidents were material damage and the other seven unfortunately included injured drivers.

A police action last week saw 410 drivers fined. From this number 189 were speeding offences, 58 for illegal parking, 43 for drivers not wearing a seat belt and 7 for drinking and driving.

In the past sixteen years the wealth of Croatian citizens has increased by almost 160 percent, according to data from the Credit Suisse Bank.

The bank's Global Wealth Report states that the average assets of the adult Croatian population is $22,303, whilst in 2000 this amount was $8,623. The total wealth of citizens of Croatia is estimated at almost $80 billion.

As far as countries in the region are concerned, the richest are Slovenians with an average wealth of $57,376 or an increase of 70.94 percent from the beginning of this century. Bosnia and Herzegovina has also recorded an increase of 190 percent in comparison to 2000. The average wealth in this country is $11,384.

On the other hand, Montenegro has recorded strong growth in wealth of 453 percent or $18,778 per capita. The average wealth in Serbia is $6,906, whilst in Macedonia it is $9,646.

One of European countries with the largest growth of almost 310 percent in wealth is the Czech Republic. This once poor country now it has wealth of $48,357 per capita.

The 2016 Dubrovnik Winter is in full swing, with more guests and more festive stands than ever before, the whole city looks like a set from a Christmas fairy tale. And whilst there are more international flights landing at Dubrovnik this winter, in total fourteen connections, there is obviously still work to be done in order to increase the number of foreign tourists who can get to experience a different face of the city. A reader of the Dubrovnik Times, Eileen Nelson from the UK, has been in touch with us regarding the difficulties of flying to the city through these winter months.

Nelson first came to Dubrovnik in 2009 and, as she says “fell in love with the city,” and since then has been numerous times with her husband to Dubrovnik. After seeing the photos and articles of Dubrovnik, and its ever growing Winter Festival, she expressed a desire to see the city out of the main summer season. That’s when the problems began.

“I have had difficulty finding flights in December, NONE at all from Manchester and I have not found any from London where we can return home before Christmas Day,” commented Nelson. Adding that she has been in May and October in the past but would love to visit more out of the summer season. In fact she has already booked three week for June next year, but after seeing the images of the Christmas decorations had tried to visit through the winter. “We would love to see the city in winter when there are (probably) less crowds but mainly to see the city decorated for Christmas,” concluded Nelson.

Even though the flight connections have been somewhat improved for this winter I seems clear that foreign tourists are more than willing to arrive in the colder months. With an ever improving Winter Festival the next move should be to attract more airlines to fly outside of the summer months, a battle that has been going on for many years.