Dubrovnik, Barcelona and Venice are often cited as the three Mediterranean destinations struggling to cope with over tourism. And Venice has now taken action to try and manage the amount of tourists visiting the city every year by introducing a scheme that will see visitors needing to purchase a ticket to visit the ancient destination. From this summer guests will have to fork out between 2.5 and 10 Euros to visit depending on the time of the year that they arrive.

The new taxes will be collected from all visitors, whether they spend a night in Venice or not, which is estimated at around 30 million people a year. The main target for this new ticket system is for guests that visit for one day and don’t pay the sojourn tax. Meaning that this new ticket system will mainly effect cruise ship passengers. The first estimates from the city authorities show that around 50 million Euros could be collected every year. It is believed that airlines and tour operators will add this extra cost into their pricing system.

"The costs for cleaning the historic city centre and for security have been borne by the inhabitants of Venice for years," said the Mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro.

Could this new tax, or ticket system, be something that the authorities in Dubrovnik adopt in the future? Presumably they will be watching the situation in Venice closely this year to see if this new tax actually works.

2018 was certainly an unforgettable year for Luka Modrić and he celebrated the New Year in style with a photo that summed it all up on his Instagram profile. The Croatian maestro has entered the record books for the most individual awards won in one year, yes 2018 is a year that Modrić will never forget.

Modrić posted a photo on Instagram in which he posed in front of a Christmas tree with eight prizes, and the comment said it all, "What year!". And with over 1.6 million likes and numerous comments Modrić has obviously also won the hearts of football fans all over the world.

Smartphones waved in the chilly night air last night as visitors snapped the atmosphere on New Year’s Eve in Dubrovnik.

The fireworks display was the highlight of the night as well as the concert which started around 9.00pm. The music and dancing went on well into the early morning hours as 2019 was brought in with style.

Check out the top five Instagram photos of the New Year celebrations

Photo by sanja_dedic1103

Photo by saracapalacedubrovnik

Photo by experiencedubrovnik

Photo by kiki_takes_pics

Photo by ps.roberta

As Dubrovnik moved from 2018 into 2019 a spectacular fireworks display exploded in the night sky.

The thousands of visitors collected on the main street through the Old City, the Stradun, had a perfect view of the fireworks as the blasted into the sky behind the main bell tower. It was truly a eye-popping display and delighted the partygoers.

Check out this video shot by vigil.

The facades of the Old City of Dubrovnik rocked last night as the biggest New Year’s Party in town saw thousands countdown to 2019 on the Stradun.

Two of the most popular names in Croatian pop music, Nina Badric and Toni Cetinski, blasted out their hits and the public warmed themselves against the chilly northerly wind by dancing the night away.

Check out the New Year’s Eve gallery from Dubrovnik

As we get ready to welcome a new year we continue our look back at 2018 with your favourite photos of the past year.

Our Facebook page has grown steadily and is now one of the most popular in the country and we have dug through it to find the most popular photos of 2018. On a month by month basis we have found the photos that you, our readership, liked the most and bring them to you in our round-up of 2018 in photos.

We have received hundreds of thousands of likes over the last year and look forward to bringing more new and views in 2019.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Sophia tops the top ten list of the lost popular girl’s names in 2018 whilst for the boys Jackson comes in at number one. The figures are in for 2018 for the most popular baby names of 2018.

Sophia moves up from fourth position in 2018 to the top spot this year. According to the website parents.com the most popular baby names in 2018 across the world sees Liam drop off the top position to be replaces by Jackson.

With a royal baby on the way for 2019 this list could see changes next year. The top picks from the bookmakers for Meghan and Harry, whose baby is expected in the spring, are Victoria, Alice and Elizabeth whilst for a boy Alexander, Albert and Charles top the list.

Most Popular Girl Names of 2018

1. Sophia
2. Olivia
3. Emma
4. Ava
5. Isabella
6. Aria
7. Riley
8. Amelia
9. Mia
10. Layla

Most Popular Boy Names of 2018

1. Jackson
2. Liam
3. Noah
4. Aiden
5. Caden
6. Grayson
7. Lucas
8. Mason
9. Oliver
10. Elijah

If you are planning to celebrate the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 in the open tonight you might want to wrap up with some warm clothes. It will be woolly hat, scarf and gloves weather tonight as the bell sounds midnight with the real feel temperature in Dubrovnik expected to be a freezing - 1 degrees.

Dubrovnik awoke on the last day of 2018 to a rather cloudy and chilly day with early morning temperatures around 5 degrees.

But tonight for the wildest night of the year it is going to be cold. A clear and starry sky will see strong northerly winds bring temperatures plunging. At midnight the expected temperature will be between 4 and 7 degrees but with the strong north wind the wind chill factor will take the real fell temperature down to minus 1 degrees.