Winter is slowly but surely arriving in the Dubrovnik region. Although the sun is still shining brightly the mornings and evenings have a winter bite. This morning the temperatures in Gruda in Konvale measured a freezing 0 degrees for the first time this winter.

Day time temperatures in Dubrovnik today are expected to reach a warm 19 degrees with warm sunshine all day. Gruda in Konavle is renowned for its microclimate and is always the coldest spot in the county.

On the occasion of the celebration of All Saints Day and the All Souls Day the Dubrovnik – Neretva County Mayor, Nikola Dobroslavic, and his associates laid wreaths and lit a candle to pay tribute to all the defendants and the victims of the Homeland War at the memorial in the Boninovo cemetery.

After laying the wreaths at Boninovo, representatives of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County, the City of Dubrovnik and the Croatian House of Commons laid wreaths at Veterans grave in the cemetery in Gospino Polje.

Today, the 1st of November, is a national holiday in the Republic of Croatia as it is All Saints Day. All over the country people will head to graveyards and cemeteries to lay flowers, traditionally chrysanthemums, and candles on the graves of loved ones and to pay their respects on this holy day.

The origin of All Saints' Day may date back to a Greek Christian tradition from the 4th century, when a festival was held to honour saints and martyrs on the Sunday following Pentecost.

The first recorded All Saints’ Day occurred on the 13th May 609 CE when Pope Boniface IV accepted the Pantheon in Rome as a gift from the Emperor Phocas. The Pope dedicated the day as a holiday to honour the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs.

IKEA Croatia has achieved great results in the third year of its operations in Croatia.

According to IKEA’s data, in the third business year that lasted from September 2016 to the end of August 2017, the company realized 622.4 million Kunas in turnover or 9.6 percent more in comparison to the second business year.

The company’s data also show that during the last business year, more than 1.7 million people visited IKEA store in Zagreb, whilst more than 5 million people visited IKEA’s website in Croatia.

The largest number of orders was from the Split-Dalmatia, Dubrovnik-Neretva, Primorje-Gorje and Istria counties as well as from the Zagreb County.

‘’Excellent business results with a record growth in the third year of our operations in Croatia enabled further investments in employees, out of which almost 8,000 hours were invested in training and education. In accordance with the principles of diversity and inclusiveness, almost 53 percent of employees in the department store IKEA Zagreb are women who also account for 56 percent of our management’’, emphasized IKEA Croatia.

Dubrovnik is full of colour today, as All Saints Day approaches. Chrysanthemums, roses, carnations, glorious bouquets and floral arrangements can be seen all over the city and especially at the Gruz market, as hundreds of people prepare for this important religious holiday.

Many people have already visited the graves of their loved ones and placed flowers, but tomorrow even more flowers will be seen all over Dubrovnik as the city marks the day.

See all sort of beautiful flowers in photo gallery made by Zeljko Tutnjevic.

Representatives of two of Dubrovnik's leading private accommodation companies, Direct Booker and Dominum Travel, announced that they are joining together to improve the quality of private accommodation rental at today’s press conference held at Direct Booker office.

-The goal is to to hit the market even stronger – explained one of the founders of Direct Booker, Nino Dubretic adding that the market is constantly changing and that’s important to follow the changes and answer to increasing demands in the area of private accommodation.

He emphasized the numbers of his company– over million overnight stays, over 100 thousand reservations, five thousand accommodation units, 150 employees – which is the reason behind running a press conference, since they feel the need to inform the public about all the news in private accommodation.

Direct Booker takes over sales and marketing of the majority of Dominium Travel accommodation units, and for hosting and taking care of the apartments, there is a brand new company - Dominatto made by merging Dominium Travel and Adatto, a former Direct Booker partner.

-    Every year brings new challenges – explained Slavica Grkes from Dominum Travel, that has been doing full property management for five years now.

She added that with merging they want to bring their business on a higher level. They plan to have a busy winter, since planning is half of the job. For example, they already know that they will have a quality department, which already shows how serious they are about offering only quality and top service.

- We have recognized the challenges in the market, such as lack of workforce – explained Denis Dilberovic from Adatto, adding that it’s easier to cope with problems together.
They plan to offer excellent working conditions and to be worthy competition to hotels and other agencies.

This three in one company will follow the trends and their founders hope that with their quality services they will also cross the boarders of Croatia, which is not so unusual for Direct Booker, which is present and well know all across the region.

Finally, they hope that the local government will recognize how worthy this project is and to support them on their ambitious way.

The Croatian tourist industry has achieved a historic tourism result this year.

A long-awaited and announced record of 100 million overnight stays was recorded for the first time in Croatia’s history last weekend. The eVisitor and eCrew systems provided data on tourist traffic realized in commercial and non-commercial facilities as well as in nautical charter.

‘’We are extremely proud of the fact that we have achieved such a great and historic number and confirmed, once again, that Croatia is truly a hit tourist destination. This is a result of the work and cooperation of all participants in tourism thus I congratulate all on this historic result for Croatian tourism’’, said Gari Cappelli, the Croatian Minister of Tourism.

Cappelli added that this great result is also a confirmation that tourism in Croatia does not happen, but that with quality planning, marketing activities and organized work during the entire year it is possible to make such a big step forward.

‘’Croatia is and can be much more than a summer destination which has been already confirmed by a large number of new and quality offers and excellent results in the pre-season and off-season period’’, concluded Gari Cappelli.

Get your running shoes ready. Along with Dubrovnik Aquathlon, Dubrovnik 10K is a new race under the Du Motion brand. It’s the grand finale of the Dubrovnik Run league, gathering runners not just from Dubrovnik and the rest of Croatia, but also neighbouring countries.

On Sunday the 19th of November at 9.30 am runners will line up on the start line at the Sunset Beach in the Bay of Lapad and run 10 kilometres around the scenic Babin Kuk peninsular before finishing at the Sunset Beach.

Registration is already open for the race with more details available on the website - www.du-motion.com/en/10k-en - with entry prices only 100 Kuna.

Map of the 10K Dubrovnik race