After becoming popular in Croatia, Borovo’s ‘’Zenge’’ yellow boots are to be shipped to other parts of the world.

The ‘’Zenge’’ yellow boots became popular during the Homeland War in 1990s when Croatian soldiers wore them while defending the city of Vukovar.

In November last year, they were brought back to the big scene when the Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović wore them during a procession on Vukovar Remembrance Day.

‘’After our President wore ‘’Zenge’’ and the media highlighted them in their reports, it stirred a lot of interest of customers from all over Croatia as well as from Diaspora. We had inquiries from the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany etc. Thus, we decided to make another limited series of ‘’Zenge’’ boots but this time not only for men but also for women’’, explained Marija Rušnov, a marketing associate from Borovo.

The latest series of the ‘’yellow boots’’ is identical to that manufactured in the pre-war period. They are of yellow colour and handmade from hydrophobic leather, which makes them waterproof.

During the manufacturing process, each pair goes through the hands of 60 workers at Borovo making them even more special. The only thing that differs the new series from the former ‘’Zenge’’ is the stronger imprint of Vukovar Water Tower on the lower side of the boot.

Borovo d.d. is the most famous shoe manufacturer in Croatia with the longest tradition, heritage and love for shoes. The company was founded in 1931 with its headquarters in Vukovar.

The production of the popular yellow boots began in 1985, following the order of the American company Royce Shoes. They were intended for desert-mountainous areas with extremely high daily air temperatures, and freezing cold air temperatures at night.

Borovo used to manufacture 200,000 to 250,000 pairs of ‘’Zenge’’ boots for Royce Shoes. However, the latest manufactured series was not shipped to the American buyer due to the Homeland War, thus remained in the Borovo warehouses.

Nevertheless, Borovo is planning to continue the manufacture of the popular ‘’yellow boots 85’’ in the near future.

It isn’t only the magnificent stone city walls that encompass the historic Old City, or the medieval facades that have attracted international film productions, such as Game of Thrones, to Dubrovnik. It is also the unique atmosphere of the city.

This charming video was sent to us by the talented camera man Marc Moliné from Barcelona and was filmed last year in the city. It gives an insight into the musical soul of Dubrovnik, and we particular enjoyed the dancing tourists near the end of the video. We think you’ll agree that it looks like a scene from Game of Thrones.

Check out this new Dubrovnik music video

According to the latest data from the eVisitor system, the results of the tourist traffic in December 2017 proved an excellent tourist season in the Split-Dalmatia County.

The data shows that only in December this Croatian county recorded 24,124 arrivals (+8%) and 68,819 overnight stays (+8%) in comparison to December 2016.

Therefore, Central Dalmatia continued with a strong tourist traffic increase even in December, positioning itself as a tourist region for a year-round tourism.

 The city of Split surely contributed greatly to these excellent results, which had 11,426 arrivals and 29,240 overnight stays (+16%). Good traffic turnover in December was also recorded in Seget, Podstrana, Dugopolje, Makarska, Supetar and Hvar. The most numerous guests in December were from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Korea, the US, Slovenia, Italy, Germany and China.

The Split-Dalmatia County concluded the last tourist year with 16,944,182 overnight stays (+12%) and 3,200,123 (+17%) arrivals plus 211,401 of boaters’ arrivals and 1,442,869 overnight stays in the nautical segment realized in the county.
In addition, at the annual level, guests from Poland and Germany, followed by guests from the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sweden, Norway, Slovenia and France, realized the highest number of overnight stays in 2017.

The Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butković, said that the construction project of the Peljesac Bridge is moving forward and he hoped that a Croatian company can get involved with the project.

Croatian Roads announced yesterday that the Chinese consortium, China Road and Bridge Corporation, will conduct the first phase of the construction of the Peljesac Bridge with access roads, and that the European Commission will finance 85 percent of the project.

Of the three bids submitted for tender of the public procurement contract, the China Road and Bridge Corporation, with a bid of 2.08 billion Kuna were selected as the most attractive and they will have a deadline of 36 months to complete their works.

"This project is moving forward to the satisfaction of all the citizens, especially those in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County, because with the realization of the Peljesac Bridge the county will be connected with the rest of the country,” added the Minister.

The Peljesac Bridge was declared a project of exceptional strategic importance for the country, the total value of the project is 526 million Euro, of which the EU will finance 85 percent. The decision to co-finance the largest Croatian project ever was made by the European Commission in June 2017. The bridge construction will last three years.

The public tender for the second phase of the project, the construction of roads through the Peljesac peninsular, totalling 400 million Kuna, will be announced at the end of February, said Minister Butković. The construction of the bridge, 2.4 kilometres long and 55 meters high, should last 36 months from the start of the works, with the bridge having four traffic lanes.

An American YouTube channel recently released an interesting video about Croatia.

The ten-minute video released by World Top 10 selected and highlighted the ten most beautiful places in Croatia. They listed the city of Dubrovnik, the Plitvice Lakes National Park, the Zagorje Region, the coastal town of Makarska, the Mljet National Park, the city of Split, the Pelješac Peninsula, the town of Rovinj, the Croatian capital of Zagreb and the Kornati Islands.

In case you have never visited Croatia, we advise you to check this great video. We are more than sure that you will fall in love with Croatia and put it on your ‘’must visit’’ list for this year.

As from this year, the Croatian tourist offer will be enriched with a new and interesting tourist product.

Running is very popular all around the world, especially in Europe, which currently has more than 50 million runners and this number is constantly increasing. These people are not professionals but amateurs who run marathons and half marathons, and are often business people who generate over 9 billion Euros of revenue each year to hotels, carriers and race organizers, excluding their spending on gastronomy, sports equipment, souvenirs etc.

Taking into account this fact, four passionate runners from Croatia, Tamara Markotić, Hrvoje Horvat, Ivan Videk and Sandra Bortek, joined their forces and decided to turn their lifestyle into a great tourist product – SightRun.

SightRun is a mobile application, which helps runners who travel on business to do their training and get to know the destination they are at. The application has audio running tours that combine running with tourist sightseeing thus enables runners to enjoy running and discover a new city at the same time.

‘’The lack of time at the destination was the main impetus for the development of this start up’’, emphasized Sandra Bortek, the founder of the SightRun start up company, adding that the application works with a GPS mobile device. Thus, in case a person is not in the mood for running, he/she can always ‘’go for a walk’’ with the SightRun app using it as a virtual guide and discover a part of the city.

This innovative tourist product and the first of its kind in Croatia is available in Croatian and English as well as on Android and iOS platforms.

Around 3:20 am there was an earthquake between Ljubinje and Stolac in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The earthquake was 3.8 magnitude on the Richter scale and it was felt in Dubrovnik too – Dubrovacki Vjesnik reports. 

The epicenter was located 9 kilometers southwest of Stolac, 2 kilometers deep, 44 kilometers north of Dubrovnik. It did not cause any damage, but it has awakened many of the people in Dubrovnik.

Just eight days ago Dubrovnik was shook by the earthquake from Montenegro that was 5.2 magnitude on the Richter scale.

Ever since Prince Harry and his fiancée Meghan Markle announced their wedding in May this year, world media have been speculating where on the planet these two lovebirds will spend their honeymoon.

According to British and world media, there is a whole array of possible honeymoon destinations, from Cappadocia in Turkey, Rwanda, Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania in Africa to Hawaii, Mexico, the Philippines, Italy, Norway, Barbados, Brazil, Jamaica and Seychelles, and maybe Croatia.

The young couple have already received an invitation from Israel and Australia who would gladly welcome the newlyweds in their country.

Despite all these speculations and invitations, the honeymoon destination will probably be revealed after the wedding, which is to take place on the 19th of May at the Windsor castle, or a few days earlier.

However, in case Prince Harry and Markle still have dilemma on where to spend their honeymoon, we would be more than happy to say ‘’Why not in the Croatian region of Dalmatia?’’. This beautiful part of Croatia surely has so much to offer.

Besides, Dalmatia is already popular among newlyweds who opt for this region not only as their honeymoon destination but also as a place to organize their wedding.

 Prince Harry has already visited the Croatian coast. A few years ago, he partied on the island of Hvar or popularly called the ‘’Croatian St.Tropez’’. As a former actress, Markle would surely find it interesting to visit locations where popular films and TV series took place such as ‘’Game of Thrones’’, ‘’Robin Hood’’, ‘’Star Wars’’ and many others. Markle is also a fan of wine tasting and gourmet food, and the Dalmatian coast and its islands are teeming with delicacies worthy of the royal palate.

It is interesting to note that Prince Harry inherited a family tradition of visiting Croatia. In August 1936, only four months before his abdication, King Edward VIII sailed along the Croatian coast with his future wife-to-be Wallis Simpson. They visited the island of Rab, Šibenik, Trogir, the island of Korčula etc.

In 1972, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Harry’s grandmother, visited Croatia with her husband Prince Philip. They paid a visit to Zagreb, Đakovo and the Brijuni islands.

Prince Harry’s father, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla visited Zagreb and Slavonia in March 2016. It was his fifth visit to the country and the first one for Camilla.

All and all, it would be great if the young Prince decided to continue the family tradition of visiting Croatia and choose our beautiful country for his honeymoon nest.