The readers of the popular British newspaper The Guardian have chosen the Sunj Beach on the island of Lopud as one of the top beaches in the world. According to a recently published article in The Guardian Travel section entitled “The 50 best beaches in the world,” this Dubrovnik island is the nineteenth top beach in the world.

“Sandy beaches are outnumbered by pebbly ones in Croatia, but the car-free island of Lopud, a 40-minute ferry ride from Dubrovnik, is the exception. Locals ferry visitors in golf buggies from the port to Sunj beach, a 1km strip of sand sloping gently into limpid, shallow waters on the island’s south coast,” writes The Guardian.

The unique Sunj beach isn’t the only Croatian beach in the top fifty, the Jagodna Bay beach on the island of Hvar, near Split, comes in at 36th position.

At the top of the list was the impressive Source d’Argent beach in the Seychelles.

Croatia Airlines is set to reintroduce flights from Dubrovnik to Tel Aviv for this summer season. According to reports from the Croatian national airline the flights to Israel will start on the 28th of June this year and run through the summer months on a weekly basis.

Flights from Dubrovnik to Tel Aviv used to operate in 2014 but were halted in 2015, now Croatia Airlines has reintroduced them for this year. Every Tuesday flights will take off from Dubrovnik Airport at 17.50 and land in Tel Aviv at 21.30. Ticket prices are as yet unknown as Croatia Airlines has still to open sales channels through their online service. This Dubrovnik to Tel Aviv line will operate until the 4th of October.

Hamlet is back in Dubrovnik for another night. Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of Hamlet is coming back to Dubrovnik. Due to the huge interest in tickets for the first broadcast of the London National Theatre’s performance of Hamlet that was shown at the Visia Cinema last Saturday it will be shown again this Saturday.

On Saturday the 20th of February at 8 o’clock in the Visia Cinema in the Old City of Dubrovnik you have the chance to catch Benedict Cumberbatch in this critically acclaimed performance.

Last Saturday the cinema was full and for good reason. When Hamlet played for two and a half months in the National Theatre tickets were sold out in a few minutes.

The play, directed by Lyndsey Turner and produced by Sonia Friedman has been shown in over forty countries around the world. And the show will be translated in Croatian.

The Dubrovnik Times has teamed up with the Dubrovnik Cinemas (Kinematografi Dubrovnik) to bring you two free tickets for this unique event. To enter the draw for tickets all you need to do is comment on this article with “I want to Win” and you have a chance of picking up two tickets for Hamlet in Dubrovnik.

The draw ends on the Friday the 19th at midday. Good Luck!

On the 1st of May the streets of Dubrovnik will be filled with international runners as the second Dubrovnik Half marathon takes place.

The Dubrovnik Times is one of the official media sponsors of this event and to whet your appetite before the big day we are offering special prizes in our Facebook competition.

Two unique running tops, one female fit size large and one male fit extra-large, are up for you to win this week. These “Fruit of the Loom” tops are designed by the renowned Dubrovnik designers Be Craft.

“How can I win?“ All you have to do to enter this week’s competition is to LIKE this article on the Facebook of The Dubrovnik Times and then on Friday we will draw the winner. We will take care of the rest; the prizes will then be delivered to your door.

The prize draw will run from the 15th of February to the 20th of February 2016.

Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic said on Wednesday that this year he expected an even greater interest in investing in tourism as the most competitive branch of the Croatian economy.

The prime minister was speaking at the opening of the Adria Hotel Forum conference that brought together about 300 domestic and foreign hoteliers and investors. He said that attracting investment was part of the government's strategy, adding that the most important activities were those that created added value in combination with other compatible activities.

"Last year we earned more than 8 billion euros from foreign tourists alone. I believe that last year's investments of half a billion euros contributed to it and this year investment in tourism will be 40 percent higher," Oreskovic said, noting that it was important to work on innovations.

He said that the government would work on converting former military facilities for tourism purposes and encouraging greenfield investments. He added that an increase in business competitiveness and investments from EU funds would be a driver of change.

"Tourism is very important to us. We have already launched five strategic projects, including the Mali Losinj airport, the Hotel Park in Rovinj, the Costabella resort in Rijeka and others. I believe all these and other projects will increase investors' interest," Oreskovic said.

Tourism Minister Anton Kliman said that the hotel industry was a very important segment of the tourist industry and that the aim was to increase its share in the total accommodation capacity by 2020.

"The plan is to invest 2.2 billion euros in tourism by 2020, or more specifically in 20,000 new rooms, and I believe we are on track to achieve this because this year investment will increase to 670 million euros, mostly in hotels," Kliman said.

He said that the role of the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) should be strengthened, state-owned tourist companies fully privatised and the problem of tourism land resolved.

The chairman of the Croatian Association of Hoteliers, Kristijan Sustar, said that the reduction of the VAT rate in the tourism sector and the strengthening of the investment climate should be among the government's top priorities.

Montenegro's Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism, Branimir Gvozdenovic, said that the Mediterranean countries had a great chance to further develop tourism.

Source - Croatian Government 

Even in spite of the windy and rainy weather in Dubrovnik the historic core of the city flowed with tourists today. With the Mercedes Global Training event currently ongoing a large percentage of the visitors were participants of this event. The forecast for the following seven days is for more rain and changable weather.

Check out our photo gallery by Niksa Duper of a rainy Sunday in Dubrovnik

The festivities for St. Blaise, the patron saint of Dubrovnik, are certainly international. On the 6th of February 2016 in the St. Anthony's Croatian Church in Los Angeles St. Blaise was celebrated for the 25th time. The festivities started with a Holy Mass and traditionally the blessing of throats.

The program began with the St. Blaise anthem and the procession of the St. Blaise flag accompanied by this year’s “festanjuli” (feast hosts) were Mariana Hazdovac and Rato Tomic as well as all of the past “festanjuli.” This year Mayor of Dubrovnik Andro Vlahusic was also a part of the procession.

The St. Anthony children school and a dance group entertained the guests with songs and dances from the Dubrovnik Region. The Croatian Consul general in Los Angeles, Sinisa Grgic was also in attendance along with Mayor Vlahusic who presented the volunteers of the Libertas Foundation with St. Blaise flag as a token of appreciation.

The force is certainly with Dubrovnik, the news that the eighth episode of Star Wars is to be filmed in the city has sparked discussion about the possible construction of a film studio in Dubrovnik. With international productions, such as the Game of Thrones, regularly coming to the city the building of a film studio seems the next logical step.

The Mayor of Dubrovnik, Andro Vlahusic, met with representatives of Lucasfilm last week and the possibility of a film studio in Dubrovnik was brought up. “At a meeting in San Francisco the potential of Dubrovnik as a film centre was discussed, since Star Wars is the greatest, but not the only movie or series that will be filmed in our city. The next step is to find a location near the city to build a film studio,” commented the City of Dubrovnik spokesperson Petar Ipsic for seebiz.com. Adding that Lucasfilm showed interest in this idea and expressed the importance of co-operation with Dubrovnik on a long-term basis.

The marketing opportunities of Star Wars filming in Dubrovnik are huge. The eighth episode of Star Wars will be filmed from the 9th to the 16th of March and will be located at five different areas of Dubrovnik. In San Francisco Vlahusic met with several leaders of the company, such as Lynne Hale, the Vice President of the company in charge of public relations, and Lori Aultman, the Lucasfilm Vice President for Finance and Planning.

The premiere of the eighth episode of the series "Star Wars" is scheduled for the 15th of December 2017. Look forward to seeing Dubrovnik landmarks featured in this sci-fi spectacle.