When it comes to German travellers and their tourism preferences, they consider only five world destinations safe for them to visit.

Even though they are traditionally the most numerous tourists in Croatia, only a third of Germans claimed that they feel safe while in the country.

A survey conducted by the British American Tobacco (BAT) company released a few days ago, shows that German tourists feel safe only in their homeland, as well as in Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavian countries and Italy. On the other hand, only 49 percent of respondents consider Spain, as the most popular destination for tourists, a safe destination.

When it comes to Croatia, only 33 percent of Germans consider the country a safe place to visit. Even though Croatia is among the five most popular tourist destinations for German tourists, the country found its place in the middle of the list together with Greece and the UK.

Among the 30 most popular tourist destinations for Germans, Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt hit the bottom of the list.

‘’Instead of the sun, beach and sea, safety has become one of the most crucial elements in choosing a vacation spot’’, commented Ulrich Reinhardt, a research scientist from the Gfk Institute who carried out the research for British American Tobacco Foundation for the Future of the Company.

It seems that an Icelandic singer, songwriter, actress, record producer, and DJ Björk will perform in Croatia for the first time next year! 

A web site www.bjorkincroatia.com appeared, but it doesn’t give a lot information.

- In Croatia for the first time, the Icelandic icon will perform live in Pula Arena as part of her Utopia tour – it’s written on the website where they offer you to register for the tickets.

Pula, Arena, summer 2018 – it’s also written in the top corner of the website. And nothing else! But for Björk fans this was more than enough information to start celebrating.

We hope that the details will be available soon, but we’re sure that many people will be more than happy to visit the first concert of this amazing artist in Croatia.

Jarolinija, Croatia’s largest liner shipping company, made a great achivement this year – the company welcomed their 12 millionth passenger in 2017! This number was reached for the first time in history yesterday in the Split City Port, which at the same time celebrated the number of 5 million passengers in 2017. 

-We have a record number of passengers. We drove 12 million passengers and three million vehicles, and we are grateful that all this has been done in accordance with the highest safety standards - said David Sopta, managing director of Jadrolinija, as Tportal reports.

State Secretary at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure Maja Markovcic Kostelac recalled that about ten years ago in Split Port there was only 1.6 million passengers a year, while Jadrolinija with three million passengers a year jumped to 12 million. She believes that this is proof of need to go ahead with fleet strengthening and infrastructure development.

Split City Port Director Vice Mihanovic pointed out that in the last 20 years, the Port of Split has an increase of more than 300 percent.

Vesna Kurtic as the five millionth passenger of the Split City Port and Alfredo Dominis as the 12 millionth Jadrolinija passenger won prizes. They arrived to Split from Brač.

One special music event will complete the Christmas atmosphere of the fourth Dubrovnik Winter Festival. Dubrovnik Christmas Concert will delight many and it's prepared by the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra (DSO), in cooperation with the City of Dubrovnik and the Valamar group. The event will take place at the Hotel Valamar Lacroma Dubrovnik, on Friday, December 22nd at 8 pm.

Dubrovnik Christmas Concert was presented yesterday at the press conference by the Deputy Mayor Jelka Tepsic, the director of Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra Damir Milat and the conductors – Delo Jusic and Marc Tardue.

An American conductor of Italian-French roots, Marc Tardue, is an internationally acclaimed conductor who has conducted leading world orchestras and has won prestigious awards such as the title of Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the French government, one of the greatest artistic acknowledgments in Portugal - Medal for Merit in Culture and many others. Also, the orchestra will be conducted by the famous Dubrovnik composer, conductor and author of numerous well-known songs, Delo Jusic, who, along with numerous acknowledgments, recently became a member of the Bosnian Academy of Science and Art.

The orchestra will be joined by well-known performers: tenors Dani Stipanicev and Stijepo Gled Markos, and the award-winning soprano Marija Kuhar Sos, who was loved by the Dubrovnik audience this year after performing the Orlando Opera at the 68th Dubrovnik Summer Festival. But that’s not all – they will be joined by the renowned jazz vocalist from Dubrovnik Maja Grgic and the vocal groups: Ragusa, Subrenum and Kase, accompanied by the young Lapad rockers - Dapal band. The whole program will be enriched with the short stories about the Christmas in the town of the art historian Maja Nodari.

Compositions that will be performed at the big Dubrovnik Christmas Concert are well known to everyone! The program will include famous Christmas songs such White Christmas, Ave Maria, Silent Night and many more.

Are you in the “Merry Christmas” 70 percent or the “Bah humbug” 30 percent? According to a survey carried out by the specialised employment website moj.posao around 70 percent of workers are expecting a Christmas bonus this year. It would appear that, riding on the back of a great tourist season, employees are more optimistic that they will receive a festive windfall as last year only 60 percent expected a bonus.

Out of the lucky 70 percent who expected a bonus the majority believed that it would be a cash payment, with the average figure around 1,600 Kuna. Whilst 17 percent thought that their Christmas bonus would be vouchers for shopping and 15 percent hoped for a hamper. Interestingly by far the most optimistic this festive season are employees of state and public authorities and institutions.

And in Dubrovnik, at least, it would appear that city employees will have a very merry Christmas. “The Mayor has made a decision as to which employees and which public services will receive a Christmas bonus. The total amount of payments has not been increased since last year,” commented the Mayor’s office last week. Employees of the City of Dubrovnik will receive a Christmas bonus of 1,000 Kuna plus an extra 600 Kuna gift for their children for St. Nicholas Day.

Workers for the Dubrovnik – Neretva County will have slightly heavier pockets this winter as they will receive 1,250 Kuna plus 600 for their children. On average the employees of other city public companies and institutions will receive between 1, 000 and 2, 500 Kuna as a bonus.

Not only does Cavtat have a rich festive program this winter but it also has free parking.

Whilst Dubrovnik is offering free buses after 5.00pm to cater for their festival goers the municipality of Cavtat has gone one step further and it offering free parking in the public car-park.

From Monday the 18th of December to the 7th of January 2018 parking in the car park is free of charge. Another good reason to visit the festive frolics in Cavtat this winter.

At the suggestion of the National Commission for UNESCO Global Geoparks, the Croatian Ministry of Environment and Energy has submitted an application for establishment of a new geopark ‘’The Vis Archipelago’’ within the UNESCO Global Geoparks network.

The area of the Vis archipelago is a significant zone in the Adriatic Sea within which, in the geological past some 220 million years ago, large changes occurred due to the breakthrough of diapir, burning deep-water salt mass, which breached the surface by elevating the sediment plates formed by petrifying of sand and organism shells.

Today, pinnacles or ‘leftovers’ of this magma breach are islands of Jabuka, Brusnik, Biševo and Palagruža, as geologically the oldest island in the Adriatic, which, like the island of Brusnik, is constantly growing due to the influence of tectonic activity.

The Vis Archipelago also encompasses seven areas protected by the Nature Protection Act. The islands of Brusnik and Jabuka are protected in the category of monuments of nature (geological), Modra Špilja, Medvidina Špilja and the cave on the island of Ravnik in the category of nature monuments (geomorphological), whilst the Bay of Stiniva and island of Ravnik are protected in the category of a significant landscape.

Furthermore, the archipelago also has a great geotouristic potential, large biodiversity and landscape diversity, rich cultural, historical and traditional heritage, as well as a diverse and exceptionally valuable geological and geomorphological heritage.
The establishment of the geopark ‘’The Vis Archipelago’’, the second geopark on the territory of the Republic of Croatia (the Nature Park Papuk is the first), would contribute primarily to rising awareness of the importance of protecting geological and geomorphological heritage and recognizing geotourism as a unique tourist offer.

The decision on including the Vis Archipelago in the UNESCO Global Geoparks network is expected in the spring of 2019.

At present, there are 127 UNESCO Global Geoparks in 35 countries around the world.

A few days ago CNN Travel has published an article titled 'Star Wars locations that actually exist’ and Dubrovnik found its place on it. Star Wars fans couldn’t wait for the newest movie – The Last Jedi. Especially the fans from Dubrovnik, since the movie was partly filmed in our city.

-Plenty of people dream of travel to other planets. But "Star Wars" fans can actually visit locations where many of the films' most famous scenes were shot – writes CNN.

And there's no better choice than Dubrovnik, or should we say – Canto Bight. After playing King's Landing in the famous series Game of Thrones, Dubrovnik is now embracing the new, out of this world role.

-The medieval walled city's well-preserved center gets a futuristic makeover to transform it into the "Star Wars" equivalent of Vegas. The Adriatic port already trades heavily on its GoT connections with some complaining the screen role has brought in too many visitors. Let's hope this additional exposure doesn't create much more of a disturbance -- in the streets, let alone the Force – writes CNN.

Just a reminder - Star Wars: The Last Jedi used Dubrovnik as a location back in March last year and various locations around the historic Old City were used. In fact the main street through the city, Stradun, was transformed into a galaxy, far, far away.

Filming in Croatia was realized through the measures of the Croatian Audiovisual Center and 286 domestic filmmakers, 10 interns and 120 extras were involved in the project. During the filming Stradun was partly closed and only the firefighters, police and emergency assistance could pass. Most of the scenes were filmed during the night and some parts were shot on the Sea Star ship.