“I'm going to take the dogs for a walk and maybe even swim,” my wife said a few days ago. “Yesterday the sea was 15 degrees, which was a bit cold for me, but today might be okay,” she continued.

Despite a few rainy days, the weather conditions are slowly hinting at the season just around the corner. In the south, it seems, besides the lack of a gradual transition from one season to another, there's also no easy transition from 'no work' to 'total chaos.'

So let's see if we are ready for the new season or if, once again, many unresolved questions and problems will remain in the category of 'this year conditions weren't right for it, but we'll be better prepared for the next season.' The only thing that might help is that elections are approaching, so perhaps something could move forward. Hope is eternal.

I found myself wandering aimlessly in the cobbled streets of the Old City a few days ago. It was a rare treat. I had some time to kill before a meeting. I say rare because due to the exorbitant parking prices and the lack of any real shops or indeed people my feet rarely feel the polished limestone.

“Croatia had to win a World Championship to actually get people to come to the city,” shouted one local at me. I grinned to myself, he wasn’t wrong. “And Mato thinks people will want to live here, and buy what, Game of Thrones T-Shirts, it won’t work,” he added as he waved good bye. Again he was probably right, there is probably more chance of Baby Lasagna winning Eurovision! But miracles do happen.

But it isn’t winter tourism that I want to talk about, God knows I’ve been banging that drum unsuccessfully for years. Rather it’s progress, or to be more precise lack of it.

Now, if we are to believe all the hype, and I for one take it with a pinch of salt, then we are on the verge of another record breaking tourist season. This could well be true. But it largely depends on a less than reliable flight partner, Ryanair.

All these thousands of new guests that we are supposed to be receiving will enter all already completely saturated summer market. If a glass is already full you a) stop pouring and b) find a bigger glass.

What have we done as a destination over the last few years to improve the overall situation? And I’m talking about both public and private investment. If you hosted a guest in Dubrovnik five years ago and found they were coming back this year what new development would you show them?

Whilst the new coastal road in Lapad my look nice it is hardly a tourist attraction, what I’m trying to say is that it isn’t the Champs-Élysées. Could you take the children out for a day in waterpark? Could you go with your friends for a day of golf? How about an evening out in a purpose built concert hall? What about a whizz around a Go-Cart course? Or have an adrenaline rush at a theme park? Or for dog lovers (who we generally completely ignore) to take their loved ones to a new pet-friendly beach? Or go bowling or ice-skating or even a decent park?

We don’t even have the draw of a new movie or serial as the gloss of Game of Thrones fades into the distant past.

If we didn’t have a such a magnificent ancient city and the delights that nature offers us we would be lucky to have any interest from a certain budget Irish airline.

Credit where credit is due, we have got more serious about hiking routes, and I must mention both the Dubrovnik - Međugorje route and the Korcula route as market leaders. These are golden seams in an otherwise rocky mountain.

It’s the time of the year when half of Dubrovnik flies around the globe on holiday. Surely there must have been something that you saw in Dubai, Thailand and the States that could be implemented here.

If I had a euro for every time I heard “That would work really well in Dubrovnik,” as a friend explained a sight/attraction they had just seen in another destination I could retire tomorrow.

Where is our innovation? “Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity and not as a threat,” once said Steve Jobs.

Either we get innovative or our small glass will overflow.   

Read more Englishman in Dubrovnik…well, if you really want to

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About the author
Mark Thomas (aka Englez u Dubrovniku) is the editor of The Dubrovnik Times. He was born and educated in the UK and moved to live in Dubrovnik in 1998. He works across a whole range of media, from a daily radio show to TV and in print. Thomas is fluent in Croatian and this column is available in Croatia on the website – Dubrovnik Vjesnik