After celebrating New Year’s Eve at home, many Croats will pack their bags and set off skiing for their winter vacation.

According to estimates of domestic travel agencies, at the beginning of 2018, around 170,000 citizens are planning to spend their vacation at ski resorts in the Alps, especially during school winter break.

Croats mostly opt for ski resorts such as Nassfeld and Kronplatz as well as Zermatt, St Moritz, La Villa, Corvara, Saalbach-Hinterglemm and Living. The price of the package depends on the type and quality of accommodation, the destination and the price of ski pass, which in some ski resorts amounts to 59 Euros per day, whilst in some smaller resorts the price reaches 35 Euros.

The skiing package price for a four-member family is on the average between 12,000 and 14,000 Kunas, thus, around 70 to 80 percent of Croatian holiday makers will pay their winter vacation in instalments.

A delegation from the US Navy tanker “USNS Leroy Grumman” were received by the Head of the Department of Tourism, Economy and Sea Administration, Marko Miljanic, in Dubrovnik today. During the protocol visit, headed by Captain Richard A. Gray, Miljanic welcomed the captain and crew to the city and introduced them to the rich maritime history and tradition of Dubrovnik.

The USNS Leroy Grumman will have a Christmas and New Year break in Dubrovnik as the ship, which was launched in 1988, will stay in the city until the 2nd of January.

Captain Gray thanked Miljanic, at the reception, and explained the technical characteristics of the ship as well as the actions in which the ship participates.

In July this year, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee decided to include the Zadar city walls or ‘’Zadarski bedemi’’ onto the UNESCO World Heritage List.

A few days ago, the mayor of Zadar Branko Dukić was officially presented with the UNESCO Charter for the entry of ‘’Zadarski bedemi’’ on the UNESCO’s list as a cultural asset within the transnational project ‘’Venetian Works of Defence between the 16th and 17th Centuries: Stato da Terra - Western Stato da Mar’’.

In January of 2016, Croatia, Italy and Montenegro sent UNESCO a proposal to enter the UNESCO World Heritage Site list within the joint cultural asset.

After a long and demanding process of making the appropriate documentation and evaluation of the proposal, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee at the session held in Krakow, Poland on the 9th of July 2017, positively assessed it and reached the decision to register this complex cultural asset in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Zadar from the sea

This asset consists of six components; the fortified city of Bergamo, the fortified town of Peschiera del Garda and the fortress town of Palmanova in Italy; the defence system of the city of Zadar and the St Nikola fortress in Šibenik in Croatia and the city of Kotor in Montenegro. It spans more than 1,000 km between the Lombard region of Italy and the eastern Adriatic Coast.

The fortifications throughout the Stato da Terra protected the Republic of Venice from other European powers to the northwest and those of the Stato da Mar protected the sea routes and ports in the Adriatic Sea to the Levant. They were necessary to support the expansion and authority of the Serenissima. The introduction of gunpowder led to significant shifts in military techniques and architecture that are reflected in the design of so-called ‘’alla moderna’’ (bastioned fortifications, which were to spread throughout Europe).

It is interesting to note that Zadar has already been positioned as a significant spot when it comes to protecting the cultural heritage because Zadar is a home to the world’s first UNESCO Underwater Archeology Centre.

The final 50 dog houses were delivered to the home for abandoned animals in Žarkovica, near Dubrovnik, on Wednesday.

This was the completion of the procurement project for a total of 100 dog houses which were constructed based on the draft and dimensions submitted by the Society for the Protection of Animals in Dubrovnik. The new houses, which will at least give 100 dogs, a warmer winter period, were built by a local company in Dubrovnik.

The first 50 dog houses were delivered to the shelter in October.

The City of Dubrovnik decided to build these 100 dog shelters as a makeshift solution until a new location for the animal shelter can be found.

Dubrovnik Moto Club Libertas Riders with their friends from Konavle and Zupa Dubrovacka – clubs Dvije Rote, Nomadi, Du Moto Forum and all the bikers from Dubrovnik will bring holiday cheer to Stradun, just like all the previous years.

They will arrive exactly at noon on Tuesday, December 26th and hand out sweets to the children (and all those that feel like children too).

But this time, besides bringing the holiday atmosphere, the action also has a humanitarian goal! Santas on motorbikes invite everybody to get together and help them collect money for the defibrillator for the Pediatric Department of the General Hospital Dubrovnik.

A Defibrillator is much needed and it costs over 77 thousand Kunas. Dubrovnik bikers are sure that the locals, as well as their guests, will show a big heart and gather enough money for this device. Join them on Tuesday and feel the holiday cheer!

Live Nativity Scene will be held tomorrow, Saturday 23rd, in front of Dubrovnik Cathedral at 5.30 pm. This special Christmas event will tell the story of the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, a real life Christmas nativity scene.

Every year, different family has the honour to play Mary, Joseph and little Jesus, and this year that are the members of Lujak family. Pastors, angels and singers will enrich the program. Culture-art society Osojnik will take place in the procession too and sing traditional Dubrovnik Christmas Carol – Kolenda.

The musical program is in the hands of Stijepo Glad Markos and the members of the Council for life and family by Diocese of Dubrovnik. Like every year, there will also be real animals, all ''borrowed'' by Ilar Paskojevic.

The Croatian jobsite MojPosao carried out a survey on whether Croatian citizens are planning to buy Christmas presents this year and if so, how much money they are planning to spend.

More than 3,000 respondents participated in this interesting survey. The majority of them (39%) declared that they are not buying Christmas presents this year because they do not have a job and therefore enough money for Christmas shopping.

‘’Our presents will be handmade this year’’, said one of respondents, whilst the other one commented, ‘’This year we reached an agreement in our family, no Christmas gifts’’.

On the other hand, 24 percent of respondents declared that they are planning to spend up to 1,000 Kunas (130€) for Christmas presents this year.

According to the European Union statistics bureau, Eurostat, when it comes to the material welfare of households in the EU, Croatia and Bulgaria are placed at the bottom of the list.

The latest data from European statistics shows that the Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) per capita expressed in purchasing power standards in countries across the EU varied from the 53 percent of the EU average in Bulgaria to 132 percent in Luxembourg.

Other EU member countries such as Germany and Austria have the level of AIC per capita at around 20 percent above the EU average. Ireland, having the second highest level of GDP per capita in the EU-28, has AIC per capita at 4 percent below the EU-28 average.

As far as Croatia is concerned, the material welfare of households in the country is slightly better than in Bulgaria. The Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) per capita in Croatia is 59 percent of the EU average.