The best vocal groups from Dubrovnik gathered last night in the church of St. Michael in Lapad to sing for the humanitarian cause. The vocal groups that were present are: Atlant, Amfora, Kase, Subrenum, Ragusa and Lindo. The church was full of visitors, who were singing along – it was a Christmas concert and many beautiful, traditional songs were performed. 

Money was collected to buy Magnetic chair for all forms of incontinence for Physical Medicine Department of the General Hospital Dubrovnik.

                                                                                                                                                Photos by Zeljko Tutnjevic

New smart invention from Croatia is on the horizon! This time it is a smart bracelet which helps to reduce stress. 

‘’Meridda’’, the latest idea of the Croatian start-up company Studio Rebus and its director Tihana Petricevic was created in cooperation with doctors. Due to the increase of psychosomatic diseases, which are closely linked to the busy everyday life and increased stress, Petricevic came up with a solution to this problem before it turns into something more serious and causes permanent damage to one’s health.

The project Meridda consists of software and hardware solutions for the elimination of negative effects of stress to one’s health and work efficiency. The start-up has created a smart bracelet that allows accurate monitoring of parameters such as stress, body temperature, location and the given time period. It also includes a mobile and web applications that enable quality processing and data collection. According to Petricevic, the software quickly detects one’s weakest points that one should work on and gives suggestions on how some issues can be effectively self-regulated.

“Two years ago I started working more systematically on this idea through the Founder Institute Croatia. The development of the project is proceeding gradually in accordance with our financial capabilities. We are currently looking for investors to accelerate the product development, and to make it available on the market as soon as possible”, says the young entrepreneur.

Petricevic also added that their main goal was to create an innovative and quality product that would be competitive on international markets worldwide with its aesthetics and functionality. They are first targeting Western European and American markets, whilst distribution to other world markets is planned for the future.

Folklore ensemble Lindo will wish a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year to locals and tourists in Franciscan Church on Thursday, at 8 pm. This Christmas concert will be the last in their special year – in 2016 Lindo celebrated 50 years!

Concert will be conducted by Vedran Ivankovic, head of singing in ensemble. Guests will have the opportunity to hear traditional Croatian Christmas songs. Entrance is free.

Famous Croatian cellist Ana Rucner promotes beauty of Croatia again in her newest video published yesterday. The name of the video is ' Kopacki Rit In The Rythm Of Bolero by Ana Rucner' and it's produced by Romulic & Stojcic studio. 

Video shows one of the most famous Croatian nature parks, Kopacki Rit, placed in Eastern Croatia and sometimes called European Amazon. It is one of the most important, largest and most attractive preserved intact wetlands in Europe.

A part of Kopacki Rit has been designated as a zoological reserve. Around 260 various bird species nest here and there are many other species using this area as a temporary shelter on migration from the northern, cooler regions to the southern, warmer areas. There are 40-odd fish species and over 140 recorded species of plant.

This is for sure great and special promotion for Kopacki Rit and Croatia as well. Magic happens when music and nature combine!

The Croatian tourist industry is very likely to end this successful year with more than 91 million overnight stays or 10 million more in comparison to 2015. 

Considering the positive trends in demand and announced new investments the tourism sector will probably raise the figures to more than 93 million overnights in 2017, three years earlier than it was planned with the Croatian Tourism Development Strategy untill 2020.

"After a very successful tourism year, we expect positive trends to continue in 2017 and tourist turnover to rise by 3 or 4 percent, which is slightly more than the European projections", said the Croatian Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli.

He also announced that in 2017 he would focus on encouraging new innovative content, the development of tourism products and special forms of tourism such as health tourism, culture tourism, business and nautical tourism as well as the development of the CRO card.

‘’The success of tourism mostly depends on the cooperation of public and private sector. It is extremely important to continue to create new projects and products that will make our tourism industry even more competitive on the world market’’, concluded Cappelli.

The revenues from the tourist turnover in 2016 will be made public by the Croatian National Bank in March 2017, however, they are likely to exceed the revenues of 8 billion Euros posted in 2015. Around 9,5 billion Euros of revenue is expected this year.

Dubrovnik often impresses the tourists and many of them try their best to capture its beauty. That's why Youtube is full of amazing videos from our city. Few days ago a new video was published, by Youtube channel Henrique Lucas and it lasts only 52 seconds. It sounds short, but it's not – beauty of Dubrovnik can be shown in less than a minute!

‘’The Red Run ski track on Medvednica is ready for the ‘’Snow Queen Trophy 2017’’ World cup races’’, confirmed Emanuel Couder, the FIS director of the Men's World Cup and the FIS controller Gorazd Bedrac after conducting the last snow control.

The representatives of the International Ski Federation (FIS) were very pleased with the condition of the Red Run on the Medvednica mountaintop Sljeme. They praised the organizers and workers of the Ski Resort Sljeme thanks to whom the Red Run ski track officially got the ‘’green light’’ for the women's and men’s slalom ski races which are to be held on the 3rd and on the 5th of January 2017.
The Snow Queen is a World Cup alpine ski race in Croatia. The women's race debuted in 2005 and the men's event was added three years later in 2008.

Interestingly, apart from the city events in Moscow and Munich, the ‘’Snow Queen’’ in Zagreb is the only World Cup event held near a large metropolitan area.

This is the first year of our website, so we tried our best to satisfy our readers. We have succesful year behind us and feel truly proud! As 2016 is almost over, we bring you our top 10 most read stories this year. Click on the title to explore them. 

10. U2 celebrating Edge's birthday in Cavtat

9. Game of Thrones season six teaser features Dubrovnik

8. Super yacht worth $300 million docks in Dubrovnik

7. Get naked in Dubrovnik

6. U2 MANIA - Bono kisses fan in Cavtat

5. Kupari – a resort still in ruins

4. Dubrovnik will be the heart of the newest Robin Hood movie!

3. Star Wars set in Dubrovnik “under construction”

2. Robin Hood with Jamie Foxx to be filmed in Dubrovnik

AND THE WINNER IS.......

1. Brad Pitt - Croatia is the most beautiful country I've ever seen