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

Once again Croatian experts had an opportunity to present their knowledge and top design ideas to the world. This time they participated in the construction of the new tunnel connecting Asia and Europe in Turkey. 

Skira the leading Croatian architectural lighting company from Pula provided the architectural lighting solutions for the entrance into the Eurasia Tunnel in Istanbul crossing the Bosphorus strait undersea.
The Skira's decorative architectural lighting solutions were based on the traditional motifs of Turkish culture such as the popular talismans ''Blue eye'' and the hand of Fatima, which bring luck and prosperity to the Turks. The complex steel structure is made of 80 intertwining arches of different radii and inclination which extends from toll booths to the entrance into the tunnel, with 250 metres of length on the European side and 150 metres on the Asian side.

“We are very proud of our team; Dean Skira, the head of the project and the lighting designer, architects Dino Krizmanic and Leonid Zuban, structural and electrical engineers, the 3D visualizer Bozidar Pustijanac, our manufacturer iGuzzini and our clients Kitoko Aydınlatma and Yapı Merkezi who all contributed to such a successful realization of this project”, it's said from the Skira company.

The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan officially opened the Eurasia tunnel, the first road undersea tunnel in Istanbul on the 22nd of December. The 5,4 kilometers long double-deck tunnel which was built at a depth of 106 meters is expected to shorten the driving time on this route from two hours to only 15 minutes. The investment is worth 1,3 billion Euros.

Facebook page of Dubrovnik Tourist Board shared a photo of Mihovil Spanja, Croatia's most successful Paralympic swimmer, swimming in the warm Adriatic sea during these Christmas days. He won multiple gold, silver and bronze medals at numerous contests and is an owner of several world and European records, making him the most successful Croatian athlete ever. Spanja took a photo yesterday, while swimming with the stunning panoramic view of Dubrovnik behind his back. Sea temperature was 16 degrees.

This year December had a spring feeling with sunny weather and high temperatures, so no surprise some people decided to take a dip. Sadly, today the weather has changed, so it's possible that there will be no more swimming this year!

Friends of Dubrovnik Antiques opened exhibition ‘Christmas in Dubrovnik’, with the theme ‘Let’s go to Bethlehems’ on Monday, December 26th in the Siroka street.

Exhibition presents nativity scenes from Franciscan Church and Church of Mercy at Pile, where people from Dubrovnik used to come every year because they were the most beautiful in town. 

The light of Bethlehem has inspired Dubrovnik ceramicist, artist Lucija Perojevic, whose nativity scene is exposed in the window display area in the Siroka street and is available to view even after working hours or more precisely after 3 pm
The exhibition was prepared by Maja Nodari and Ljubo Gamulin and will remain opened until 10 January 2017.

                                                                                                        Photos by Zeljko Tutnjevic