The 2016 Dubrovnik Winter is in full swing, with more guests and more festive stands than ever before, the whole city looks like a set from a Christmas fairy tale. And whilst there are more international flights landing at Dubrovnik this winter, in total fourteen connections, there is obviously still work to be done in order to increase the number of foreign tourists who can get to experience a different face of the city. A reader of the Dubrovnik Times, Eileen Nelson from the UK, has been in touch with us regarding the difficulties of flying to the city through these winter months.

Nelson first came to Dubrovnik in 2009 and, as she says “fell in love with the city,” and since then has been numerous times with her husband to Dubrovnik. After seeing the photos and articles of Dubrovnik, and its ever growing Winter Festival, she expressed a desire to see the city out of the main summer season. That’s when the problems began.

“I have had difficulty finding flights in December, NONE at all from Manchester and I have not found any from London where we can return home before Christmas Day,” commented Nelson. Adding that she has been in May and October in the past but would love to visit more out of the summer season. In fact she has already booked three week for June next year, but after seeing the images of the Christmas decorations had tried to visit through the winter. “We would love to see the city in winter when there are (probably) less crowds but mainly to see the city decorated for Christmas,” concluded Nelson.

Even though the flight connections have been somewhat improved for this winter I seems clear that foreign tourists are more than willing to arrive in the colder months. With an ever improving Winter Festival the next move should be to attract more airlines to fly outside of the summer months, a battle that has been going on for many years.