Around 2,000 visitors are expected to arrive in Dubrovnik for the Day of St. Blaise as the city starts the year with a huge increase in winter tourism. In January, according to data from the e-Visitor system, there was a massive 31 percent increase in the number of tourist arrivals and a 34 percent increase in the number of overnight stays, compared to the same period from last year.

The Dubrovnik Tourist Board released figures for the start of 2017 which stated that there were 11,657 tourist arrivals in January and 34,848 overnight stays in the first month of the year. The winter period in Dubrovnik is always a problem for the tourist industry in the city with the majority of the hotels choosing to close their doors until at least the beginning of March. These encouraging figures might convince more to stay open outside of the traditional summer season.

The majority of tourists in January were from neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by guests from Korea, France, USA, UK, Japan, Spain, Albania and Germany. “A variety of winter activities and sights in the city and direct year-round flight connections from Frankfurt and Istanbul, as well as flights from London,” were given as the reasons for this huge jump in tourists at the beginning of the year by the tourist board.

Most of the overnight stays were recorded in hotels, but there was also an increase in the number of guests staying in private accommodation.

“In Dubrovnik we are currently host to the crew from the from the film "Robin Hood Origins" as well as the presentation of the new Nissan Micra model which has helped to greatly increase the tourist numbers in the city during this period,” added the Dubrovnik Tourist Board.