Travel in 2020 to Croatia, or indeed most of the globe, will be markedly different to any other year in our lifetimes so far. Travellers have just got used to hopping online and creating their own carefree weekend in the sunshine. From booking a low-cost flight, trawling though Airbnb to find a special deal and even reserving restaurants, tours and events in advance. Short break was the new fashion. In fact, the average length of stay in Dubrovnik for the last couple of years has been under 3 nights. All that has changed in a COVID-19 present.

And Dubrovnik is at the front line of feeling the financial pinch. And it isn’t only large travel agencies or even the City of Dubrovnik who are under economic pressure, the thousands of families who had opened their doors to Airbnb guests are also scratching their heads this year. Whilst many used this as an opportunity to make a little money on the side and pump up their household budget, there is also a large group who relied on guest bookings as their main source of income.

And although there are some green shots of tourism recovery it isn’t going to be a tourist season to write home about, with the experts stating up to a 70 percent drop in numbers. And figure direct from Airbnb’s analytics platform AirDNA seem to back this up.

Across Croatia there are around 166,000 active properties listed on Airbnb, and whilst that number might seem impressive the site has actually seen a drop in listings, by around a 1,000 active properties, since the end of March. And bearing in mind that the summer season is on the doorstep that figure would normally be going the other way.

Expect a slower year in Dubrovnik - Photo CROPIX 

Digging deeper it appears that bookings are falling as fast as a pebble in the Adriatic. AirDNA told The Dubrovnik Times that “In terms of weekly reservations for Dubrovnik for any of the dates in future, there has been a 76% decline from the week starting 1 March 2020 to the week starting 22 March 2020. This sudden change in booking behaviour is indicative of market uncertainty as the coronavirus crisis hit Europe and travellers were no longer willing to commit to making any travel arrangements.”

And they added that “In terms of weekly revenue for Airbnb, there has been a drop of 43% in Dubrovnik when comparing the first week of March 2020, to the last week of April 2020. In comparison there has been a 26% decline in weekly revenue in all of Croatia for the same time period.”

It isn’t all doom and gloom, in fact a slight upturn in bookings in recent days might lift hosts spirits. From the 13th of April to the 19th of April there were around 29,000 new bookings through Airbnb for vacation accommodation in Croatia. The daily rate might be a little down on 2019, but in an uncertain year that is to be expected. And looking into the future, the further into the year you delve the better the figures look, at least for now, with the middle of July already indicating a similar occupancy rate as 2019.

2020 is not by any stretch of the imagination going to be a great year for tourism, more a year of survival. And it also seems like the perfect opportunity to reflect on the future of tourism for Dubrovnik. An unprecedented time to reshape a better and brighter tomorrow.