The City of Dubrovnik and its surrounding area, which is primarily an air destination due to the fact that it is so far south and currently still cut off territorially from the rest of Croatia by Neum, the only part of neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina’s coastline, has been empty like never before over the past year or so.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Dubrovnik in 2020 was more or less a ghost town when compared to other wildly successful tourist years in which Croatia’s southernmost city lay lazily and comfortably on its laurels.
When it comes to the ever pressing question of just how it will be this year, no one knows the answer. About a thousand guests are currenly wandering along Stradun every day over recent days, so at the minute, things look a bit like March in normal, pre-pandemic years for Dubrovnik tourism. That’s why the city’s hotel rooms are still 10 to 50 percent cheaper than normal, as are booking prices for private accommodation. Many restaurants are still closed, and those that have opened are offering discounts of up to 50 percent, writes RTL.
No one in Croatia’s tourism Mecca expected to hear silence. The silence about which the Dubrovnik’s famous troubadours sang 32 years ago, happened for real back during the pre-season of a very fateful 2020. These days last year, only a hundred tourists walked along Stradun, today – only a thousand of them do the same.
Although a thousand nights a day is a good increase, Dubrovnik tourism is still hungry for human traffic and guests are seeking a proper holiday. Therefore, private renters, as well as hoteliers, decided to lower their prices. They have lowered their prices by 10 to 50 percent, so it’s possible to spend cheaper nights in the very heart of this stunning UNESCO city, as well as outside of it, because tourists are no longer only interested in a safe location but also cheaper accommodation.
Along with Australians and Americans, other Europeans such as Brits were the city’s most frequent foreign guests. With new direct flights announced from the US to Dubrovnik, hopes remain high for American visitors with deep pockets in summer 2021.
Up to 70 planes a day from all over the world could soon take to Dubrovnik’s deep blue skies. The first cruise ship, announced on June the 11th, is also eagerly awaited, a stark contrast to the complaints of too many cruisers, too much pollution and the newly coined term that the Venetians know so well – overtourism – as Dubrovnik tourism continues to grapple with the invisible enemy which is the novel coronavirus.
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