The cameras have their eyes on you…
Surveillance cameras, a concept which has long since been thrown around in Dubrovnik has finally made it from an idea to a reality, a million kuna reality.
As Dubrovacki Vjesnik reported on the 1st of April 2017, the cameras, which have inbuilt people counters, have been placed at all five entrances to the Old City and this morning they recorded 2074 visitors between the hours of 07:00 and 10:00. Given that today the giant cruise ship ”Viking Sea” docked at the port in Gruz, the numbers are hardly surprising and the expectation is that the numbers will continue to rise.
The camera concept was introduced in regard to more effective traffic management and was first taken seriously following a report that anything above 8,000 people in the Old City at any one time represented a danger. The system under which the regulations operate will quite obviously need to be given room for proverbial growing pains, as the idea itself is quite ”far out” in some respects, but as far as we understand it, all organised and expected arrivals who have made themselves known one day before, or who have purchased a DU card, will have unfettered access to all the museums and other points of interest and attraction inside the historic Old City. Those who arrive unexpectedly will presumably need to wait for approval to enter.
Given that this is just the very beginning of this years tourist season, it goes without saying that those who entered the Old City, regardless of having announced their arrival or not – did so without problems.
