Dubrovnik is still swamped with cruise ships, and it seems that Croatia’s southernmost city is still doing better, or perhaps better to say much worse, than all Croatian ports across the country combined when it comes to the arrival of these harmful floating cities.
As Morski writes on the 10th of October, 2019, the cruise season is not over yet, and in the Port of Dubrovnik, when looking at the number of cruise ships and the number of passengers brought in by them, remains the ”top” cruise port in the entire Croatian Adriatic.
Specifically, in the first eight months of 2019, 466 cruises made by foreign vessels on the Croatian Adriatic were realised, which is fifteen more than in the same period back in 2018. By early September, foreign cruisers had brought 733,000 passengers to the Croatian coast, up by seven percent when compared to the first eight months of last year.
The City of Dubrovnik remains the most visited cruise destination in the Croatian Adriatic, with 339 cruise ship arrivals in the first eight months of this year. Split, on the other hand, is only half as interesting as Dubrovnik when it comes to cruise ships.
In the first eight months of 2019, Split was visited by 175 cruisers, while Zadar, whose newly constructed Gaženica passenger terminal gave a concession to the consortium that was supposed to build a passenger terminal in the Port of Dubrovnik, was only visited by 77 cruisers. Hvar was visited by 71, Korčula by 66, and Šibenik by 46 cruisers, Dubrovnikpress reports.
Although it is already October, the cruise season in Dubrovnik isn’t waning, so looking right to the end of this month, there are almost no days when there will not be a few cruisers arriving in the popular southern Croatian city’s port.
In somewhat smaller numbers, cruise ships will continue to sail during November and December, and the last major cruise ship – Costa Deliziosa, will sail on December the 28th. When it comes to the situation with cruisers in 2020, their interest in Dubrovnik is expected to equal that of this year.
From next season onward, a shuttle will transport cruise ship passengers from the cruiser from which they’ve disembarked to the city’s UNESCO historic core, more specifically to Pile by Libertas city buses, which have received a green light from the City Council for operational leasing for shuttle transportation. More buses will also be procured for this purpose.
As we recently reported, from January the 1st, 2021, cruisers sailing to Dubrovnik will pay a tourist tax depending on their respective passenger capacities. Based on a City Council decision, this fee ranges from 2,000 kuna for ships with a capacity of up to 200 passengers, while the maximum fee of 40,000 kuna will need to be paid by cruisers with a capacity of 3,001 passengers or more.
Make sure to follow our dedicated travel page for much more. If it’s just Dubrovnik and the extreme south of Dalmatia you’re interested in, give Total Dubrovnik a follow or check out Dubrovnik in a Page for all you need to know about the Pearl of the Adriatic.
