The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Help us stem Dubrovnik tourist tide, mayor urges cruise industry
The mayor of Dubrovnik has told the cruise industry he is committed to cutting the number of daily visitors to the old town to 4,000 – and asked cruise lines to help.
Mato Frankovic revealed to Telegraph Travel last month that he planned to cap the number of people allowed inside the Croatian city’s medieval walls to half the Unesco recommendation of 8,000, in an effort to protect the heritage site. He admitted that one of the key battlegrounds would be moderating the arrival of cruise ships and their thousands of day-trippers.
In a letter to Clia, the Cruise Lines International Association, which counts among its 60 members Carnival, TUI and P&O, Mr Frankovic urged the cruise lines to “take all necessary steps” to help protect Dubrovnik, which he said was at a turning point.
“Our intention is to offer a better quality of service which is currently under much strain due to the simultaneous arrival of so many guests from cruise ships,” he said.
“The city of Dubrovnik firmly maintains that we are not able to accommodate more than 4,000 cruise passengers at the same time.”
In a statement sent to Telegraph Travel, Clia said: “The cruise industry is deeply committed to protecting cultural heritage and safeguarding the sustainable tourism in all of the destinations that we visit around the world.”