Two weekly flights between Beirut and Dubrovnik coming soon
Dubrovnik will become the third city in the former Yugoslavia this summer to feature direct flights to the Lebanese capital Beirut. Charter airline Wings of Lebanon will operate 22 flights between the two cities from June through to September. Services will run twice per week with the Boeing 737-300 aircraft. The new flights mark the first air link between the two cities as Dubrovnik prepares for a busy summer ahead. Prior to the launch of the regular charter flights, Wings of Lebanon will also operate an additional four services between the two cities in late April and early May. The flights are being chartered by the “Elite” tour operator with the aim to attract Lebanese tourists to the Croatian coast.
This summer, the former Yugoslavia will never have been better connected to Lebanon. On March 30 Air Serbia will launch three weekly flights from Belgrade to Beirut, increasing to daily from June 1. On the other hand, Middle East Airlines (MEA) will operate a one weekly service from Beirut to Sarajevo every Tuesday starting April 29 until the end of the summer season. The Lebanese national carrier will use its Airbus A321 on the route. The service, which has run on a seasonal basis over the past few years, caters primarily for Christian pilgrims from the Middle East visiting the Medjugorje site.
Despite many airlines boosting frequencies to Dubrovnik this summer, the airport is cautious in its assessment of the year ahead. “As it currently stands, passenger numbers this season will be similar to last year’s record 2013”, the airport said in a statement. It adds, “We cannot estimate the numbers with certainty since many international tourism fairs are just beginning, where the amount of interest for Dubrovnik will be shown”. Highlights at Dubrovnik Airport this summer include Trade Air’s one weekly Rijeka - Split - Dubrovnik - Rijeka flights in cooperation with Croatia Airlines and Aeroflot’s daily service from Moscow to Dubrovnik which will run from April 1 until October 6. The Russian national carrier will perform a total of 126 flights.
Great news for Dubrovnik, Split Airport will be also very crowded this year!
ReplyDeletethis should be on newsflash
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Dubrovnik! Hopefully Air Serbia will offer daily services with great connections to the east. During the summer DBV has great connections to the west, but still missing direct flights to some destinations on the east like Skopje, Sofia, Larnaca..
ReplyDeleteKind of on topic!!!
ReplyDeleteOK this could be as good as any, I'll post Croatian tourist statistics here with a link http://press.croatia.hr/Documents/3030/Dolasci-i-nocenja-turista-sijecanj-PROSINAC-2013-2012.pdf
In 2013 Croatia registered 13 million visitors and 73.2 million nights. Best ever result since records begun, although current government wants Croatia to be in top 20 worldwide when it comes to revenue, number of visitors by 2020, or basically almost doubling the number of visitors from present 13 million to 20+ million.
It is possible as numbers are going up annually by almost a million so reaching 20 million mark by 2020 won't be too difficult.
For these reasons I think Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Split and to a lesser degree smaller airports ion Croatia will benefit greatly. In particular I am very optimistic when it comes to Scandinavia, Benelux and Far eastern destinations which are rapidly growing destinations for Croatia.
in summary, numbers from major markets,
Njemačka - 2.031.595
Slovenija - 1.181.377
Austrija - 1.037.839
Italija - 969.802 (25% fall on best figures in 2008, recession)
Češka - 718.093 (25% fall on best figures in 2008, recession)
Poljska - 679.519
Francuska - 455.590 (fall of 5% on 2012, in the past before 1990 million French holidayed in Croatia)
Ujedinjena K.- 409.025 (still way bellow its pre-1990 levels)
Slovačka - 369.816 (5% down)
Mađarska - 360.177 (5% down on 2008)
Nizozemska - 346.326
B i H - 243.407
SAD - 226.343
Švedska - 190.361
Švicarska - 184.755
Rusija - 164.867 (33% fall on best figures in 2008, EU visa regime)
Belgija - 164.562
Španjolska - 159.731 (15% fall on best figures in 2008, recession)
Japan - 157.354
Norveška - 142.063
And crucially where Croatian tourism is recording high growth numbers.
Kina - 108 000~ (33% growth)
Koreja 107.256
Australija 111.864
Brazil 56.077
Just to add, in terms of strictly foreign travel Croatia is a top 10 destination in Europe, Behind Spain, France, Italy, The UK, Austria, Greece (only just), Turkey (only just), Germany (only just).
DeleteSome countries have more tourist than Croatia but its mostly due to large domestic market, example Germany, Turkey, Greece where out of 18 million visitors 5 million are domestic.
So if only foreign tourists are counted than Croatia is in top 20 already or will be by 2015.
Not sure of Mexico, China's real numbers.
I have a question for people that live in Croatia.
DeleteHow much expansion space has the Croatian coast, because I heared that there is not much building land left?
Easily solved. Build up!
DeleteI do also have a question for people from Croataia. As Slovenia is the 2nd on the list how come that we can not get a menu, general info, etc in our native language? There are Czech, Russian even some other non worldwide speaking langauages.
DeleteBecause it is very easy to communicate with Slovenes, language is not so different and many Slovenes have learned Serb-Croatian in school.
DeletePersonally I've always had excellent communication with our Slovenian guests :)
@AnonymousFebruary 20, 2014 at 1:56 PM
Deleteu are not allowed to build on the coast, or 100m from the beach, anywhere along the coast at all.
So to answer your question, none, anyone who does, they risk of their homes being taken down by the authorities, This is ab ig problem in Croatia atm, and courts and authorities are trying to deal with it, its called bespravan gradnja.
How much land for new investments inland, loads, and you can build a project along the coast if it there was an structure there before you can build on that land, but on any new land, no you're not allowed.
@AnonymousFebruary 20, 2014 at 3:01 PM
DeleteNormally you're on 4th or 5th place, just that Italy, Austria and Czech R have performed rather badly last year, all due to recession, no doubt and bad weather in Austria, many area affected.
And reason why no menus and signs in Slvenschina, most Slovenians speak perfect Croatian and most Croats understand Slovenian, infact in Gorski kotor and Zagorje and Zagreb region most people can speak some Slovenian.
Although many Croats can speak German, English and Italian, only few speak English... speak Croatian.
Also Dalmatinci so jako ljeni, :)
Anonymus 6.20
DeleteSlovenes are at the second place and always will be important and welcome guests in cro, especially in Istria. So dear friends from slo, you'll be always welcome.
@AnonymousFebruary 20, 2014 at 6:29 PM
DeleteOh i didn't mean that Slovenians aren't important guest in Croatia, sorry if that sounded rude, we love our Slovenian neighbors, they're always welcome to stay as long as they wish.
What I meant to say that that normally when things aren't as bad as they are now, there are a lot more Italians and Austrians in Croatia, but due to the recession and really bad weather in Austria and France last year and in Czech R. I'm sure many of you remember record high floods in Prague and Czech R, flooding in Austria and Danube and similar events in France, all these impacted Croatian Tourism greatly so we had a massive drop from these markets, Czechs are down by 25%, same with Italian and Austrian guests.
Germany was also impacted but their numbers manged to grow by 2-3% , after all Germany has 82 million inhabitants and Croatia is 5th most popular destination for Germans, behind Spain, France, Austria and Italy, ahead of turkey, Greece, US and the UK.
And this number is set to grow further, Croatian Tourism plans to bring 3 million Germans to Croatia by 2020, 1 million French, 2 million Italians, 1 million Brits, 1 million from Benelux and 1 million from Scandinavia.
Canada and USA are also priority, current 70 000 Canadians and 225000 Americans visit Croatia, aim is to double and if possible triple that figure by 2020.
Montenegro airlines might be coming to Zagreb and Sarajevo and Skopje this year.
Deletehttp://www.poslovni.hr/svijet-i-regija/montenergo-airlines-letjet-ce-za-zagreb-skopje-i-u-bih-264665
Article said that Montenegro Gov. is asking them to increase connectivity with the region. I’m afraid that politician telling airline professional where to expand is a recipe for disaster, not that they are not exactly that already.
DeleteCroatia has plenty of unused space that can be allocated to building tourist facilities. It's a beautiful country with a lot of potential but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to compete with Greece and Turkey. The main issue I see here is the relatively high price compared to what you get there. From skyrocking highway tolls, overpriced hotels and food, etc. For example, if I want to book a hotel room on hotels.com for 1 or 2 nights only in some decent hotel during the summer season in one of the bigger cities on the coast, the average price goes well over $200/night. I understand that people in Europe tend to book rooms to stay all week, but if I am coming from overseas I don't want to be stuck in the same place entire week and just laying on the beach. I want to see the rest of the country, other cities and attractions. For $200 or more a night I can go to the Caribbean, Mexico or Hawaii with all inclusive. Croatians will have to get more flexible and offer lower prices on those weekend or 1-2 days stays as well if the want to attract people from overseas. This would also help develop tourist visits outside the season.
ReplyDeleteDear @Sam
DeleteI'm from Croatia, and I travel a lot. My advice : avoid hotels.com in future, they offer only expensive hotels. Try booking.com instead, which has the widest possible variety of accomodations-from 2 to 5 star, even hostels. I've just come from Mexico, booked hotels in Cancun for example, for 30 euros/night/single room, same price Mexico city as well. I also used to book through booking.com accomodation in Zadar and Zagreb for cca 200 kn (35 US$) per night/single.
All very decent objects with good service. So, it noght not be that Croatia keeps its prices that high, but you need to search a little bit more to ger yourself better deal.
@ Anonymous 3:01 PM
ReplyDeleteAhh my beloved Slovenians always complaining about how no one ever notices them :) To be honest, those multilanguage menues and displays look ridiculous and is such a waste of time and paper. I think naming things in Croatian, English and possibly in one more language (maybe Italian becasue they come in large numbers and many have problems communicating in English) is more than enough. Most Germans, Dutch and Scandinavians speak very good English, while Slovenians do both English and Croatian. Seriously, if people don't speak at least some basic English today, maybe they should just not travel outised their country.
OT: according to airfleets.net, JU's 320s will be registered APG and APH. both are JQ's VH-VQO and VH-VQI
ReplyDeletehttp://www.airfleets.net/flottecie/Air%20Serbia-planed-a320.htm
OT
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this mess in Kiev continues if it might force both Air Serbia and Adria to reconsider (or at least postpone) their flights to Kiev.
Do you remember that JU wanted to launch Cairo, but changed those plans because of the unrest? I don't know the full situation in Kiev, but it is possible that those plans may also change.
DeleteOT : Blue Panorama's LC division Blu-Express starts 3 weekly seasonal Rome Fiumicino - Rijeka this June. Not very big news, but the first ever service of Blue Panorama / Blu-Express to/from ex-Yu, which makes it more interesting, especially because RJK is not usually one of the airports to announce operators fully new to the region
ReplyDeleteOT
ReplyDeleteeff 20JUN14 Barcelona – Belgrade 3 weekly (until 30SEP14 instead of 15SEP14)
two additional weeks of flights
http://airlineroute.net/2014/02/20/vy-s14update6/