Dubrovnik (Croatia, Port Gruz)

Dubrovnik is an Adriatic Sea cruise port and city in Croatia, and one of Europe's historically most prominent and popular vacation travel destinations. The city has population around 43,000 (metro over 66,000). Other major Croatian passenger ports (cruise and ferry) are Split, Zadar, Rijeka, Sibenik.

From Dubrovnik's Port Gruz (translated as "cargo port", locode HRDBV), regularly daily scheduled car and passenger ferries (operated by Jadrolinija) interlink the city with the Elaphites/Elaphiti Islands (Sipan, Lopud, Kolocep) and also with Bari Italy (4x weekly crossings, travel time 7,5 hours).

Medieval Dubrovnik (Ragusa) was founded by the Romans in the 7th-century BC. It was the second-largest independent city-state in the Adriatic Sea (after Venice Italy). This picturesque town is on the Dalmatian coast and is a major resort vacation destination, best-known for its stone-made double walls and fortifications.

The perfectly preserved Old Town is unique with its steep cobbled streets, marble-paved squares, stone-made churches, palaces, fountains. Among the city's historic buildings are two monasteries, the Rector's Palace, mint house, customs house. However, the most popular tourist attraction are the city walls (visited by over 1,1 million people in 2016) running almost 2 km (1,2 ml) around the city. The walls are 4-6 m (13–20 ft) thick on the landward side, but much thinner on the seaward side. The system of turrets and towers was intended for protection.

The city-state Ragusa was under the protection of the Byzantine Empire (867-1205), the Venetian Republic (until 1358), the Kingdom of Hungary (until 1526) and the Ottoman Empire (until 1806), but remained self-governing as an independent republic. In 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte abolished its city-republic status. Following the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, in 1815, the Congress of Vienna/Wien ceded the port town to Austria. In 1920, following WW1 (1914-1918), the town became part of Yugoslavia. During WW2 (1939-1945) it was occupied by the Germans and Italians.

The city's average temperatures are 9 C / 48 F (coldest / January) and 25 C / 77 F (warmest / August). The city is served by an international airport, located approx 20 km (12 ml) southeast of downtown. Bus service runs every 10-20 min, and is operated by all 9 bus lines. Bus tickets can be purchased at every newspaper stand, and also in the bus (at higher price).

From Dubrovnik cruise ship tourists can visit Cavtat, Trsteno and Ston. 

Dubrovnik cruise port

Dubrovnik handles around 600 cruise ship calls and around 900,000 passengers annually. These numbers rank the cruise port as the Mediterranean's 10th largest (following Barcelona, Civitavecchia-Rome, Venice, Marseille, Naples, Athens-Piraeus, Genoa, and Savona).

The port is among cruising industry's most regularly visited and unique destinations. Today. the city is at risk of being destroyed by an overwhelming number of tourists. In 2016, the cruise port handled a total of 529 ship calls and nearly 800,000 passengers. The number of calls in 2015 was 475, in 2014 - 463.

• In 2016, UNESCO sounded the alarm by warning that the city's world heritage status is at risk, highlighting concern about “management of cruise ships” and “the maximum number of tourists in regard to the sustainable carrying capacity of the city”. In August 2016, in one day alone, the city (population around 43,000) was visited by a total of 10,388 cruise tourists. In 2016, the city was visited by over 5 million tourists, which was about 19% of the Mediterranean market.
• In response, in January 2017, the city launched a plan to limit the number of tourists visiting Old Town to 8,000. Then were installed a total of 116 CCTV cameras to count people entering or leaving the complex. The situation is similar to that in Venice Italy, where locals regularly protest against cruise ship tourism.

The city's UNESCO status was reviewed due to lack of both tourism strategy (focusing on cruises) and city management plan. Dubrovnik Port Authority is the main negotiator with cruise ship companies. However, there is an intention to let port's management to a foreign concessionaire. All signed for 2019 contracts limit cruise liners to 2 per day, and the number of cruise tourists to 5,000 daily.

Dubrovnik cruise terminal