Arrival of First Cruiser: Opening of Season

Today's arrival of the ship 'Costa Marina' in the port of Dubrovnik, marked the beginning of this years cruising season for Croatia.

This ship brought to Dubrovnik 720 German tourists on their way from Greece to Venice. This visit is the first out of four until mid March.

The 'Costa Marina' belongs to the company 'Costa Crociera'; many other cruisers of that company have visited Dubrovnik in 2005, carrying a total of 180 thousand passengers.

According to latest official data, during the first eleven months in 2005 a total of 456 cruisers visited the Croatian Adriatic Sea, which is an 8.6% increase as compared to the same period in 2004.

The number of passengers amounted up to 511 417, i.e. a 16.2% increase as compared to 2004. They stayed for 658 days, which is a 24.6% increase as compared to the first eleven months in 2004.

Most of those journeys (438) took place in the Dubrovnik – Neretva County by arriving in the ports of Dubrovnik, where those foreign cruisers entered the Croatian territorial waters, for the first time.