Mayor Mato Franković of Dubrovnik is taking drastic measures to restore one of Europe’s most overcrowded towns back into a place where residents can live and visitors can enjoy themselves, including limiting the number of visitors, rejecting cruise money, and even banning wheely luggage.
Reporter Greg Dickinson stated in 2018 that “Tourism has destroyed Dubrovnik,” without holding back in its evaluation of the city. The decision came after Unesco threatened to delist the city’s ancient stone walls in 2016 if it did not improve its tourist management.
The picture-perfect medieval town of Dubrovnik, often referred to as the “Pearl of the Adriatic,” has long been a favorite destination for cruise lines, package vacations, low-cost airlines, and several filmmakers. It served as both King’s Landing and the backdrop for Cersei Lannister’s well-known “walk of shame” for the tens of millions of viewers of Game of Thrones. However, there is a cost to this fame. Dubrovnik has become one of the most overcrowded cities in Europe, with 27 times as many tourists as residents.
Many European sites have had to limit damage in recent years due to overtourism. Amsterdam is restricting Airbnbs, Barcelona has set a bed restriction, and Venice has started charging day visitors. However, none have gone as far as Dubrovnik, which has now imposed a strict cap on the number of people that may enter its premises simultaneously.
“Dubrovnik does not benefit from mass tourism,” argues Mato Franković, the city’s mayor. “At first, you think you are winning, but in reality, you are losing the quality of life and the quality of services. Simply said, it is a losing game. Thus, we flipped everything upside down.
Franković has implemented measures to regulate the influx of visitors into the city since assuming office in 2017. In addition to limiting the number of cruise ships to two per day (from a maximum of around eight), Frankovic has mandated that ships dock for a minimum of eight hours, allowing tourists to spend more money locally and explore at their own pace instead of rushing through the attractions. With CCTV cameras set up during COVID, the city is also controlling the flow of tourists. Another important tool is the Dubrovnik Pass, which gives tourists an easy method to enter all of the museums and the city walls while also giving the city information for decision-making.
More drastically, a management plan developed in collaboration with the University of Dubrovnik has set a maximum population of 11,200 within the city walls. In addition to those arriving by air or land, between 9,000 and 9,500 cruise guests came every day at the busiest time of year in 2019. It is a functional system. Frankovic claims that since fewer cruises arrived this year, the number never surpassed 10,500.
The city walls and museums will need visitors to reserve time slots via the Pass next year, which employs a traffic light system to indicate busy and slower periods. Other impending improvements to the visitor experience include a low-cost baggage delivery service that will reduce the unwanted sound of wheeled bags on the cobblestones, as well as new regulations and taxes pertaining to short-term rentals that would discourage residents from renting out their flats. This might lead to an increase in hotel rates.
Most unusual of all, the city has opened a school in a historic palace and is buying properties in the old town to rent to young families. Together with the new home-rental laws, the goal is to rehouse locals and revitalize a tourist-depleted city, halting what has been called the “Disneyfication” of Dubrovnik.
For the long run, this is crucial,” Franković argues. “In terms of strategy, we will gradually acquire more and more homes within the municipal limits. This is our primary strategy for attracting visitors to the historic city.
According to Mato Franković, I see Dubrovnik in three years as a vibrant city with contented residents and high tourists.
However, not all people are thrilled with the changes. Marc van Bloemen, a school caretaker who lets visitors stay in flats in his house, believes the changes fall short. Earlier in the year, he went to a local anti-tourism demonstration to express his disapproval of the absence of public voices.
When he adds, “The ancient city is an ATM machine,” “People who are trying to live here feel like they are in the way, and it is turning our city into a theme park.” According to him, the purpose of timed slots is to increase city traffic rather than control flow, and long-term issues are not being considered. He said, “We would not do it anymore, but we came here in 1972.”
Marko Milos, who lives in the old town and owns the tour firm Dubrovnik Local Guides, has a different perspective. He states, “It is considerably better than it used to be, in my honest view.” “As local guides, we have discovered that it has improved in comparison to 2017 and 2018, even if it is still busy and packed at times.”
Purchasing buildings with public funds and leasing them to residents is a costly tactic, but it seems to be effective so far.
According to Milos, “I live within the city walls with 1,000 people,” “I was born and raised here, and I grew up here. They are doing their best, I believe! With the opening of the school last year, local life is returning. As a resident and a tourism stakeholder, I want to live in a place where everyone can enjoy themselves and where tourism can help everyone.
With caution, Andrea Godfrey, marketing manager at Bristol-based Regent Holidays, a travel agency that has been running tours in the area since the 1970s, welcomes the developments. “It is difficult to predict how timed entry will function at this point; it may restrict flexibility or result in lengthier wait times,” she added. “Overall, however, our sales staff thinks the concept of a timed admission within the city walls is a solid one. One selling element is undoubtedly sustainable regulated tourism. We are sending more tourists to more sedate locations like Istria and other Croatian islands these days instead of Dubrovnik, however, because of the region’s overall overtourism.”
Visitors should not expect to witness deserted streets because of Dubrovnik’s fame and its prominent position in the upcoming Outer Banks television series. Franković’s actions, however, represent a unique moment in mass tourism: a city turning down tourist funds for the benefit of its residents. Dubrovnik is placing the opposite wager: that quality, not quantity, will determine its destiny at a time when other travel destinations strive for expansion at all costs.
However, it takes years for tourist measures to restore the equilibrium that residents long for. Despite being the world standard, Dubrovnik is nevertheless busy, and Franković acknowledges that it will take time to take the chance.
“I see Dubrovnik as a vibrant city with contented residents and a healthy tourist economy in three years,” Franković said. “It will require some difficult choices, but everyone will be pleased.”
“I am attempting to convince our people that my actions are in everyone’s best interests. They were undoubtedly losing money at first. With their coffee shops and restaurants packed and customers having a good time, they can now see that they are making a lot more money than they did before. Therefore, more does not always equate to more. Less is more, yet sometimes more is equivalent to less.