Overtourism in Dubrovnik

Facing a toxic combination of cruise ship crowds, cheap flights and short term lets, Dubrovnik is threatened by severe overtourism. In response, the city introduced a raft of forward-thinking initiatives to improve the flow of tourists through the Old Town. Other cities suffering from overtourism can learn valuable lessons from the ‘Pearl of the Adriatic’.

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Overtourism in Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik has been ranked the most overcrowded city in the world, with 27 tourists to every resident at its peak. Renowned for its beauty, as well as its historic architecture and walls, the city’s issues with overtourism began hitting the headlines with the arrival of the Game of Thrones TV series, which resulted in around 60,000 location-spotting tourists a year. But the real culprits behind Dubrovnik’s crowds are the three usual suspects: cheap flights, short term lets, and cruise ships.

The budget flights that saturate European airspace make it easy and affordable to reach Dubrovnik for a short break, often less than three days. Many of those visitors then choose to stay in short term lets (STLs) booked through platforms such as Airbnb, in guest houses and apartments created to meet tourist demand that would have once provided vital accommodation for residents.

Meanwhile cruise ships disgorge thousands of tourists each day, most of whom spend very little money in the city, yet ensure that Dubrovnik’s streets, monuments, cafes and shops are jampacked with people, creating an unpleasant experience for residents and visitors alike. Traditional cafes become fast food outlets, and shops that might otherwise have sold useful products people need in their everyday life now stock only tourist tat.

Overtourism alienates and drives out local people. In Dubrovnik today, the permanent population of the Old Town is just 1,500, down from 5,000 in 1991. Homes and flats have been turned over to tourist accommodation which destroys any sense of community, erodes authentic culture, and pushes up property prices. The crowds also put a strain on infrastructure. Tourists (and their bags) on public buses mean less space for local people; taxis, rental cars and tourist buses create traffic congestion, and waste disposal efforts are stretched during peak summer season.

“It is a privilege for Croatians that along our coast we have many attractive cities, and we are very proud that we have many things to offer tourists like historical cultural sites, UNESCO sites, clear Adriatic Sea and rivers, high class accommodation and services, good food and more,“ says Tomo Jadric of our partner Croatia Travel and Tours. “But Dubrovnik isn’t a seaside resort. It is a city where we live, where our children go to school, where we need to get to our offices for work.”

As with other cities afflicted by overtourism, Dubrovnik faces a paradox. It is dependent on tourism and being ruined by it at the same time. UNESCO has even threatened to put it on the list of endangered heritage sites. But now the city is fighting back. Dubrovnik’s mayor, Mato Frankovic, has introduced a radical new approach to managing tourism with a raft of innovative measures and tools.

How Dubrovnik is fighting back against overtourism

Or, giving the Pearl of the Adriatic a polish.

Dubrovnik has instituted a set of short-, medium- and long-term proposals, bound up in a package called ‘Respect the City’. It is based on two premises. Firstly, that tourism is vital to Dubrovnik, and that what is needed is better management, not barriers to entry. As such, the focus is less on reducing numbers but improving the ‘flow’ of visitors through the city. And secondly, that city officials, tourism businesses and local people are partners, not adversaries, with everyone pulling together towards a shared goal of making Dubrovnik a better place for both residents and visitors.

The city began by identifying three types of visitor that it wanted to concentrate on: cruise passengers, day trippers, and those staying overnight.

Cruise controls

Cruise ships are a major cause of overtourism. When the largest vessels arrive into a port, thousands of passengers can disembark all at once. And since they have limited time onshore, most will not travel far from the port area. In Dubrovnik, precious few go beyond the Old Town. Since many cruises are all-inclusive, too, passengers typically don’t buy meals while ashore. The result is intense crowding for several hours every day, and little economic benefit for the local community.

In peak season, Dubrovnik was seeing between four and six cruise ships arrive at the same time, several times a week, with passengers on land for just four hours or so. Now, after discussion with the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) and UNESCO, only two cruise ships can disembark each day, and passengers have a minimum of eight hours before they need to reboard, giving them ample time to explore beyond the immediate area. Plus, arrival and departure times are staggered, which improves the flow of people through Dubrovnik’s historic core, and a one euro per passenger tax has been levied on the cruise companies, which can be put towards maintaining the city’s infrastructure. Given the fact that Dubrovnik is one of the most popular cruise destinations in the Mediterranean region, this progress is remarkable.

Size matters

It's worth noting that not all cruises are alike. Powell Ettinger, founder of our partner The Small Cruise Ship Collection, points out that the vessels we work with in Croatia carry no more than 100 passengers at a time, which means that they have a much more positive effect on their ports of call. “Our ships spend at least one and sometimes two nights in Dubrovnik, which enables our clients to visit in the less busy times of day. Furthermore, we don’t include evening meals, so people will go and eat ashore in restaurants of their choice.”

Smaller cruise ships are owned and operated by Croatian people rather than huge multinational firms. They rarely if ever leave Croatian waters, and buy most of their produce from Croatian suppliers, too. All of which means greater benefits for the local and regional economies.

Tackling traffic

Dubrovnik’s Old Town suffered with heavy congestion. At fault: a proliferation of rental cars and taxis penned into a one-way system, and dozens of tourist buses piling up hourly next to the Pile Gate to load and unload passengers. In summer (July and August) up to 200 buses were arriving every day, the equivalent of an extra cruise ship, but not as obviously visible. Regular traffic jams don’t just impede the flow of tourists; they also make it difficult for residents to commute to school or to work and contribute to air pollution.

The city’s solution was technological. Buses are now required to book arrival slots and can be fined up to €2,000 if they turn up without doing so. This system means that, when more cruise ships are in port, fewer bus arrival slots are granted, meaning the Old Town is rarely overwhelmed. Other measures include requiring rental cars to park in designated areas and reducing the number of taxis that can enter the Old Town from 9,000 to just 700. While not universally popular, of course, this special traffic zone is making life much easier for residents, and helping tourists get out of their buses and onto the streets much faster.

Saving space

The rough limestone of Dubrovnik Old Town’s main thoroughfare, the Stradun, has been buffed by millions of flip-flops and sandals to a smooth, marble-like finish. This becomes slippery when wet and has to be ‘roughed up’ manually each year before the summer season by workers using sharp hammers, to create some accident-resistant texture. At busy times such as when cruise ships are in port, walking down the Stradun can be more akin to joining a long queue, and even moving at the pace of a stroll becomes difficult.

In conjunction with other crowd reduction methods, the city has now created more space on the Stradun to improve the flow of people. The number of tables and chairs that can be positioned outside by restaurants and bars has been reduced by 30 percent, and the number of souvenir stands in public squares slashed by 80 percent. This move has not proved uncontroversial with the owners of these businesses, but it does reduce bottlenecks of people.

Smart passes

For a small fee, the Dubrovnik Pass offers holders entry to many of the city’s most popular visitor attractions, including the Rector’s Palace, the Maritime Museum and the Marin Drzic House. Take-up is high, around 80 percent. This pass serves two key purposes. Firstly, it gives administrators a rough idea of how many visitors are in the city at any given time. But more importantly, it gives them the purchasers’ contact details. Now, the city can send them emails or text messages advising them of the best time of day to visit based on current crowd sizes, again reducing congestion and improving the flow of people.

Targeting short term lets

Dubrovnik is making it harder to convert homes into short term lets, and banning new ones in the Old Town and in large apartment buildings (where the constant ins and outs of tourists disrupts the lives of permanent occupants). The city has also begun buying apartments that will then be offered to local families on long leases.

Keeping the noise down

Late night noise is a common complaint of people living in popular tourist destinations such as Dubrovnik. It’s not just people spilling out of bars in the early hours, either. Just a small gaggle of people chatting as they walk home at night can be enough to wake up a light sleeper. Wheeled suitcases are another bugbear of many residents, especially on cobbled streets. Dubrovnik has introduced regulations to force businesses with outside spaces, including bars and restaurants, to stick to maximum noise levels.

Another innovation is to require groups of more than 20 people to use audio guides rather than have a tour leader raising their voice to be heard or worse, using a loudhailer.

Will it work?

None of this is to say that Dubrovnik has cracked overtourism. The mega cruise ships are still coming, and they still contribute little financial benefit when compared to all the disruption they cause. Even with much stronger restrictions on STLs it would take years for the city's permanent population to get back to where it was before the launch of platforms like AirBnb.

Frankovic’s measures have not been popular with everyone in Dubrovnik as they reduce business profits and jobs. There has been significant pushback. Not everyone agrees the city has a problem, and if your livelihood is bound up in tourism, you may well feel that the more that come, the better. Competing interests add another element of challenge – local authorities like Frankovic’s are up against national governments prioritising economic growth, while tourist boards are charged with promoting destinations, but are not responsible for managing the effects should they happen to be wildly successful. Restricting overtourism can also end up spreading the problem to other areas – sometimes, places that are disastrously unprepared for it.

Destinations around the world such as Barcelona and Venice have been trying different approaches for years with only limited success, from levying tourist taxes to banning new hotels to neighbourhood curfews. The trouble is that you can’t make somewhere ‘unfamous’. Only time will tell if Dubrovnik’s initiatives work. But, given that they seem to be improving both quality of life for local people, and the quality of the visitor experience, hopefully this is the start of the city’s journey back from the brink.

Cutting tourism, or managing it better?

“Tourism provides livelihoods for many, but it also disrupts traditional ways of life for locals. This is the reality we must learn to live with,” says Tomo. “I believe we need to find a balance: tourists must be patient and respectful, locals must remain welcoming and cooperative, and cities need to create policies that don’t harm either group.”

“In my opinion the key lies in education to change mindsets,” he continues. “Showing tourists how to be thoughtful visitors and encouraging locals to respond positively. That’s the foundation of a sustainable tourism model. You can change cruise ship routes, but that will only shift the problem elsewhere. We need to teach people how to live together in harmony.”

A holistic approach, taking into account the needs of residents, visitors and businesses, is essential for any strategy against overtourism to prosper. What does a successful tourism industry look like – endless growth, regardless of enjoyment levels or actual economic benefit? Or a more responsible approach, one that makes the welfare of local people, and protecting nature and infrastructure, as important as the tourist experience?

What can you do?

To avoid contributing to overtourism in Dubrovnik, come outside the peak summer months of July and August if you can, and explore hotspots such as the Old Town at the start and end of the day, when the cruise and coach crowds retreat like a low tide, and the streets are quieter. Though often chilly and rainy in winter, Dubrovnik is very much a year-round destination.

Stay for a few nights, eating and shopping in locally run places wherever possible, and chatting with residents when the opportunity arises.

Venture beyond the overcrowded Old Town to the beaches of the Lapad Peninsula, which can be easily reached by public bus, or hop on a ferry and explore the islands off the coast. In this way, you’ll spread your money further and swerve most of the crowds. You can also join one of our small group holidays, with a local guide who can steer you to Dubrovnik’s hidden corners, before travelling further into Croatia or along the coast. If cruising is your thing, look for a small ship cruise, which provides you with a more relaxed experience, and brigs far more benefits to Dubrovnik and those who live there, than the ‘floating hotels’.