Dubrovnik is among the European cities most often associated with overtourism, with tourists often greatly outnumbering residents. Between cruise ship passengers and fans of "Game of Thrones" who want to visit sites where the series was filmed, the overcrowding was so severe that Unesco threatened to delist the ancient walled city as a World Heritage Site in 2016. Mato Frankovic, who has served as the city's mayor since 2017 and is also head of its tourism board, spoke with tours editor Brinley Hineman about efforts to manage tourism in Dubrovnik since he took office.
Mato Frankovic
Q: Can you set the stage? How did you get here?
A: I always speak about the period before 2017. If you wanted to go in a grocery store, you were waiting in a line. They were queued on the public roads because there were so many cars, so many tourists. The quality of life was decreasing tremendously. So, this is what we said: We need to stop this. Tourism was just happening by itself, and no one was managing the crowd. Nothing was managed.
Q: What sort of changes have you implemented?
A: So with the cruise ships: We have a ban, not more than two cruise ships at the same time, not less than eight hours. Now the cruisers are staying in the city for 10 hours and more, which gives the opportunity for all of those tourists to not just go to the Old City but to take some other excursions to visit the surrounding areas. We implemented a tool where all the organizations that are providing excursions to Dubrovnik are obligated to prebook their arrival to Dubrovnik. And through that system, every half an hour, seven buses can come to Dubrovnik. So if all those slots are taken for a certain day, then you have to choose some other day. We [conducted] a study that says the sustainable number of the people within the city walls is around 11,000. We implemented people-counters within the city, so we now know at any point how many people we have on the ground. So, this whole year, we never, ever exceeded the number of 10,500.
Q: I understand more changes are coming beginning next year. What's in store?
A: We cannot think that we are done with our job. Our job is daily. We need to improve all the systems, all the platforms that we are working on. Three years ago, we implemented the Dubrovnik Pass, which is a digital travel card. What we want to implement next year is that when you are buying the Dubrovnik Pass, you're reserving the slot for visiting different Dubrovnik attractions, like the City Walls. We are now in the process of limiting the number of [short-term rental] apartments in the [city's main residential] areas. We do not want to have [short-term rentals] there, we want to have people living there.
Q: It must be a delicate balance between keeping residents happy and capturing tourism dollars.
A: Back in 2017, I started managing and making cuts and making different rules and regulations. People at the beginning were saying that we are actually crazy and that we will ruin the main economy of the city of Dubrovnik, which is tourism. But step by step, now they see that really, we did a lot of changes and that their lives are much easier. We absolutely want visitors, but under certain regulations. The good thing is that I am the head of the tourism board. We are working jointly. My previous background is also from tourism. I worked in tourism all my life, so I do understand the process. Sometimes people are accusing me -- that I'm constantly putting the ban on this, ban on that. But you have to understand that sustainability can come only with the rules and regulations that are very strict.