The mayor of the City of Dubrovnik, Andro Vlahušić, has announced that flights between his city and the Russian capital will commence soon. The news comes after the mayor held talks with Aeroflot’s CEO, Vitaly Savelev, in Moscow over the weekend, the “SEEbiz” portal reports. There are currently no direct flights between Russia and the pearl of the Adriatic.Croatia has seen a massive increase in Russian tourists this year, thanks in part to the abolishment of visas, required by Russian passport holders entering Croatia in the past. Russians are seen as advantageous tourists because they spend more money and stay on holiday for longer than their Western counterparts.
Croatia Airlines, which has in the past few years been losing its market share at Dubrovnik, has announced that it will commence flights from the city to Venice and Athens during the 2011 summer season. Croatia Airlines does not operate flights to Russia. In a letter written by angry unions to the Prime Minister recently, Croatia Airlines employees sighted that the airline has failed to launch flights to the potentially vast Russian market.
Dubrovnik Airport is enjoying a good year with passenger numbers so far exceeding the total recorded in 2009. The airport has opened a new terminal and has recorded some record breaking passenger figures during the summer months.
Some Russian tourists are welcome. If they come in bulk like in Turkey they are a plague.
ReplyDeleteI know plenty of people who avoid the beaches in the South of Turkey due to them..
So let s hope the Croats will be smarter than the Montenegrins and will allow only limited amounts of russian flights
We don t need to see the stolen money from these Neo Capitalists alias former Communist Party members
@ JU520, if that's how you welcome Russians I'd hate to see how you welcome your Serbian tourist who basically saved the industry last season.
ReplyDelete@Peter
ReplyDeleteI think Serbian tourists behalf less arrogant, more civilized, less drunken, more pleasant and besides: Serbians are in my eyes still domestic tourists and always welcome as everybody else from the former YU
I have nothing against Russians, as long they behalf like civilized human beings, but what we have seen in other countries when they are in groups, is just disgusting
Don t forget that a part of western tourists are avoiding places where there is bulks of Russians. And the least we need is, the absence of western european or american/japanese tourists.
I still think this is great news for Dubrovnik especially coz it's not a low cost airline or some charter airline but a well respected legacy with a worldwide network.
ReplyDeleteA propos Russian tourists, maybe we can hope that these will not be the 'scummy' Russians since we are not talking about Transaero but Aeroflot ;)
It will be interesting to see what the numbers for Dubrovnik airport are this month. I noticed many flight being operated to Turkey, as much as 5 per day during November.
ReplyDelete@Q400
ReplyDeleteTurkish tourists or Croats heading to Turkey?
This isn't anything to do with SU. Please don't leave the comments that are by no means connected with airlines/airliners.
ReplyDelete@Q400
ReplyDeleteTurkish tourists or Croats heading to Turkey?
Croats on their way to sleep in the Hotel Seherezat&Onur made love the first time. lol
@JU520
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the comment about Serbs. We need more people like you in both sides. So Thank you.
In regards to the flights:
I am glad to see Dubrovnik thriving. It truly is the pearl of the Adriatic. I still can't understand people here in America loving Italy so much, but never having heard of Dubrovnik. As for the Russians, they may be a bit of a nuisance, but they bring the cash. So it's good to have Russians at the coastlines. Montenegro has ben saved by Russians after Serbs began leaving its coast. So Russians are important. I would very much like Dubrovnik to have a connection with Belgrade in the near future. I think that will be another big moneymaker. Like I wrote on the previous post, Belgrade is a party capital and soon to be business capital, while Croatia has got the coast. Connect the two, and you've got perfect possibilities for both Serbs and Croats.
Croatia Airlines should also launch flights between Dubrovnik and Kiev. Dozens of charter flights operate between Kiev and Tivat, Dubrovnik, Split & Pula from June through September every year. In addition, Ukraine International Airlines operates a regular weekly service between Dubrovnik and Kiev during the summer months. I am truly puzzled as to why Croatia Airlines has failed to take advantage of the lucrative Ukrainian market.
ReplyDeleteDidn't OU used to serve Moscow thrice-weekly back in the 90s?
ReplyDeleteThey have to change the absurd policy of not flying *anywhere* east of the country's borders as all this will do is hand passengers over to their competitors...
I never choose Turkey. Croatia is a million times better! Many other Russians visit Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Spain and Portugal in Europe. Not to mention Egypt, Thailand, Cuba, Indonesia etc, so its a good thing Croatia is seeing an increase since there are so many other options for us to choose from. Not all are drunken and trust me American tourists are worse...
ReplyDeleteSorry for late relpy anonymous but it was Turks coming to Dubrovnik.
ReplyDeleteAeroflot will fly daily from SVO to Split, instead of 4 weekly flights this year! Source: Airport Split has agreed with daily slots to Aeroflot.
ReplyDelete@AirKoryo
ReplyDeleteRussians won't be aggresively visiting Croatia though. Sure there will be an increase now, but later on, there will be fewer and they will continue visiting Montenegro (don't really know why), Italy, Greece, Turkey, and other better hotspots. As for Americans, they are worse (I know, I'm American). But Americans only visit Italy, UK, France, Spain, and on occasion Portugal, Greece, Ireland, and Germany. They don't wanna visit Ex-Yu so I'm sure that Croatia will have no problem there :)
But I would have to say the English are by far the worst. They overpopulate Greece so much during the summer that my friends once left for Turkey after only two days cuz of the drunken Englishmen.