DUBROVNIK, Croatia (CBS Newspath/APTN/WKRC) – With visitor limits and a tourist tax now in place, Croatia’s “Game of Thrones” town, Dubrovnik, is hoping to combat overtourism.
In recent years, locals say massive crowds of tourist have clogged the ancient walled city.
Now, cruise ships unload thousands of people daily, as fans of the popular TV series search for the locations it was filmed at.
Dubrovnik, is a UNESCO World Heritage site that sits along Croatia’s Adriatic coast.
Tourism has always been a part of the city, but in recent years, the amount of tourist has surged to levels much higher than before. It’s estimated more than 1.2 million visitors arrived in 2019.
These levels of tourism have put a strain on the city’s resources, mainly its water supply, waste management, and transportation systems.
In peak tourist season, the city’s historic streets and buildings are often packed. This makes it difficult for locals to go about their daily lives.
Environmental concerns have been raised recently, mainly, with waste and pollution becoming a major problem.
To help combat these issues the city has started to implement a number of different measures to manage the levels of tourism that come into the city.
Now, there is a limit to how many people can enter the city’s center each day, and a new tourist tax meant to help fund infrastructure improvements.
“First of all, the number of, for instance, the cruise ships per-day is limited now to 4,000 people,” said Miro Draskovic, head of Dubrovnik Tourist Board. “The hours that they are staying, the length of their stay in Dubrovnik port, is much longer now. Most of them are staying for eight hours or more, some are staying for six hours.”
He also said that the city is implementing cameras. They’re meant to help keep count of the exact number of visitors at any given point.
Tourism as an industry is a major contributor to the local economy, still, some locals argue that the city needs to do more to manage it.
Despite these challenges, Dubrovnik remains a popular destination for tourist around the world.
Hong Kong can expect more tourists this year but they will be spending less per head, according to the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau. Visitors are
Visitation to Las Vegas showed a modest increase in January with a substantial boost in convention traffic, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
Leaders at the Minneapolis tourism bureau are riding high after a record-breaking year for hotel bookings in the city, though they acknowledge there hasn’
HONOLULU -- A tourist driving in the early morning dark on the southern tip of Hawaii's Big Island accidentally drove his rented Jeep off a cliff but was able t