At the second awards ceremony of the ‘Premios Excellence en el Sector Cruceros’ held in Spain, the port of Dubrovnik was named the best Mediterranean port in 2008, alongside Venice, in the category of reception and services for cruise ships in the Mediterranean.
Spanish cruise passengers, through anonymous scoring in 14 categories, selected the best cruise company, best ship, best onboard entertainment, and best port in the Mediterranean for 2008. The media group OL Press, which organizes the awards, is a large publishing house that includes the publisher of Cruise News magazine, the e-Cruises News portal, and the special television channel Canal Viaja Television, and is considered one of the most significant promoters in the Spanish tourism market. Spain records the highest European increase in passengers spending their holidays on cruises, with over 520,000 passengers in 2007, of whom more than 75 percent spent their arrangements on Mediterranean cruises.Last year, Dubrovnik had 750 cruise ship calls with 850,000 passengers, of which Spanish company ships visited Dubrovnik about 80 times and brought over 80,000 Spanish passengers. (Ž. L.)
