Dubrovnik Introduces Annual Vignettes for Agencies Transporting Cruise Guests

The Dubrovnik City Council decided on Thursday to introduce annual vignettes for travel agencies that transport passengers from cruise ships from the Gruž port to the historic core, at an individual price of 17,000 kuna with an obligation to purchase at least ten vignettes per agency.

This decision, or rather the amendment of the existing Decision on Stopping and Parking Tourist Buses and Personal Vehicles in the Zone of Special Traffic Regime, is expected to end the conflicts between agencies and the City that resulted in a criminal complaint being filed at the end of March.

Namely, the Mayor of Dubrovnik, Andro Vlahušić, began strictly enforcing a decision in March that requires agencies to pay up to 800 kuna for each disembarkation of passengers, depending on the size of the vehicle or bus. Vlahušić claims that under this decision, numerous agencies owe the City of Dubrovnik more than 22 million kuna, while the agencies have been legally disputing the debt for years.

After access to the area of Pile near the western entrance to the old town was denied for 50 buses hired by some travel agencies due to non-payment of fees, the travel agencies MSC Krstarenja, Elite travel, Gulliver travel, Applicon tours, Aragosa, Ambassador travel, Dubrovnik travel and Atlas, filed a criminal complaint  against unknown perpetrators for deprivation and restriction of freedom of movement and coercion.

Shortly thereafter, several meetings were held between agency representatives and the city administration, and today a decision was made to introduce vignettes.

The President of the City Council, Mato Franković, stated that these are “temporary emergency measures.”
“Can you imagine what it would be like if travel agencies stopped transporting guests? Some guests would take taxis, while others would use Libertas buses that would be overcrowded,” said Franković.

Mayor Vlahušić stated at the meeting that he supports the introduction of vignettes and that it came about because he made a decision to ban access to buses whose owners refused to pay the fee. He emphasized that the signature of the travel agencies under the new decision would signify their acknowledgment of the decision whose legality they have disputed until now.

“The choice was to have chaos in the city or to change the decision. If you do not show strength, no one respects you. If the agencies sign the contract, they will acknowledge that the decision is legal, as these are just amendments to the existing decision. Let the court then assess whether the decision was good or bad,” said Vlahušić.

In addition to the decision on vignettes, the City of Dubrovnik signed a Proposal for a Conclusion with the University of Dubrovnik regarding the acceptance of the text of the Agreement on Co-financing the Construction of the Student Dormitory in Dubrovnik, whereby the City agreed to secure 30 million kuna for the needs of this project over three years. This project has been submitted for financing through non-repayable EU funds amounting to 150 million kuna.