Record River Cruiser Year Coming Up for Croatia

Illustration (image: RiverboatRatings.com)

Cruising down the Danube river and visiting a number of destinations along the way is becoming an increasingly popular form of tourism. One destination which is benefiting the most from the trend in Croatia is the eastern city of Vukovar…

This year a record number of cruisers, 220 of them, will stop in Vukovar. The cruisers will be carrying around 30,000 tourists, mainly from the United States and Canada. The first river cruise will arrive in Vukovar on 1 April.

Whilst this year will be a record year, there is still plenty of untapped potential. Zrinka Marušić from the Tourism Institute in Zagreb, who are investigating the potential of river cruise tourism, says the tourists coming to Vukovar this way mostly complain about the lack of original souvenirs, lack of organisation at the destination and the lack of facilities to exchange currency at.

“Much more can be changed to help the numbers further improve. You need to know that these tourists on board these cruisers have everything but they are also willing to spend. On average they spend per person around 11 euros a day, which a large part of it is spent to buy souvenirs and local products,” Marušić told Vecernji list.

Vučedol Culture Museum

Plans are in place for a stopping point to be built at Vučedol so tourists can visit the Vučedol Culture Museum, as well as working on a number of traditional manifestos which will give tourists a orginal local experience.