Strong growth for Dubrovnik in 2005

John Rimmer

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Duty-free sales at the gateway to the Adriatic resort grew by just under 30% last year

Duty-free sales at Dubrovnik airport increased by 29.2% last year to reach just over €7m ($8.33m). The growth in sales exceeded the increase in traffic at Dubrovnik, where the number of international travellers in 2005 reached 435,394, an increase of 27.4% on the previous year. Total passengers at the airport in 2005 numbered 1.08m, representing growth of 23%.

Average spend per passenger at Dubrovnik in 2005 was €16.08 ($19.14) compared with €15.85 ($18.87) the previous year. Spend per transaction stood at €28.11 ($33.46), a rise of 6.2% on the 2004 figure of €26.47 ($31.51). Penetration among Dubrovnik's international passengers, however, was slightly down last year, although the figure of 57.2% remains well ahead of the global average.

Dubrovnik Airport manager trade department Niksa Milanovic told RavenFox.com that the airport was on track to complete a new €20m ($23.8m) terminal by 2008, a year before Croatia is scheduled to join the EU. Under existing plans the terminal will contain about 800sq m (8,608sq ft) of space for duty-free. "At the moment we are achieving sales of €7m from only 300sq m [3,230sq ft] of space, so we anticipate a big increase when the new terminal is open," said Milanovic. "It's now a question of developing tourist infrastructure in Dubrovnik. There were 60,000 hotel beds available [before the Balkan war]; now there are 34,000. We can expect 2m passengers annually once the infrastructure is restored."

Milanovic confirmed that Dubrovnik would adopt the Travel Value message once Croatia joins the EU and is no longer able to sell duty-free to intra-EU travellers. The airport runs its own duty-free operation with supply partner Gebr Heinemann. "We've very much appreciated the support of Heinemann since 1993," said Milanovic. "We'll adopt Travel Value as soon as the country joins the EU but we are determined to exploit duty-free sales for as long as we can."

For more details see DFNI March 15, out next week.