Dubrovnik declared the best cruise destination on the Mediterranean

Dubrovnik has been declared the best harbour destination in the Mediterranean! At yesterdays Cruise News award ceremony held in the Museum of Modern Art in Palma de Mallorca Dubrovnik scooped the top award as best harbour destination in the Mediterranean. The award was accepted by the director of the Croatian Tourist Board in Madrid on behalf of the Dubrovnik Port Authority.The Cruises News Media Group is a specialized media for cruises in Spain for the last seven years has awarded the prestigious "Excellence Cruise Awards" for the cruise sector. The award is given on the basis of cruise ship passenger voting as well as cruise travel agencies in Spain, and this year Dubrovnik was chosen as the best port, the best destination in the Mediterranean, excluding Spanish ports.This is the fourth time that Dubrovnik has won the award "Excellence Cruise Awards" for this important segment of tourism, but on the other three occasions Dubrovnik shared the award with other Mediterranean destinations. In 2009 Dubrovnik shared the award with Venice, in 2010 with Turkey and in 2012 with Venice again.The cruise ship industry continues to record growth, both on a global level and European level. According to data from the Croatian National Office of Statistics there were 828 cruise ships visits in Croatian waters last year, an increase of 3.2 percent on 2013. A total of 1.23 million passengers visited Croatia in 2013 an increase of 7.2 percent on 2012. The vast majority of these cruise ships arrived in Dubrovnik.There are 410 cruise ships sailing the world today with a total of around 450,000 beds and this figure is set to grow in 2014. Another thirty cruise ships will be launched this year adding another 34,000 additional beds, and from 2015 to 2018 another twenty ships are planned to be launched. 2013 was a record year for the cruise industry with 21.3 million passengers, of which about 7 million were in Europe which was an increase of 4.5 percent on 2012.