Dubrovnik in the BBC Spotlight: How the City Managed to Tackle Overcrowding
As part of the 'People Fixing the World' series, Dubrovnik, alongside Copenhagen, has been recognized as a model for sustainable visitor management and urban development.
As part of the 'People Fixing the World' series, Dubrovnik, alongside Copenhagen, has been recognized as a model for sustainable visitor management and urban development.
Dubrovnik has recently received international recognition for its efforts to combat the negative effects of mass tourism. The BBC World Service, in its program People Fixing the World, highlighted the Croatian city as an example of successfully addressing the problem of overtourism, which has been burdening the daily lives of local residents for years.
The program featured Mayor Mato Franković and Jelka Tepšić, an advisor for culture and tourism. The conversation with BBC journalist Claire Bates took place in early June 2026, when she visited Dubrovnik to see firsthand the practical implementation of the city's measures.
The BBC particularly emphasized that Dubrovnik has moved away from the traditional way of measuring tourism success solely through arrival and overnight stay numbers. In recent years, the city administration has been working to reduce the pressure of large numbers of visitors, better distribute their movement, and ensure conditions for a normal life for permanent residents.
During her stay, journalist Bates personally noticed the positive results of such a strategy, and she was especially interested in the use of artificial intelligence and digital tools to track tourist movements.
A large part of the program was dedicated to the issue of housing in the old city core. The city uses its right of first refusal to purchase certain apartments, renovates its own properties, and allocates them to young families and families with multiple children. The goal is to halt the long-standing trend of local residents moving out of the area, which is heavily impacted by apartment rentals and high property prices.
Silvana Bjelovučić, the principal of Marina Getaldić Elementary School, also spoke about daily life within the walls. The number of students and the existence of the school are key indicators of whether the historic core is still a living part of the city or slowly turning into a backdrop for tourist visits.
In the program, Dubrovnik was featured alongside Copenhagen, which is internationally known for sustainable urban development. This comparison brings positive publicity but also raises expectations. The true success of the Dubrovnik model will not be measured by the number of positive media reports, but by the number of families that will remain living within the walls and the number of citizens whose hometown will not be taken away from them by tourism.
