Christopher Livesay:
Mato Frankovic is the mayor of Dubrovnik. He points out that the city as a whole has only 42,000 residents, roughly the same number it had back in the early 90s. That’s the bloody period that saw the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and the shocking bombardment of Dubrovnik during the Croatian-Serbian war. The scars are still visible today. But eventually, visitors couldn’t resist. And when the rebound came, spurred by Game of Thrones, there were unintended consequences, particularly in the walled “old town.” It had close to 3,000 residents a decade ago. Today, with homes being converted into vacation rentals, there’s barely 1,000 full-timers living here – compare that to the 10,000 tourists who might come in a single day.
