This summer Radisson opened the Dalmatian Coast’s largest resort, the Radisson Blu Resort and Spa in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It has 201 guest rooms, an Anne Sémonin Spa, a 60-foot lagoon pool, coal and salt saunas and seven beachfront treatment rooms. This all sounds very fancy indeed. Trouble is, I bet it’s very pricey too.

Dubrovnik is as attractive to tourists as ice cream on a scorching day. This makes it jaw droppingly expensive

Dubrovnik is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for a good reason. It’s amazingly beautiful, almost surreally so. A city-state until 1808, its Venetian style stone buildings look shiny and new, yet ancient at the same time. Understandably, this makes it as attractive to tourists as ice cream on a scorching day. It also makes it jaw droppingly expensive.

In a country with a GDP per capita of 11 000 euro, most locals will never have a chance to stay in Radisson’s newest resort. And it’s not just Radisson: even a night in a rented room in the old town set me back 120 euro last summer.

Maybe it’s the old backpacker in me, but I don’t think Dubrovnik needs another luxury hotel. A World Heritage Site should, by definition, be within everyone’s reach. Yet the way things are going, it seems like viewing our common heritage will soon be restricted to big buck tourists.