Raucous Roosters Ruin Croatia Tourist Spot

Raucous roosters are driving tourists from a quiet Croatian holiday spot with their incessant cock-a-doodle-doos, a local newspaper reported Monday.

The annoying poultry -- who apparently crow not only at dawn, but around the clock -- sparked a spate of booking cancellations in the Stomorska resort on the island of Solta, the daily Jutarnji List quoted a tourist agency owner as saying.

"People cannot sleep all night long and they came here to rest. It's horrible," Marino Jakovcevic Martinov said.

Jakovcevic Martinov said the approximately dozen roosters, owned by two octogenarian sisters, had terrorized two small hotels nearby.

"Out of 12 reservations in one house, 11 were canceled and tourists left the island, while one family accepted an alternative accommodation far away from the roosters," he was quoted as saying.

Despite being fined over the noise, the birds' owners, Mirjana Novakovic, 80, and her elder sister Tereza, said complaining villagers were simply envious, the report said.

Tourism on Croatia's stunning Adriatic coast is the main driver of the small EU member state's economy.