diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 513e391..80bf8ad 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 sudo: required
 language: java
-install: true 
-
+jdk: openjdk11
+install: skip
 
 services:
   - docker
@@ -9,24 +9,28 @@ services:
 jobs:
   include:
     - stage: build (compile, unit test, package)
-      language: java
-      jdk: openjdk11
-      install: skip
       script: travis/build.sh
 
-    - stage: container creation and publishing
-      install: skip
-      script: travis/containerCreation.sh
+    - stage: container creation
+      script:
+        - travis/containerCreation.sh
 
     - stage: smoke and acceptance test
+      language: minimal
       install: skip # without this there's a `git clone` and `gradlew assemble` executed!
       script: travis/acceptanceTest.sh
 
-    - stage: release
-      if: branch = master AND NOT type IN (pull_request)
+    - stage: release and tag on DockerHub
+      if: tag =~ ^v[0-9.]*$
+      language: minimal
       install: skip
-      script: travis/release.sh
-      post_script: travis/delete-dockerhub-images.sh
+      deploy:
+        provider: script
+        script: travis/release.sh
+        on:
+          tags: true
+      after_deploy:
+        - travis/delete-dockerhub-images.sh
 
 import:
   - docs/.travis.yml
diff --git a/docs/.travis.yml b/docs/.travis.yml
index 1da5117..c537a3b 100644
--- a/docs/.travis.yml
+++ b/docs/.travis.yml
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 jobs:
   include:
     - stage: generate docs
-      if: branch = master AND NOT type IN (pull_request)
+      if: tag =~ ^v[0-9.]*$
+      language: minimal
+      install: skip
 
       # Assume that 'docker' service is stated at the Travis global level. It seems that re-stating it here confuses Travis.
       # services:
diff --git a/travis/containerCreation.sh b/travis/containerCreation.sh
index 9278c28..c206b89 100755
--- a/travis/containerCreation.sh
+++ b/travis/containerCreation.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 # fail fast settings from https://dougrichardson.org/2018/08/03/fail-fast-bash-scripting.html
-set -euov pipefail
+set -eov pipefail
 
 # obtain current repository name
 REPO_LOCAL_PATH=`git rev-parse --show-toplevel`
@@ -18,6 +18,10 @@ buildTag=travis_$TRAVIS_BUILD_NUMBER # We use a temporary build number for taggi
 docker build -t eoepca/${REPO_NAME} .
 docker tag eoepca/${REPO_NAME} eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:$buildTag # Tags container in EOEPCA repository with buildTag
 
-echo "$DOCKER_PASSWORD" | docker login -u "$DOCKER_USERNAME" --password-stdin
-
-docker push eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:$buildTag   # defaults to docker hub EOEPCA repository
+if [ -n "${DOCKER_USERNAME}" -a -n "${DOCKER_PASSWORD}" ]
+then
+  echo "$DOCKER_PASSWORD" | docker login -u "$DOCKER_USERNAME" --password-stdin
+  docker push eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:$buildTag   # defaults to docker hub EOEPCA repository
+else
+  echo "WARNING: No credentials - Cannot push to docker hub"
+fi
diff --git a/travis/release.sh b/travis/release.sh
index b163ca9..e0f6a09 100755
--- a/travis/release.sh
+++ b/travis/release.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 # fail fast settings from https://dougrichardson.org/2018/08/03/fail-fast-bash-scripting.html
-set -euov pipefail
+set -eov pipefail
 
 # Check presence of environment variables
 TRAVIS_BUILD_NUMBER="${TRAVIS_BUILD_NUMBER:-0}"
@@ -13,13 +13,18 @@ REPO_NAME=`basename $REPO_LOCAL_PATH`
 # Create a Docker image and tag it as 'travis_<build number>'
 buildTag=travis_$TRAVIS_BUILD_NUMBER # We use a temporary build number for tagging, since this is a transient artefact
 
-echo "$DOCKER_PASSWORD" | docker login -u "$DOCKER_USERNAME" --password-stdin
-docker pull eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:${buildTag}  # have to pull locally in order to tag as a release
+if [ -n "${DOCKER_USERNAME}" -a -n "${DOCKER_PASSWORD}" ]
+then
+  echo "$DOCKER_PASSWORD" | docker login -u "$DOCKER_USERNAME" --password-stdin
+  docker pull eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:${buildTag}  # have to pull locally in order to tag as a release
 
-# Tag and push as a Release following the SemVer approach, e.g. 0.1.1-Alpha
-docker tag eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:${buildTag} eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:release_${TRAVIS_TAG} # This recovers the GitHub release/tag number
-docker push eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:release_${TRAVIS_TAG}
+  # Tag and push as a Release following the SemVer approach, e.g. 0.1.1-Alpha
+  docker tag eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:${buildTag} eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:${TRAVIS_TAG} # This recovers the GitHub release/tag number
+  docker push eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:${TRAVIS_TAG}
 
-# Tag and push as `latest`
-docker tag eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:${buildTag} eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:latest
-docker push eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:latest
+  # Tag and push as `latest`
+  docker tag eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:${buildTag} eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:latest
+  docker push eoepca/${REPO_NAME}:latest
+else
+  echo "WARNING: No credentials - Cannot push to docker hub"
+fi