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Croatia is spending €5 million over the next six months to promote its new ‘Croatia 365’ tourism marketing initiative.
Tourism Minister Darko Lorencin announced the plans at the opening of The Travel Network Group’s conference in Split on Friday (October 3).
He will also be in London this week with representatives of 22 Croatian destinations to promote the programme, as the UK and German markets are the most important to the country.
As well as wooing the UK travel industry via events such the TTNG conference and the trade mission in London, the ministry is promoting Croatia to consumers by sponsoring the new BBC Earth TV channel.
‘Croatia 365’ aims to attract tourists year-round, highlighting activities beyond the summer sun and beach attractions, such as culture, food and wine, active and cycling holidays, wellness and business tourism.
More than 350 agents and tour operators attended the TTNG conference, which was sponsored by the Croatian National Tourist Board and the Split-Dalmatia County Tourist Board.
Gary Lewis, TTNG managing director, said: “Having our conference in Split is a great opportunity for our members and business partners to experience first-hand what the destination has to offer, so they can then promote the region to their customers and colleagues when they return to the UK.”
The numbers of British visitors to Croatia has risen in each of the past three years and this year has continued to see strong growth.
Croatia welcomed more than 409,000 UK visitors in 2013, up by 23% on 2012. From January to July 2014, there were almost 232,000 British visitors, up 11% year-on-year.
It also joined the European Union last year, which tourism bosses hope will continue to improve the image of Croatia.
Lorencin said: “The UK market is rising because of the changes we have made over recent years, adapting our tourism product to the British.
“Now we are showing the UK market what we have to offer in the shoulder seasons, and in our hinterland, which has different offerings to the coast.
“We are very happy to have all these people here at this conference – it is very important that they see Split and the different products we have. It is a great honour to have all these specialists.”