Face-to-face: Ivona Grgan, director of the UK Croatia National Tourist Office
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What factors have helped drive the 13% increase in UK visitors to Croatia in 2015?
We’re delighted to welcome more and more visitors from the UK. Croatia offers a huge variety of holiday breaks and there is still a lot for tourists to discover outside of the main tourist hotspots. I think a key driver is value for money, especially compared to many other popular Eurozone holiday destinations. For example a typical 3-course restaurant meal in somewhere like Split only costs around 25 GBP and a stay in a 3 star hotel costs between 50-80 GBP on average, meaning your well-earned holiday money really does stretch further.
More regular flights to the country has also helped, for example British Airways has doubled its flights from Heathrow to Split and now flies to the city four times a week. A certain TV programme has also helped drive interest in filming locations like Dubrovnik. I think another important factor was the Full of Life marketing campaign we launched last year, designed to promote the rich and varied activities and experiences on offer throughout Croatia from historical hotspots to fine wines and world-class music festivals.
What are the most popular destinations in Croatia for UK visitors and why?
Traditionally British tourists have been drawn to Dubrovnik for history and culture and of course also to our beaches during the summer to take advantage of the reliable hot weather. British tourists also love to visit our islands. In recent years the region of Istria has become more popular and we’ve seen the biggest growth rate in British visitors to Split, on the Dalmatian coast, which combines beaches with history, culture and amazing architecture.
What plans do you have to attract more UK visitors to Croatia in terms of flights, partnerships with tour operators, promotions/marketing campaigns, incentives, awareness, etc?
We have lots of plans to try and attract more UK visitors, particularly outside of the traditional holiday season. We really want to continue to build on the Full of Life marketing campaign, launched last year to showcase parts of Croatia that are less well-known to British tourists, such as cycling and adventure sports in mid Dalmatia, cultural activities and tours throughout the country, wine tasting in Istria, and city breaks. We are also looking to highlight the wealth of cultural events the country has to offer; such as the popular music festivals (Hideout, Outlook, Fresh) which are very popular with young UK holidaymakers and other food, drink, fashion, sport and music events.
We are also looking to attract more visitors to Croatia’s inland areas; the Lika and Gorski Kotar regions offer an array of activities such as bear watching, hiking in the national parks and cave visits and Slavonia is good for bird watching, long walks among the meadows and also an authentic Croatian food and wine experience.
We’re working closely with a lot of new tour operators who are considering adding new holidays to Croatia this year, to develop fun and creative holiday packages to encourage more people to visit for example, food and wine tours and adventure breaks. We’ll also want to highlight the new flight routes starting this year – Jet2 will be introducing additional flights from Manchester to Pula and Dubrovnik and EasyJet will launch a new flight from Bristol to Dubrovnik starting from June 19th 2016. A new terminal at Zagreb airport, due to open in March 2017, will also help attract more UK visitors. We are also encouraging tour operators that already offer Croatia to extend and develop their programmes with additional thematic itineraries and to consider other lesser-known parts of the country as well.
And what role does the UK travel trade play in helping drive more business to Croatia? How will you incentivise the trade to sell the destination in 2016?
The travel trade is of course really key to us and we’ll be working closely with the trade this year to try and increase awareness of the variety of different holiday breaks Croatia has to offer, particularly pre and post season. We’re keen to hold workshops with travel agents and organise FAM trips so they can see specific areas of Croatia for themselves, so they can really help sell Croatia to their clients. As part of this we’re looking at developing online training opportunities and several competitions, to help incentivise the travel companies to talk about Croatia.
What particular areas of Croatia are you promoting to the UK market and why?
There’s so much more for UK visitors to explore outside of the main tourist hotspots and breaks for all traveller tastes, from adventure sports to wine tasting and gastronomy holidays. We’re sure there are lots of people from the UK who would love to experience the thrill of caving, mountain biking and paragliding in the Velebit mountains or kayaking and rafting in Cetina. For those after a more sedate break, Istria is a perfect destination for a more gourmet holiday- enjoying some of the top Croatian wines, fresh fish or going truffle hunting. We’ll also be promoting city breaks to Zagreb this year, a hidden gem among European capital cities, it will be hosting a variety of events this year as well as its incredible Christmas markets and with twice daily flights from the UK year round it’s really easy to get to. Zadar is another city we are keen to promote having just been voted the Best European Destination 2016.
Interestingly, despite an obvious appetite for sailing in the UK, we see far fewer people from the UK come to Croatia for sailing holidays than other European countries, so sailing trips around our stunning coastline are definitely something we’ll be highlighting in our marketing activity this year. Travellers have more than 1,200 islands to choose from when sailing around Croatia, many of which are well connected with the facilities to enable you to hop on and off the boat and explore the island by bike.
What are five key points the UK trade can promote when selling Croatia?
Value for money: People work hard to save up money for a holiday and Croatia, unlike many Eurozone countries still offers excellent value for money, for example a good meal with wine will often be below 25 GBP per person.
Wine and food: Croatia has lots to offer when it comes to wine and food- our wines are becoming more popular than ever and a gastronomy tour will allow visitors to sample our unique Croatian Mediterranean dishes.
Variety: Croatia has something for everyone, whether you want a sun, sea and sand holiday in the summer, an adventure sports break or to immerse yourself in history and culture in Zagreb or Zadar.
Festivals and events: We have a huge number of festivals and events each year, from our world class music festivals which attract top DJs from around the world, such as Hideout to cultural events, such as the Pula film festival, where you can have fun and immerse yourself in modern Croatian culture.
Proximity: It only takes two hours to fly to Croatia from the UK, making it perfect for short breaks as well as longer holidays.
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