PR TEXT - June 7, 2022 - The unique international meeting of travel influencers, an innovative project organized by the Split-Dalmatia County Tourist Board and led by the director Joško Stella and Croatian Hotspots magazine editor, Maja Zlokić, has come to an end. Local influencer Horvat Čagalj shares his thoughts.
About thirty influencers from Croatia and all over the world - from Italy, Poland, and Great Britain, all the way to Brazil and Korea, enjoyed events as part of the 1st International Meeting of Travel Influencers in Split-Dalmatia county. They visited Dalmatia and discovered the best the County has to offer. They returned from the trip full of impressions, reports Dalmatinski Portal.
The first among them is Horvat Čagalj, whose social networks are full of content. A two-time participant in Big Brother and a law graduate, Čagalj spontaneously became an influencer, and over 28,000 people follow his Instagram profile.
"I think that nowadays, organizing an international meeting of influencers is an excellent move made by the Split-Dalmatia County Tourist Board. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your great hospitality. I think this is the easiest, and I would dare say the most efficient and cheapest way to promote a destination. To host such a large number of influencers in one place, who shared content about the county on their profiles for days, certainly reached a large audience. Thousands of people have 'virtually stayed' in Central Dalmatia. Among them is certainly many of them who will want to visit the places we visited after posting. They got first-hand impressions and useful information about a destination through stories and posts. In addition, the efficiency of posting on social networks is great," says Horvat Čagalj, who gained some new friendships at the 1st International Meeting of Travel Influencers.
"There were a few already famous people, but I still made a lot of acquaintances, mainly from Poland, and a few local influencers that I had not had the opportunity to meet before."
As it is popularly said, Central Dalmatia lit up social networks, and how could it not when the organizers prepared an exciting program. Their stay began in Split, continued at the Klis Fortress with the historical Kliška Uskoks. On the second day, the influencers were received by the County prefect Blaženko Boban. They also visited the popular Biokovo Skywalk and the WTA tournament in Makarska. On the third day, they visited the islands, enjoyed the beautiful Zlatni Rat in Bol, and wine tasting at the popular Stina winery. They also visited the Hvar Theater and Arsenal, and spent the same evening socializing at sunset on the Hvar Fortress. On the fourth day, they visited the magical Pakleni Islands and Inland Dalmatia - Sinj, the Sinjska Alka Museum, and the Red and Blue Lakes.
"Each place has its own story, everything was magical and superbly presented. Klis was interesting to me because of the popular Game of Thrones series and the history with the Turks. The Skywalk on Biokovo cannot leave anyone indifferent, and I have not visited it before, so I especially enjoyed it. Also, for the first time, I visited the oldest theater on Hvar, which has been renovated. It is always nice to discover some new beauties and cultural sights in our country," said Horvat, who often travels and discovers new destinations. He also admitted the shortcomings of Croatian tourism.
"We have so many advantages over other destinations, and sometimes we are not aware of that because we live there. I think the biggest drawback is that we don't have a lot of direct flights to many destinations, so the most beautiful destinations are still too expensive for us. There are also shortcomings of insufficiently trained and professional people in tourism."
Horvat praised the idea of the organizers for the interesting conference and round table on 'The impact of influencers on the tourism industry'.
"We certainly exchanged useful information, primarily which agencies to work with, which destinations are most interesting, how to reduce travel costs, what to look out for when it comes to safety, and how to take a good photo. It would certainly be useful to have more such and similar conferences," concluded the local influencer.
For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.
