ZAGREB, September 1, 2019 - The Croatian Post earlier this week put in circulation postage stamps with motifs of Croatia's Northern Velebit National Park and South Korea's Seoraksan National Park, in a series created in cooperation with the postal service of the Republic of Korea, the Korea Post.

The HP says that "the stamps have been issued in 9-stamp sheetlets and Croatian Post has also issued a First Day Cover (FDC)."

Jihyeong Ryu, a designer from Seoul, is the designer of the mark dedicated to Seoraksan National Park’s vast expanse, which amounts up to 398 km² in total and which boasts "one of the most spectacular sceneries in Korea, with its awe-inspiring thirty mountain peaks".

The HT recalls that the Velebit Mountain is a natural border between inland and Mediterranean Croatia.

"The Northern Velebit National Park was established in 1999 with an area of 109 km². The Park encompasses several areas under special protection, as well as numerous hiking trails."

The designer of the Northern Velebit stamp is Split-based Duje Šegvić.

There will be 150,000 copies of each stamp in circulation.

The nominal value is 8.60 kuna.

In February 2018, the government-owned HP issued a commemorative stamp on the occasion of the 9-25 February Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. The designer of that commemorative stamp is Mario Petrak. and the nominal value of the stamp is 5.80 kuna.

More news about Croatian Post can be found in the Lifestyle section.

As Marija Crnjak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 7th of August, 2019, Croatia's Carwiz rent-a-car service has now entered into a cooperation agreement with a South Korean partner, Dongbo Air Service, one of the largest car, air, rail and water service providers in the whole of South Korea.

"Our entrance onto the market of South Korea is a step based on analysis and figures, so we're pleased that the partners have accepted our proposal with both hands. It is important to point out that the market is changing, as are the habits of South Korean tourists, who have in recent years become a group of tourists who have gone from exclusively organised tourists, to being more and more inclined to arranging their own travel plans,'' said Krešimir Dobrilović, the founder and director of Croatia's very successful Carwiz rent-a-car company.

This Croatian company went on to explain the fact that South Korean users of these types of services differ quite significantly from European users, in that the age of the vehicle they're going to be using plays an important role, as do all of its available accessories, from GoPro cameras, all the way to WiFi availability, without which they almost cannot imagine going about their lives and travelling.

"Compared to European tourists, Koreans are less price-sensitive and thus willing to set aside a larger budget so that they have absolutely everything they need to make their trip an unforgettable experience," Dobrilović added. Back in June this year, the company announced that it had launched a franchise business on the Caribbean market, more specifically in St. Maarten, a business move on which we reported.

That marked Carwiz International's first business move towards overseas markets. Negotiations are ongoing on the positioning of Croatia's Carwiz rent-a-car on other, surrounding Caribbean islands, which after Croatia, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latvia, Cyprus, Morocco, Turkey, Serbia and Albania has finalised this company's additional global positioning.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for much more.

July 11, 2019 - Help Teodora Lazovic, a fantastic asset for Croatian-Korean tourism, win this language contest and a trip to Korea. 

Firstly, congratulations, Korea - what a great idea and way to promote your language. Something that Croatia could imitate, perhaps. Invite Korean-speaking foreigners around the world to send in a video about themselves and their connection to Korea - in Korean. The winner receives a trip to the country they have fallen in love with.

And a young lady from Zagreb is in pole position to win - and you can help Teodora Lazovic over the line by liking and commenting on her video below. Even though I don't speak a word of Korean, her self-taught Korean sounds incredible. Read on!

This year has been a great year for Croatian – Korean relations, starting with Korean Air’s establishment of the first direct line from Incheon to Zagreb, to opening both the Croatian tourism board office and the Croatian Consulate in Seoul. The tourism board must be doing something right with Koreans being by far the most numerous tourist group in Zagreb and topping the tourist charts in Split and Dubrovnik as well. This has all resulted in a joint Korean-Croatian police force cooperation from July to September in these three cities as part of the Safe Tourism Season project.

Croatia has yet another surprise for Korea this season and it’s a Croatian girl who speaks fluent Korean. You might think you read it wrong, but if you don’t believe me, go and see it for yourself. Just 2 days before the deadline, Teodora entered the 4th KBS World Radio Korean language contest and managed to jump from last to first place in less than 24 hours. The competition is international, and she is so far the only representative of the Ex-Yu region. The only three other European countries represented are Turkey, Germany and France.

With no certified Korean language course in Croatia, learning from her own room is an accomplishment that we slowly begin to see globally with millennials learning everything online from their homes. A good reason to support her in this competition is not just the effort she put in learning such an unrepresented and exotic language in Croatia but also her passion for promoting Croatia in Korea. The only evaluation criteria for the preliminary round are views and likes on the YouTube video, and if you still haven’t clicked on the link up there, here are some other great reasons to think about streaming it instead.

Her first encounter with Korean culture was taekwondo that she learnt from the only Korean trainer in Croatia, Mr. Hong in Taekwondo club Dubrava. Her love for Korea was further ignited by the phenomenon that is globally known as Korean Wave, a strategically planned promotion of Korean culture through Korean entertainment industry, mainly K-pop and Korean dramas. From just fun and games, she went straight business and made her dreams come true by visiting Korea, working with Korean embassy on various occasions and for a while for Uniline, the best DMC company in Croatia in 2019.

Last year in February she was the youngest tour leader to ever lead Croatian Olympic Committee on their trip, this time around to the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. Last July, she started Korea Croatia Events, a student event management organization focused on Korea-Croatia related events, from K-pop parties, educational workshops and film screenings filling up Cineplexx Cinemas in their full capacity in both Zagreb and Split as well as Kino Valli in Pula (more than 3000 sold tickets) to numerous other successful events in less than a year of their establishment. With a wish of becoming a representative of Croatia in Korea and a through guide for Koreans in Croatia, we think she has a bright and busy future ahead.

Good luck!

Check out Teodora's video entry below and show your support by liking and commenting.

For more news about Croatian-Korean links, check out the dedicated TCN section.

November 14, 2018 - The Korean love affair with Croatia continues, with very strong numbers posted on the new Seoul to Zagreb route, almost 10,000 in the first two months.

One of the more unexpected success stories of Croatian tourism in recent years has been the surge of interest from South Korea, where tourist arrivals have rocketed from 17,000 in 2011 to more than 400,000 a year. As is often the case with Croatian tourism, this success is quite accidental and has its roots in Croatia being the setting of a popular reality TV show, The Romantic. Learn more about the Korean love affair with Croatia via reality TV. 

With such strong interest, Korean Air decided to initiate direct flights between Zagreb and Seoul recently, a decision which has been more than vindicated by early results, which show that almost 10,000 passengers used the service, and Zagreb. According to ExYuAviation:

"Korean Air has carried close to 10.000 passengers on its flights between Seoul and Zagreb during its first two months of operations. The airline handled 4.771 travellers in September and a further 5.148 passengers in October. The carrier's average cabin load factor on the route stood at over 80% for the two-month period, while flights were close to completely full in late September during the Chuseok festival, a major three-day thanksgiving holiday during which demand for travel on the Korean peninsula increases significantly. In September and October, Korean Air maintained three weekly flights between the two capital cities with its three-class 218-seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft."

Read the full story on ExYuAviation.

Seoul is one of an increasing number of direct intercontinental connections Croatia has established in recent years, as it expands its tourism reach. Emirates, Qatar Airways, Transat from Canada all offer direct flights, while American Airlines will fly direct to Dubrovnik from the United States next summer, the first direct US connection in 28 years. 

For the latest flight news to Croatia, click here.

Ivo Josipović attended a utopian summit in South Korea.

More tourists from China and Korea are expected.

Korean tourists are fascinated with Croatia and come mostly outside of the main tourist season.

With tourism to Croatia from South Korean booming, combined with increased trading prospects between the two countries, The Korea Times reports on February 12, 2017 that Croatia will open an embassy in Seoul this year. 

The unlikely love affair between Korean television and Croatia tourism continues on December 19, 2016, with the latest filming which is guaranteed to get thouands on a plane from Seoul to Zagreb. 

I am very grateful to my good friend in Slavonia Slobodan Kadic who has joined the Total Croatia News team for the latest on the surge of tourism promotion that is Koreans to Croatia. The article was written for Total Croatia News, where it can be found after our launch next week. 

by Slobodan Kadic

ZAGREB - The Koreans are again in Croatia! Production company IHQ and Planet E Production in Korea, in cooperation with BALDUČI films from Zagreb, recorded four episodes of the new reality show "THE FRIENDS" on July 2-7/ The show will have an audience of eight million viewers, will be screened on four channels in eight episodes. This is the third time they have come to record in Croatia, and as the two previous shows had high ratings, Croatia and Zagreb became the sites that tourists from Korea visited in far greater numbers. We believe that this show will be as successful and that through this show again there will be a good promotion of Croatian.

The story involves the three actors, and one of them is Jang Hyuk, currently a top movie star in Korea. The popularity of actors is evident by the fact that Korean tourists strolling Zagreb recognized and photographed their heroes in amazement - says Spomenka Saraga, the famous producer who is participating in the project on the Croatian side.

The Korean team consists of 32 members, of which nine cameramen, four screenwriters and four directors. It is co-produced on the Korean side by LEE JAE EUN, and Croatian producer Spomenka Saraga.

Support to the project has been given by the Ministry of Tourism; Croatian National Tourist Board; Zagreb Tourist Board, Rovinj and the Tourist Association of Rovinj, Pula and Pula Tourist Board; Plitvice Lakes and Licko-Senjso County, which did not charge for filming on their territory.

A little more on the main star from Spomenka's Facebook page:

New Korean Reality Show - The Friends - in Croatia

Main actor’s name is Hyuk Jang, who is one of the top movie stars in Korea. He has plenty of fans because of his romantic and masculine image. Lots of dramas and films –for example, The Flu, Deep Tooted Tree, The Slave Hunters- those he performed were hits in Korea. He also won over 15 prizes for his work with TV dramas and films.