ZAGREB, 22 Oct 2021 - The Krapina Neanderthal Museum and Hušnjakovo site have been awarded the prestigious European Cultural Tourism Network (ECTN) Award 2021 in the category for Archaeological Sites and Museums as Cultural Tourism Attractions, the Ministry of Culture and Media reported on Friday.

The museum won the award thanks to the excellent modern presentation of its pre-historic, archaeological and anthropological topics, and in particular, because it has the status of an unavoidable cultural-tourism destination in Europe with more than 100,000 visitors a year from around the globe, the ministry said in a press release.

The reasoning for the award notes the creative methods of working with children and young people and cooperation with the local community, where the museum is the generator of the main cultural events and an example of good practice of sustainable cultural tourism in the area.

Thanks to this award the museum has confirmed its European dimension and recognisability. This is proof that the culture of the Krapina Neanderthal has become a brand of global proportions, the ministry said.

Other finalists in the same category included the Nerezinac Lugger – sailing interpretation centre of the maritime heritage of the island of Lošinj and the Zenica City Museum in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Two other Croatian museums were among ECTN finalists in other categories - Rab Archaeological (T)races and the Museum of Chocolate in Zagreb.

ECTN is a pan-European network of destinations, authorities, NGOs and research institutes for Sustainable Cultural Tourism development and promotion across Europe.

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January 24, 2021 – Croatian cultural and archaeological heritage is insufficiently known about and attracts only up to 5 million visitors a year, while the Italian Pompeii attracts as many as 12 million a year. This comparison indicates a big opportunity for the development of special forms of Croatian cultural tourism.

Croatia has a huge cultural and tourist potential, and in order to use it, we need to change the approach and create new types of experts in this field. This is one of the conclusions presented at the final conference of the ArhKonTur – Archaeological Conceptual Tourism Guiding project, organised by the Libertas University. As the Ministry of Tourism and Sports reports, the conference was also attended by Alessandra Priante, UNWTO Director for Europe.

ArhKonTur conference / Ministry of Tourism and Sports

The European Institute of Cultural Routes' director, Stefano Dominioni, said during the conference that since 2016, with its activities, Croatia has made great progress by being included in the project of cultural routes of the Council of Europe. Currently, Croatia is involved in 13 international routes, and we also have initiatives for routes whose starting point would be here.

"Culture 3.0 builds a deeper relationship between tourists and hosts at the destination based on the inclusion of guests and the creation of cultural content," said professor Greg Richards from BREDA University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, on contemporary trends in cultural tourism.

Richards believes that Croatia could soon be positioned as a cultural destination by educating new experts, tbe innovative interpretation of cultural heritage, and the use of new technologies and augmented reality that allows guests to have a more intense experience of both tangible and intangible heritage.

It is interesting, Richards points out, that destinations' mobile applications download an average of only 1000 users, which means that the approach to communication with the guest must change.

Bettany Hughes, a well-known historian and author of TV documentaries, pointed out that a well-told story always brings results. After her TV series about Egypt, British interest and bookings for that destination increased fourfold. Her documentaries reach as many as 250 million viewers on well-known television networks. She announced the filming of the series "Wonderful Treasures" with the intention of dedicating one of the episodes to Croatia.

ArhKonTur conference

The ArhKonTur project offers a solution to the lack of specialist professional and pedagogical competencies of lecturers and the lack of education models for specific areas of archaeological tourism. The project is co-financed by the European Social Fund. Three completely new specialist training programmes have since been developed to offer sustainable and responsible archaeological tourism, as well as conceptual tourism management.

The first generation of 40 specialist guides of hard-to-employ groups in the labour market, young people up to 25 years of age and those older than 54 years of age have completed the training. A handbook was also prepared in both English and Croatian on trends in archaeological tourism, as was an interpretive guide for seven selected sites in seven Croatian counties.

In addition, the Ministry of Tourism and Sport, the EUSAIR Facility Point's project partner and the coordinator of the Sustainable Tourism of the Adriatic-Ionian Strategy, is already responding to the need of developing cultural tourism through their activities. They focus on improving the existing cultural tourism information system through the CulTourAIR project, part of which is a Handbook of Participatory Tourism which connects community and culture through storytelling, which has since been developed.

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