Almost anyone seriously invested in the matters of Croatian tourism, wine and food, has heard of G.E.T Report, a magazine and website published by G.E.T. association from Zagreb, which does tourist promotions a bit differently. Tomislav Stiplošek, the president of the association gave an interview, explaining what their goal is, and promoting the G.E.T stars - categories the association has started awarding to the Croatian wineries.

Bijeli Grozd (White Grape) is a yearly award given by the association to the wineries that excel in wine tourism, Stiplošek explains.

It's important to note that these days, wine tourism is one of the fastest-growing kinds of tourism, and one in four or five guests in Croatia will tell you that they came to Croatia to explore wine and food here. Wineries in Croatia are, of course, not just the wine cellars anymore, they're trying to get as much going as possible: hotels, innovative cuisine, creating experiences out of wine tastings - which makes them proper tourist destinations in themselves.

At the beginning, nobody seemed to understand what the idea behind the Bijeli Grozd award was, not even the winemakers themselves, but today it has become a prestigious award, everyone know what it's about, and the winemakers want to have it. Zagreb's VINOcom festival is the host of the awards ceremony at the Hotel Esplanade in Zagreb, and Staklarna Rogaška makes the trophy which is awarded.

In addition to the awards, the association is starting with their project of awarding the G.E.T. Stars to the wineries, as a kind of unofficial category for wineries.

They've been working on that project for the past few years, and after a lot of field work, they're ready to present their results to the public. They've received no support from the "higher-ups" (as mr. Stiplošek diplomatically puts it), so they're doing it on their own.

The rules for the categories are complex and strict, and you can see them on the Centre for Development of Wine Tourism's website: https://centar.get4u.hr/ (it's only available in Croatian, unfortunately). But to make a long story short: everything is important, wine, food, access, accommodation, how it fits into the environment and many other factors. A wide spectrum of people are involved in the categorisation, wine critics, architects, designers, journalists, and even some "world travellers". They all give their opinions, and then then the categories are assigned. The categories are as follows:

Recommendation: they are lacking in some of the important criteria to be awarded a star, but they should be interesting to the visitors
One Star: the wineries who meet all the requirements for a good tourist presentation
Two Stars: the wineries that offer everything a tourist needs, including accommodation, either of their own or near by
Three Stars: the wineries who are above average with what they offer, their standards are high and they put effort into staying true to the indigenous products and customs
Excellence Star: the wineries who meet the conditions for three stars, but also have additional content that raises them to a higher standard, such as a private marina for yachts, an equestrian or a golf club, luxury level or similar

Initially, the tourists will be able to recognise the G.E.T stars label given to the wineries, but a multilingual online guide with the information about the wineries is now being created. They hope that in the future, their categories will be added to the roadside directions as well.

Tomislav Stiplošek adds that the promotion of the G.E.T stars project in the media will happen in late August, and that their goal is to become for the wineries what Michelin is for the restaurants. Ambitious, but we're holding our fingers crossed for this project!