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.

October 12, 2020 – A decade of tourism promotion in Croatia. As Croatian Hot Spots magazine celebrates 10 years, owner Maja Zlokic on promoting tourism in Croatia. 

This interview first appeared in Croatian on Dalmatinski Portal.

The new coronavirus pandemic has undoubtedly changed the world to its foundations, and tourism, as one of the most susceptible industries to the virus, has suffered a huge blow in all segments. However, the leading people of domestic tourism and experts who know this profession to the core, agreed on one thing – in slang, we should get back on our feet and adapt to the new normal.

We talked to Maja Zlokic, a marketing expert, editor of Croatia Hot Spots magazine, and the hotspots.net.hr portal, about the basic requirements of a new tourist – high safety and hygiene standards, but also fast and reliable information.

You are the editor of Croatia Hot Spots magazine and one of the most read tourist portals in the Republic of Croatia, hotspots.net.hr. How did this story start and in what direction is it developing?

We started with Croatia Hot Spots magazine 10 years ago. We have 20 editions behind us, and over 5,000 published topics and articles that promote Croatian destinations and projects in tourism. We were among the first to start writing tourist blogs and promotional texts about Croatian destinations, which thematically revive the rich tourist heritage. In a very short period, the digital version of Croatia Hot Spots became the leader among portals on this topic, which was recognized by more than 70 local and 10 county tourist boards, mainly of the most popular Croatian destinations, which joined the project. In addition to our media, we have become distinctive for media leasing and planning in foreign markets. We started with a series of new projects and cooperation with the best Croatian communication and marketing experts.

Who are your readers and what topics interest them most?

As many as 75 percent of our readers are from Croatia and the countries of the region, and we can be proud of the 25 percent of foreign readers who follow the English version. They are most interested in affirmative articles that carry lived experiences and creative tourist products. Readers are looking for a story through which they will experience the destination and wish to travel to it quickly.

What does advertising look like in the post-COVID period?

The Covid-19 crisis hurt all industries, both tourism, and advertising. The best ones in the COVID and post-COVID period recognized the opportunity for themselves. It’s time to be creative and brave. The company's business needs to communicate and maintain contact with its customers and follow communication trends within the industry. Any such form of communication can bring fresh ideas and positive experiences on how to plan business in the next period.

Since you're specialized in destination promotion, what is the key to advertising them in this uncertain period?

The global coronavirus pandemic has indeed had a strong impact on international tourism trends. Croatia has sun and coast and historical heritage, very rich gastronomy, and rural destinations. It is extremely important to create a lively dialogue between our coastal and rural destinations and to convey everything that our rural and urban destinations have to offer. Offering year-round tourism can certainly be part of the answer to COVID challenges. On the topic of tourism in the corona time and the role of creativity in creating new promotional activities, in cooperation with the Split-Dalmatia County Tourist Board and Professor Domagoj Bebić, Head of New Media and Head of the Department of Strategic Communication at the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb, once a year we organize a conference called „Tourism and new technologies“, at which tourism entities can be adequately informed about all effective marketing tools in this uncertain time.

Can you give us some positive examples from practice?

Communicating destinations is always a kind of a challenge because a lot has already been seen, but I would like to highlight three promo campaigns.

The one I liked the most was the campaign of the Tourist Board of Bol in cooperation with the communication advisor Hana Klain called „Our Bol Stories“. This was the first time that a destination decided to involve locals in the promotion of their place. Somehow they are always forgotten, and they are the soul of a place. They are people who communicate intensively with guests. We were also involved in campaign promotion and the feedback on the campaign was very good.

The second campaign we were also involved in was the Split-Dalmatia County Tourist Board named „A dream waiting for you“ with great messages and great staff.

As another positive example, we would like to point out the promotional campaign of the Tourist Board of Jelsa, which at the time of the pandemic relied on its tried and tested model from the 70's – great boarding house accommodation and personalized, individual approach to the guest. Even in corona time, it brought occupancy of accommodation capacities of as much as 70 percent!

To what extent have the habits of the guests changed? How do they choose a destination?

Tourism today with COVID-19 requires a different attitude towards health and hygiene safety. It requires distance tourism, individual vacation, and high-quality service that can ensure satisfactory hygiene standards – all that Croatian tourism has space and potential for, in wide indented beaches, motives for arrival that do not depend on summer, and in small, authentic, yet undiscovered destinations. Therefore, it is important to carefully create campaigns that respond to the needs of today's tourists. The changes in demand, habits, and expectations of guests that have occurred will remain, in part or in full. The guest is looking for fast and accurate information.

What about private accommodation? How much does a small renter have to work on marketing to attract a guest?

We suspect that in addition to the presentation of the facility, hygienic safety, the position of the facility, picturesque surroundings, proximity to top beaches, it's important to have a personalized, friendly approach to the guest full of trust. A good price-quality ratio of accommodation, a friendly family atmosphere, and a friendly host is a model that has been nurtured for many years and is now even more important. Also, it is important to communicate it all well. That’s why we regularly provide our readers with tips on how to communicate with guests in corona time. Our column is led by Barbara Marković, a family accommodation expert.

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