July 3, 2019 - As we have previously announced, the ancient amphitheater in Pula will transform into a football field for the first time in history on July 8 for a spectacular sporting event which will feature the legends of Bayern Munich and the legends of the Croatia national team. This spectacle is the result of the strategic partnership between the Istria County Tourist Board and the powerful Bavarian club which was agreed year ago and will continue for three years, reports HRTurizam.

The basic idea of the strategic partnership was to combine two premium brands that would help to identify quality and superior products by linking marketing activities in the offline and online segment, e-marketing, social networks, and a specific marketing campaign in collaboration with Bayern.

The strategic partnership allows Istria to cooperate on nine major marketing projects. All projects are positioned so that they take place in the period that is most important for the tourist promotion of Istria, i.e., the winter months and the preseason.

So far, they have accomplished seven of the nine major activities.

1. Selecting and filming three FC Bayern Munich players as the main testimonials for the tourist promotion of Istria - significant destination campaigns;

2. Appearance of Bayern representatives at the renowned tourist fair 'Free' in Munich with all relevant promotional activities at the fair;

3. Matchdaypresenter intended for owners, co-owners and strategic partners;

4. Promotion of Istria through all channels in the online and offline segment with all presentation channels at the Allianz Arena for seven days;

5. Matchdaypresenter intended for media representatives;

6. A communication campaign through all of FC Bayern Munich's channels worth €150,000;

7. Ticket package for promotion of Istria at the Allianz Arena in Munich

The remaining two are also the most important projects - the annual workshop of FC Bayern Munich (which was just held from June 25-27) and the best way to complete the first year of cooperation - the legends match between Croatia and FC Bayern Munich. 

The football legends of Bayern Munich and the Croatia national team will meet at the Pula Arena on July 8. The ancient amphitheater will transform into a football field or, more accurately, due to the lack of space, a futsal field, for the very first time. 

The Istria County Tourist Board announced the names of some of the Bayern Munich legends we can expect in Pula, including Ivica Olić, Paulo Sergio, Giovane Elber, Martín DeMichelis, Luca Toni, Klaus Augenthaler and Marcel Witeczek.

Some of the famous footballers who will represent Croatia are Stipe Pletikosa, Robert Jarni, Ivan Klasnić, Marjan Mrmić, Ardian Koznik, Petar Krpan, and Ognjen Vukojević.

Inside the arena, a small field of 40 meters by 20 meters will installed. 

Between the games, the experience will be complemented by a music program and numerous performances, and after the winner is announced, the VIP Lounge in the Arena will continue with an entertainment program and DJs.

Schedule of events:

20:00 - 20:30 Junior’s match

20:30 Event announcement with a presentation of partners and sponsors

          Presentation of all teams (two ‘Vatreni’ and two Bayern Munich teams)

          Draw

20:50 – 21:15 First semi-final match

21:20 – 21:45 Second semi-final match

21:45 – 21:55 Music program/Performances

22:00 – 22:25 Match for third place

22:30 – 22:55 Final

The games are followed by an awards ceremony and after-party with DJs in the VIP lounge of the Arena.

FC Bayern Munich is the 4th most valuable club in the world and one of the main brands in Germany, and the key is the market. Namely, Germany is Croatia’s most significant and largest broadcast market, and within Germany, Bavaria certainly has the largest share. Thus, the strategic partnership between FC Bayern Munich and Istria is certainly one of the largest and most significant marketing projects in tourism.

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

An innovative tourism promotion from Varazdin County in one of Croatia's most versatile locations, as Croatian naive art is celebrated in hot air ballooning style in Pula on June 22, 2019.

A rather unusual sight for Pula residents and tourists a few years ago, as the Pula Arena, the 6th largest Roman amphitheatre in the world, welcomed yet one more innovative tourism project. 

The Arena, which has already hosted an ice hockey tournament, various concerts from the biggest name in music, and soon a match between legends of Croatia and Bayern Munich, welcomed an altogether different event a few days ago, as Varazdin County arrived in Istria to present its tourism offer to the people and tourism of Istria. 

Varazdin food and wine specialities were accompanied by traditional music and dance, and the entire event was protected by the UNESCO-protected Purgeri soldiers of the Varazdin Guard, but by far the star attraction was the hot air balloon, which took centre stage.

Hot air ballooning is popular in the Zagorje region, and there is an annual Ballooning Rally, which takes place in April. The balloon which starred in Pula showcased one of the most famous works of one of Varazdin County's most famous cultural icons - The Flower Celebrates by Ivan Rubazin of Novi Marof, one of the stars of the Croatian naive art scene. 

There is a wonderful video of the event, which can only be viewed via this link, as well as a short video report by HRT. For more information on the event, the Varazdin County Tourist Board has issued a press release, which you can read here. 

To learn more about the amazing events held at Pula Arena, check out the dedicated TCN page, and to follow the latest news from Varazdin County, TCN's coverage of Varazdin can be found here. 

On Tuesday, the low-cost carrier easyJet launched its new route between Amsterdam and Pula, reports HRTurizam on June 26, 2019.

The inaugural flight, which operated using the Airbus A320 aircraft, was scheduled to land at 19:40, but arrived 10 minutes earlier, at 19:30. The flight carried 110 passengers to Pula, while 94 passengers were on the flight departing back to Amsterdam. The new route will operate twice a week, on Tuesdays and Sundays, until September 1, 2019. 

“Compared to the traffic in 2018, up to Monday, we had a 16 percent increase in the number of passengers, which is justified by the repeat flight plan for all existing companies, and new lines on Laudamotion for Stuttgart, Volotea for Bordeaux, Jet2.com for Birmingham, easyJet for Amsterdam and Geneva as well as TUI UK for Doncaster,” said Svemir Radmilo, director of the Pula Airport.

In addition to the newly opened line for Amsterdam, easyJet flies to another ten destinations from Pula.

• Paris on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays until August 30

• Milan on Mondays and Fridays until August 30

• Berlin Schönefeld Tuesdays and Saturdays until August 31

• Berlin Tegel on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays until October 20

• Basel Tuesdays and Saturdays until August 31

• Bristol on Wednesdays and Saturdays until August 31

• Liverpool on Wednesdays and Sundays until October 13

• London Gatwick on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays until October 26

• London Southend on Thursdays and Sundays until October 26

• Geneva on Wednesdays and Saturdays until August 31

Pula’s airport dates back to 1911, when some pilots and engineers from the Austro-Hungarian army took to the air from a grass field. This is the present location of the airport.

Civilian flights began in 1924 with a seaplane service. Seaplanes reappeared briefly to Pula in 2015, but European Coastal Airlines stopped flights in 2016. The seaplane company is presently in pre-bankruptcy proceedings.

The current airport was turned over to civilian use back in 1967, and it proved very successful. 1987 saw Pula handle over 700,000 passengers, a number that would not be bettered until 2018.

For all of your Pula Airport needs, check out Total Croatia. 

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

June 25, 2019 - The football legends of Bayern Munich and the Croatia national team will meet at the Pula Arena on July 8, as part of a spectacular program prepared by the Istria County Tourist Board. The ancient amphitheater will transform into a football field or, more accurately, due to the lack of space, a futsal field, for the very first time. 

Copyright Romulic & Stojcic

The Istria County Tourist Board announced the names of some of the Bayern Munich legends we can expect in Pula, including Ivica Olić, Paulo Sergio, Giovane Elber, Martín DeMichelis, Luca Toni, Klaus Augenthaler and Marcel Witeczek.

Some of the famous footballers who will represent Croatia are Stipe Pletikosa, Robert Jarni, Ivan Klasnić, Marjan Mrmić, Ardian Koznik, Petar Krpan, and Ognjen Vukojević.

Inside the arena, a small field of 40 meters by 20 meters will installed. Presale tickets can be purchased online at ticketshop.hr. Prices begin at 12 euro, and proceeds will be directed to humanitarian purposes.

Between the games, the experience will be complemented by a music program and numerous performances, and after the winner is announced, the VIP Lounge in the Arena will continue with an entertainment program and DJs.

Presale tickets can be purchased at ticketshop.hr, at all Tisak selling points, and the box office in front of Arena on the day of the event. 

Schedule of events:

20:00 - 20:30 Junior’s match

20:30 Event announcement with a presentation of partners and sponsors

          Presentation of all teams (two ‘Vatreni’ and two Bayern Munich teams)

          Draw

20:50 – 21:15 First semi-final match

21:20 – 21:45 Second semi-final match

21:45 – 21:55 Music program/Performances

22:00 – 22:25 Match for third place

22:30 – 22:55 Final

The games are followed by an awards ceremony and after-party with DJs in the VIP lounge of the Arena.

This event is the result of the strategic partnership of Istria and FC Bayern, which was signed in June last year for three-year cooperation.

Before the friendly match, from June 25 to 27, there will be about 110 representatives of the management of the German first-division club, co-owners and strategic partners of Bayern.

The strategic partnership is the largest and most important marketing project in Istrian tourism, and it is also a strategic project in positioning Istria as a destination.

The basic idea of the strategic partnership was to connect two premium brands which would be identified by their quality and top-class products through the networking of marketing activities offline and online, e-marketing, social networks and concrete marketing campaigns in cooperation with Bayern.

In the framework of the strategic partnership, the Istria County Tourist Board has contracted 10 marketing projects to use the strength of the FC Bayern Munich brand and thus incorporate a part of the image and reputation of Bayern into the brand of Istria. This contract represents the biggest and most powerful advance of Istria as a destination in the marketing sense, and the effects of this partnership will have an impact on the global level, primarily thanks to the popularity of the legendary club around the world.

The organizer, the Istria County Tourist Board, promises an unforgettable and unprecedented experience for everyone.

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page. 

Telegram.hr reports on June 17, 2019, that both sold out Foo Fighters’ concerts at the Pula Arena, which will be held on June 18 and 19, will be the first in Croatia to use a specially designed cup to reduce the use of single-use plastic, the Croatian organizer of the shows, the Los Angeles Agency (LAA), announced on Monday. 

The cups will be painted with the motifs of the popular rock band, and after use, visitors can bring them home as a souvenir.

Concerts and festivals are events where a considerable amount of single-use plastic is used and thrown away. Therefore, the organizers of the concert - the LAA and Ožujsko Glazbena Točionica, announced with pride and pleasure that the highly anticipated spectacle in Pula Arena is setting new standards in organizing concerts and events of this type.

“Everyone, on the other hand, can and must face the big world initiatives of reducing the use and throwing away of single-use plastics at concerts and festivals. We are all responsible, and the guys from Foo Fighters, with whom this initiative was launched, are also well aware of it. This is the first concert in the Pula Arena, but also in Croatia, to introduce washable cups, and certainly not the last,” the organizers said. 

Concert-goers will be able to take their cups with them to the bars located within the Arena and the upper end of the amphitheater when ordering drinks. While the cups can be brought home as a souvenir, there will also be several collection stations within the Arena for visitors who wish to leave them. 

The Foo Fighters will perform at the Pula Arena for two sold-out shows, on June 18 and 19, with Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes as the opening act. Doors for the Arena open at 6 pm.

To read more about lifestyle in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

June 16, 2019 - Pula in 4K is the latest release in a stunning set of videos from the team at Cities in 4k. A magical look at Istria's City of Tolerance. 

"Pula is a well known city of Croatia’s Istrian Peninsula. It is also the largest city of Istria.Pula is a well-known city of Croatia’s Istrian Peninsula. It is also the largest city of Istria.

"If you want to know more about this beautiful seafront city watch Pula in 4K. Pula offers a lot, like the protected harbor,beach-lined coast and multitude Roman buildings. The most popular Roman building is the Pula Arena, one of the best preserved Roman amphitheaters.

"Enjoy Pula in 4K on the channel Cities in 4K and take a look at the Pula Arena, the Temple of Augustus,Arch of the Sergii, Aquarium Pula, Cathedral Pula, Venetian Fortress, Brijuni and much more. 

"Pula in 4K Filmed and Edited by Amir Kulaglic using:, GH5,, Sony a7r II and Sony a7r III for Timelapse, Hyperlapse, DJI Mavic Pro 2 for aerial."

To learn more about the wonderful city of Pula, here are 25 things to know from the popular TCN series about Croatia of the same name. 

As Morski writes on the 15th of June, 2019, the prestigious blue flag is now waving at Pula's Veruda marina for the 21st time, confirming the area's safety and level of environmental management for all to see.

Pula Mayor Boris Miletić congratulated the competent concessionaire company, Tehnomont, and expressed his deep satisfaction with the success of the sought-after blue flag's placement for the 21st year in a row, saying that it is both an honour and a source of pride to have the blue flag in the city, more precisely in the marina, as it is an internationally recognisable symbol of environmental and ecological awareness.

Istria County Prefect Velter Flego, who has been in that position since 2013, believes that just one of the motives of tourists wanting to visit the beautiful Croatian region of Istria is precisely its excellently preserved natural resources, such as the area's sea and numerous picturesque beaches, and when it comes to Pula and Istria's quality and cleanliness, events such as the raising of the blue flag for the 21st time speaks volumes.

The blue flag for beaches and marinas is an international environmental program for the protection of the sea and the coastal environment, the primary objective of which is the sustainable management and care of the sea and the coastal belt. This Pula marina has succeeded for the 21st time in seeing the flag raised.

The blue flag is not only highly recognisable and sought-after by many destinations, but is also a very popular tourist ''mark'' in the world today, and it is gradually becoming more and more desired by tourists when choosing a destination for their holidays.

Otherwise, the blue flag itself is awarded by the FEE - The Foundation for Environmental Education, and is given to beaches and marinas that meet very strict criteria. It symbolises a particular destination's tourism offer based on security, safety, and the purity of its sea and coastline.

Follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more.

The football legends of Bayern Munch and the Croatia national team will meet in Pula Arena on July 8, as part of a spectacular program prepared by the Istria County Tourist Board, reports HRTurizam on Jun 10, 2019.

Thus, the Pula Arena will be transformed into a football field, that is, a grass futsal field, for the first time. The ground of the Arena will feature a 40x20 meter field, and tickets will be sold online and at the cashier in front of the Arena. Ticket sales should begin on June 14th.

This event is the result of the strategic partnership of Istria and FC Bayern, which was signed in June last year for three-year cooperation.

Also, before the friendly match, from June 25 to 27, there will be about 110 representatives of the management of the German first-division club, co-owners and strategic partners of Bayern.

The strategic partnership of FC Bayern Munich and Istria is the largest and most important marketing project in tourism. For Istria, it is also a strategic project in positioning the destination

The basic idea of the strategic partnership was to connect two premium brands through which identification of quality and top-class products would be created through the networking of marketing activities offline and online, e-marketing, social networks and concrete marketing campaigns in cooperation with Bayern.

In the framework of the strategic partnership, the Istria County Tourist Board has contracted 10 marketing projects in order to use the strength of the FC Bayern Munich brand and thus incorporate a part of the image and reputation of Bayern into the brand of Istria. This contract represents the biggest and most powerful advance of Istria as a destination in the marketing sense, and the effects of this partnership will have an impact on the global level, primarily thanks to the popularity of the legendary club around the world.

Bayern is one of the four richest football clubs in the world that owns 25 percent of ownership divided into equal shares among reputable companies: AUDI, ALLIANZ, ADIDAS, while the remaining 75 percent is 299,000 members who are co-owners of the club. They have 4,300 official fan clubs and over 340,000 members; over 652 million fans across the world and over 70 million followers on social networks.

The first extensive media campaign of Istria in Bavaria was held in February this year through three projects.

1st project: Dedicated photoshopping - At the beginning of the year, TZ Istria County started filming the activity of the players. Three key players were proposed, and after long and persistent lobbying, Istria got three ambassadors: Neuer, Alaba, and Martinez.

2nd project: Matchday Presenter - Matchday presenter is a big project that involved the seven-day presentation of Istria through all promotional channels four days before the match, the day after, and two days after the match.

The first part of the presentation was done during the Free Tourism Fair in Munich. With Istria and Croatia’s participation at the Fair, three major representatives of Bayern Munich came to the official stand of the Croatian Tourist Board. They were Giovanni Elber, the legend of FC Bayern Munich, Andreas Jung, marketing director and Joerg Wacker, director of the strategic development of the German football club.

The most important event within the Matchday presenter marketing project was the special presentation of Istria at the Siemens Cooking Lounge Arena where TZ Istria County organized an Istrian menu for forty invitees - mostly the owners of FC Bayern, then the strategic partners of the FCBM and several representatives of the media.

Stephan Lehmann, the official speaker of the FC Bayern who led the lottery at halftime of the games, transferred his experiences from Istria to the audience of 73,000 spectators and invited all attendees to visit the Croatian destination.

The main event at the half was a prize game involving a goal on the north side of the football field equipped with a large banner with four motifs from Istria: the views of Rovinj, Poreč, Motovun and Grožnjan. On the goal, four places were indicated to be hit to win a seven-day holiday in Istria. A special website was even created — namely, a landing page where interested parties could apply to play the game. 

Additionally, TZ Istria County broadcasted a digital banner around the perimeter of the football field in the length of 250 meters, where they cooperated with FC Bayern Munich under the name 'Istrien Urlaubtraum der Champions' with the logo of Istria and Croatia.

In the end, the entire marketing project was rounded off with a broadcast of the new promotional film for Istria, which was played across four large screens at the legendary Allianz Arena.

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

Feature films "The White Crow" by director Ralph Fiennes about the life of the one of the greatest ballet artists of the 20th century, Rudolf Nureyev, "Tolkien" by Dome Karukovski about the early years in the life of J. R. R. Tolkien, author of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and the autobiographical saga "Dolor y Gloria" by the Spanish superstar director Pedro Almodovar will be shown during the PoPular program in Pula Arena.

The 66th Pula Film Festival will see the return of the PoPular program in the week between the 15th and the 21st if July, Zlatko Vidačković, the art director of the Pula Film Festival announced at a press conference held in Pula.

The international program of the festival is mostly about biography films about the great artists of the world, and five feature and five documentaries will be shown, Vidačković said. The second part of the program will be shown in Valli Theatre: Never Look Away by an Oscar winner Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (inspired by the life of the artist Gerhard Richter) and All Is True by Kenneth Branagh about the last years in the life of William Shakespeare.

Great Peter Bogdanovich directed a documentary about Buster Keaton in 2018, called "The Great Buster" which will be shown in the documentary part of the program. Jean-Christophe Klotz's documentary about John Ford, Anderson's and Demmon's documentary on Montgomery Clift, Bruce Weber's documentary on Robert Mitchum will also be shown.

Director Gordana Restović announced the new festival edition "Time Machine 3". Another important book for Pula and overall history of cinematography in Croatia, written by a film archaeologist Dejan Kosanović will see its second edition.

The director of the Tourist Board of Pula, Sanja Cinkopan Korotaj took the opportunity to explain the complexity of the organization of the Pula film festival. Pula Mayor wanted to remember a not so distant past when Pula didn't have a movie theatre and compared it to the infrastructure they can be proud of today.

Rijeka crushed Dinamo’s hopes of winning the double crown again this year and topped the Zagreb club 3:1 in the Croatian Cup final in front of 6,742 spectators at the Aldo Drosina stadium in Pula, reports HRT on May 22, 2019. 

It was a fantastic final and a deserved victory for Rijeka, who for the fifth time won the Croatian Cup and celebrated for the second time in the last three seasons. In Dinamo’s 22nd final, this is their seventh defeat.

Antonio Čolak (13’), Tibor Halilović (40’) and Zoran Kvržić (84’) were the goalscorers for Rijeka, while Mislav Oršić scored for Dinamo in the 63rd minute. Dinamo had an excellent opportunity to equalize in the 73rd minute thanks to a penalty, but Rijeka goalkeeper Simon Sluga brilliantly defended Dani Olmo’s shot. 

Dinamo opened the match better, and in the first minutes of the game, they barely let Rijeka breathe - Dinamo attacked, and Rijeka was forced to defend. However, Rijeka’s first serious attack also put them in the lead. 

Tomečak shot from 20 meters, but Livaković pushed the ball out for a corner. Kvržić crossed the ball in, and Petković responded poorly in front of the Dinamo goal, allowing the ball to arrive at Čolak, who scored for 1:0 in the 13th minute. Two minutes later, Halilović threatened Dinamo again,  but Livaković successfully reacted. 

The first real chance for Dinamo came in the 31st minute, but Oršić shot over the goal. In the 37th minute, Petković threatened, though he too missed. Three minutes later, Rijeka increased their advantage. Zoran Kvržić brilliantly pushed the ball up the right wing and through the legs of Rrahmani to find Halilović who scored for 2:0. 

Dinamo was desperate, and knew it was all or nothing. Nenad Bjelica introduced Gavranović and Leovac instead of Atiemwen and Rrahmani and with two attackers, they pushed to equalize. Gavranović threatened in the 50th minute, however with a weak shot. 

Dinamo picked up their pace and Oršić got Dinamo back into the game with a goal for 2:1 in the 63rd-minute. 

Seventy-three minutes into the match, Dinamo had another excellent chance to score thanks to a penalty, though Dani Olmo was unlucky. The young Spaniard shot at the right side of Rijeka's goal, though Sluga reacted fantastically. The game remained 2:1.

All doubts about who would win came to an end in the 84th minute with an impressive goal by Zoran Kvržic for the big 3:1. 

In the first round of the Cup, Rijeka defeated Križevci 9:0 in the first leg of the Cup, and with a result of 2:1, Rijeka topped Kumanovo, Lokomotiva and Inter to advance to the final.

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.