ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - Two agreements, worth a total of HRK 55.5 million, were signed in Rab on Thursday to upgrade port infrastructure in this town on the northern Adriatic island of the same name and in the nearby mainland town of Senj.

The first agreement concerns the award of a grant for the reconstruction of the wharf in Rab, while the second one relates to the construction of a new ramp in Senj's Stinica ferry port.

The signing ceremony was attended by Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butković, Minister of Regional Development and EU Funds Nataša Tramišak, and local government officials.

The Stinica project is very important for providing a transport connection to Rab, as well as between Lika-Senj and Primorje-Gorski Kotar Counties, Tramišak said.

The investment in Rab is part of a large investment project by the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure through which nearly HRK 2 billion has so far been invested in small coastal and island ports. 85% of funding for all the projects comes from the EU's Cohesion Fund and the rest from the Ministry's budget.

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ZAGREB, 11 March, 2021 - Several contracts, worth 17.5 million kuna, for reconstruction of seaports and waterfronts in the broader Rijeka area were signed on Thursday by Sea and Transport Minister Oleg Butković and local authorities.

The contracts envisaging the upgrade of ports on the islands of Krk, Rab and Lošinj as well as the coastal cities of Bakar, Mošćenička Draga, Novi Vinodolski, Crikvenica and Kraljevica are part of the Croatian Coast Renaissance project in which two billion kuna has been invested to date, and the lion's share of this amount has been ensured from EU funds.

Minister Butković said today that investments in seaport infrastructure would continue.

(€1 = HRK 7.582776)

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January 30, 2021 – By implementing two projects to preserve maritime heritage, Rab and Lopar will soon get exciting and modern tourist content – a virtual museum and multimedia interpretation center.

As HrTurizam reports, with the help of European funds, the Rab City and Lopar Municipality Tourist Boards are working to enrich the tourist offer. The value of added up funds provided by Rab and Lopar through only two projects exceeds 3.5 million kunas. Thus, the cultural and historical value will significantly contribute to the tourist value.

Virtual museum of the Rab town

The Rab City Tourist Board has been allocated funds from the Local Development Strategy in Fisheries LAGUR Tramuntana. The start of the project "Virtual Museum of Fisheries, Maritime Affairs and Shipbuilding of the City of Rab" is expected in March this year. The total value of approved funds is 1,120,518.31 kuna.

Within the project, it is planned to set up information boards on Banjol and Barbat's coastal belt to create an educational route. By using modern digital technologies, those interested will be shown information interesting for the history of fishing, maritime affairs, and shipbuilding on the island of Rab.

All information will be available through a web application, which will preserve and promote the fishing and maritime tradition and traditional shipbuilding of the fishing area in a modern way.

Rab town / Copyright Romulić and Stojčić

With the application, visitors will have many comprehensive and interesting current and historical information about each location, as well as the project as a whole, in virtual reality. Besides, the application would enable a virtual walk along the specified tourist promenade.

This project will create a tourist offer outside the tourist season, and the Rab City Tourist Board believes it will contribute to connecting the tourism and fisheries sectors.

Multimedia Interpretation Center in Lopar

An even more financially valuable project will be realized in Lopar. Namely, the Lopar Municipality Tourist Board was awarded 2,4 million kunas for the project "Man and the Sea - Fisheries and Maritime Heritage of Lopar."

This is a significant project, considering that a multimedia/interpretation center for fishing and maritime heritage is planned. The general project's goal is to contribute to the protection, preservation, and valuation of Lopar's cultural and natural heritage as a basis for the sustainable development of the Lopar fisheries and aquaculture area.

The Center will preserve the fishing and maritime heritage of Lopar, protect exhibits, make a model of a traditional vessel in the area, and interpret fishing methods and tools. It will also make a Dictionary of old words, phrases, and swear words from the Lopar area and make a menu with traditional recipes for fish dishes. The same dishes and recipes will be recorded and placed on multimedia totems to be available to visitors.

Photo: Lopar Municipality Tourist Board

The project activities will unite and preserve the rich heritage for future generations in one place, show the Lopar area's lifestyle in an accessible way, and enrich the tourist offer.

Center until the summer of 2023

The multimedia space will consist of five thematic rooms. At the entrance to the interpretation space, you will learn more about the history of Lopar. The road further leads to a room where vessels, tools, and techniques will be presented. The room "Man and the Sea" follows, in which the customs of the Lopar region will be presented through fishing stories.

Today, it is difficult to imagine a tourist promotion without traditional dishes. Traditional fish cuisine will also find its place in the multimedia space. And finally, in the fifth room, ecology will also find its place. A large aquarium will present it with plants and animals from this climate. As part of the multimedia space, there is also space for workshops with a library.

The upgrade of the Rab City Tourist Board's building, where the Center will be located, will begin in the fall of this year, and the second phase is planned for early next year. It is planned that the Center will open in the summer of 2023.

Local development strategy

These two projects result from the persistent and diligent work of local stakeholders on the sustainable development of the fisheries area. Namely, back in 2016, the Local Action Group in Fisheries LAGUR / FLAG Tramuntana was established for Karlobag, Senj, Novalja, Rab, and Lopar. By connecting the civil, public, and economic sectors and their active cooperation, the LAGUR Tramuntana was developed, and financial resources for implementation were provided.

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November 29, 2020 – In untouched island landscapes, the Rab Archaeological Traces mobile application will present valuable archaeological, sacral, and ethnographic heritage dating from prehistory to the beginning of the 20th century.

As Turizam24 reports, the mobile application Rab Archaeological Traces is an upgrade of the same project, which was initiated within the Program Route 27 Neighborhoods (Programski pravac 27 susjedstava), a part of the Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture project. The app will be presented online on Monday, November 30, 2020, at 2 pm on Facebook.

Starting from the idea of an open-air museum, the Rab Archaeological Traces project was developed, which presented about 30 archeological sites on the island of Rab. In the first phase of the project, which was presented to the public in June this year, three educational trails with a total length of 40 km were arranged, which connected more than 30 archaeological, sacral, and ethnographic sites hidden in untouched island landscapes.

In the second phase, an interactive mobile application was created as a kind of trail guide that combines navigation, augmented reality (virtual characters), audio and video content, various interesting facts, question marks, games, and AR photography, and has built-in statistics and a reward system.

The sites are presented at 34 info points connected by educational trails with a total length of 40 km that stretch through Kampor (Capo Fronte trail), Lopar (Epario trail), and Supetarska Draga (Frux trail) and include protected areas of the landscape. Some sites are in the archaeological strata and you will have to look for them more closely, while others impress with their structures that have defied time for centuries.

In addition to navigation and information about heritage sites themselves, the application also provides many interesting facts, legends, and stories about the island and life on the island. Virtual characters who tell historical stories, audio guides, augmented reality, learning through games, and quizzes will make your exploration of the island unforgettable.

The application works offline and is intended for hikers, cyclists, mountaineers, and all lovers of nature and cultural heritage.

It is free for end-users and can be used for individual exploration of the island, for educational purposes, and as an aid to tourist, bike, and mountain guides during guided tours.

The application was developed by the Lopar Cultural Center, Rab Public Open University, Rab Tourist Board, and Lopar Tourist Board with the expert assistance of the Institute of Archeology and the Maritime and Historical Museum of the Croatian Littoral Rijeka, and financial support from the City of Rab and Lopar Municipality.

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September 2, 2020 - The Town of Rab and the Rab Town Tourist Board, in cooperation with the Institute of Public Health of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, provided tourists from the area of Rab Town with a 50% discount (349.11 kuna) for a COVID-19 PCR test in September and October.

HRTurizam reports that the discount is intended for all tourists who need a COVID-19 PCR test for unhindered entry into their home country, and is valid for all arrivals in September and October 2020 (from September 1 to October 31, 2020)

The discount is also valid for all persons who stay in the area of the town of Rab for a minimum of 7 nights continuously in private accommodation, as well as for all reservations for September and October, regardless of when they are made.

"The announcements for this season were modest, but we managed to surpass them. The Town of Rab is a responsible and safe destination and we want to show how it is possible to continue this season. Aware that the cost of the COVID-19 test is a significant expense for tourists or renters, we believe that this discount will mean a lot to them. We were helped in this by the Teaching Institute for Public Health of PGC, headed by the director Vladimir Micovic and the Rab Branch Office headed by Daniel Glazar-Ivce," said the director of the Rab Town Tourist Board Ivana Matusan, and added that they managed to maintain the tourist season with 65% of overnight stays compared to last year.

When performing the test, the person paying for the test (tourist or renter) is obliged to present a certificate from eVisitor on the residence of the person being tested, which the renter can print out from the eVisitor system or request at the Rab Town Tourist Board office. Tourists can take the test through the drive-in method of collecting swabs, in the Rab Health Center, every working day from 8 am to 11 am.

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August 20, 2020 – After some audience members last year successfully saw films from boats, more attendees will be invited to watch from the waves at this weekend's Rab Film Festival

Visitors to this weekend's Rab Film Festival will have an experience as close to seafaring as it is to cinema-going. In response to epidemiological guidelines, the festival has had to think creatively about seating arrangements. And, they've decided to place over half the audience on boats.

“We rented two boats with a usual capacity of 150 people from which people can watch the films,” Rab Film Festival organiser Robert Tomić Zuber tells TCN. “Under epidemiological guidelines, we should be able to seat between 80 – 100 people across those.”

“A lot of people from Rab already have their own boat, so we invited all of them - and visitors who are here with boats - to come and watch the films for free from their own. We figured it was the safest way to approach the screenings this year.”


Some of the 2019 audience watched from boats. This year there will be even more. © Rab Film Festival

At 2019's Rab Film Festival, audience members were seated on a long pier, stretching out into the sea, flanked by a number of small boats. The screen faced out towards the open waters (main picture). “Last year we had about 200 people seated there,” says Robert. “This year it will be about 70.”

The 2020 Rab Film Festival begins at 8pm on Saturday 22 August and will this year showcase two movies. 'Current Sea' is a tense ecological documentary looking at the overfishing of Cambodian waters by intruding Vietnamese fishermen. “It's a documentary thriller, filmed by American director Christopher Smith,” Robert tells us. “The film was not premiered internationally until now. This is the first screening outside the US.”

The second film, 'Mater' by Croatian director Jure Pavlović, is described by Robert as something of a “little blockbuster here in Croatia.” A Dalmatian drama with lots of humour, the film had its world premiere at the prestigious Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival at the end of last year and was named best film from the region at the Belgrade FEST.

December 12, 2018 - At a ceremony at the European Parliament in Brussels, the Croatian island of Rab was awarded the grand prize -  "European Island of Sport 2019", which is the first time an island has won such a title. The Rab delegation at the ceremony was headed by the mayor of the City of Rab, Nikola Grgurić, and the event was attended by high representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament, and ACES Europe, representatives of award-winning cities and media from across Europe. 

The president of the Federation of European Sports Capitals and Cities (ACES Europe), Gian Francesco Lupatelli, awarded prizes to the winners in individual categories, and among the winners from Croatia were also the cities of Sisak and Prelog. The capital of sport for 2019 was proclaimed Budapest.

At the solemn ceremony, mayor Grgurić addressed the congregation, thanking all those who were worthy of winning this historic title - the first European island of sports. The recognition enabled Rab to be recognized as a destination among the European sports cities and gives it easier access to significant EU funds for further investment in sports and sports infrastructure. Rab was ranked the third city to withdraw the most from EU funds per capita in 2017. 

“I am proud and happy that this title has been given to Rab, our little Mediterranean paradise, which, apart from the 130 years long tradition of organized tourism, can boast of an almost equally long sporting tradition. Sport is a part of our identity but also an authentic lifestyle, and this acknowledgment is just a confirmation of the sport's awareness, the activities and the success of the city and the island of Rab, and the incentive for further progress. Investment in sports is an investment in the youth and thus - the future. We are proud to carry these labels and will try to justify them in the company of the European sport's elite,” said Grgurić, while in the background, he presented a promotional video with the beauties and specialties of the island of Rab. 

At this year's Days of Croatian Tourism in Hvar, the most famous Rab manifestation, Rab Fjera, was declared the tourist event of the year, and just a bit before that, in September, the Tourist Board of the City of Rab, according to the Nautical patrol, won the award for the greatest contribution to the development of nautical tourism in Croatia. And just last month, the House of Rab Cakes received the national annual 'Simply the Best' award in the category of catering facilities with traditional food and drinks for the Adriatic region. 

Bravo, Rab!

Though we have yet to close the doors on this frigid winter, The Guardian names the 25 best beaches in Europe in hopes of warming eager travelers for the summer season. 

Rab is preparing for the tourist season with a rather large investment.

We present you the magical island of Rab.