Traditional food, historical sites, and the Dalmatian ‘fjaka’ mentality and culture are, according to foreign tour operators, the most important things that bring tourists to Dalmatia, reports Splitski Dnevnik on March 13, 2019. 

While the Ministry of Tourism considers increasing the quota of workers from the Philippines this year and restaurants serve modern dishes, finger food, and pizza, visitors actually want to experience the authentic Dalmatian konoba, ‘fjaka’, and the colors, smells and tastes of the Adriatic.

"Croatia is an absolutely beautiful country, the people and food are wonderful, it's hard to say that you are better than Italy, but you are very close. In Croatia, there are many beautiful sites, and most of our clients appreciate the authenticity of both nature and culture. This is exactly what you need to preserve for the future and keep an eye on not bringing too many guests, but rather concentrate on better quality guests and those with higher spending power,” said Anna Rostron, a representative of an Italian tour operator, who, together with her colleagues from 12 countries, discussed how to attract new guests to Dalmatia with higher spending power at an international conference and business workshop in Split.

Along with representatives of the tourism sector, more than 40 tour operators and representatives of agencies from the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, Hungary, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Spain, Russia, and Croatia participated.

"Ireland is very similar to Dalmatia, especially in understanding what customers want. You have a lot of potentials, the Irish people here feel at home,” said Sheni Renan, a representative of a tour operator from Ireland, and admits that the only unpleasant surprise in Split was the bura.

The dispersion of tourism before and after the season is the primary job of the Ministry of Tourism in the next period, and a way to make this happen is in the development of health tourism.

"There is no concern for Croatian tourism while we are working on quality and are trying to develop specific forms of tourism which are our sole guarantor for development before and after the season. Research has shown that the sun and sea are still the main reason for tourist arrivals to our destination, but some other motives are certainly appearing to attract tourists with higher spending power,” says Monika Udovičić, Assistant Minister of Tourism, adding that the Strategy for Tourism Development defines specific forms of tourism which would be more competitive than others.

"There are more of them, and the main focus will be on the development of congress tourism, which does not depend on the sun or the sea, and there is also health tourism. The Ministry has agreed to amend the two laws to develop this kind of tourism in Croatia. They allow health facilities to provide health tourism services. We must mention that active holidays are very popular. Split-Dalmatia County has all this and has great potential. It is necessary to work on improving accommodation capacities, but I think we are heading in the right direction."

And guests with higher spending power generally expect several-day arrangements that are generally booked before arriving at the destination.

"The Holy Scripture of all tourism is the motive of arrivals, and if the heart of the season is excluded, where the main motive is the sun and the sea, we must do our best to attract these kinds of guests. We can do this through the better organization of offers and better quality events in destinations, and along with that, effort, engagement and promotion in the pre and postseason so that the destinations live throughout the year,” says Boris Žgomba, President of the European Association of Travel Agencies and Tour Operators.

Cycling tourism, adrenaline, ethno-gastronomic tourism, and cultural tourism are all offers that will bring guests away from the heart of the season. It's not enough, says Žgomba, but we have to start somewhere. 

"Guests of higher spending power or better quality will come only if we have a quality offer. The offer in March and April must be that active and proactive vacation; there must be something that will attract them because the hotels and the destination are not enough. The accommodation we offer satisfies this kind of guest, it is quality and fine, but we need to concentrate on this bigger part of the job that is going on outside the hotel. They mostly search for programs that are directly related to the guest and created specifically for them, not typified, as we had for years in mass tourism programs. Whether it's gastronomic or cultural tourism, archeology, we have all these potentials. We are too often shy about it because we think that this will not be interesting to anyone, but guests are looking for exactly that.”

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

March 14, 2019 - Restaurant Week, one of Croatia’s most highly anticipated gastronomy events, returns this month for its 18th edition. Namely, from March 15 to 24, foodies, friends, family, and foes will come together throughout the country to visit some of Croatia’s best restaurants. 

Restaurant Week is the idea of Željka Marjanović and Ozren Drobnjak, who wanted to find a way to promote Croatia’s gastronomic scene in cooperation with its catering establishments. During the event, participating restaurants offer various three-course menus at promotional prices - and we usually get to enjoy it twice a year. 

But the best part? 

All three-course menu prices range from 100 to 125 kuna, depending on if you're eating for lunch or dinner! 

In Zagreb, for example, visitors can choose from over 40 different restaurants, including some hard hitters in Zagreb’s culinary scene like All Saints, Konoba Bracera, Konoba Didov San, and The Garden Bar and Kitchen. You can find the full list of participants in Zagreb here. 

In Split, on the other hand, visitors can choose from nine restaurants. While Restaurant Week veterans like Bajamonti and Bepa! are on the list again, this time around, guests can also enjoy newcomers Da’Mar, which is located at wellness hotel Marvie and ZOI, a fancy Riva favorite with the best seat to a Split sunset. 

If you’re looking to try something around Split, head to Podstrana, Omiš, Solin, or Baška Voda, who all boast participants this year. You can find everyone participating in Split-Dalmatia County here. 

This edition of Restaurant Week even has an added, cocktail perk! Namely, guests can visit the Mareo Bar at Hotel Marvie or L’Aroma Bar in Podstrana to enjoy a special cocktail menu ranging from 20-25 kuna. This offer is valid before dinner, from 6 pm to 7:40 pm (100 minutes). 

A great way to get out and support Croatia’s ever-growing gastronomy scene, don’t miss out on Restaurant Week starting tomorrow, March 15 to March 24. Booking ahead is highly encouraged, and if you’re still not convinced, you can find all of the participating restaurants and menus here. 

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

Split-Dalmatia County is getting ready to make the most out of nautical tourism.

Nautical tourism boasts a plethora of potential opportunities for Croatia, with more and more tourists from across the planet arriving in the sparkling Croatian Adriatic with their various vessels, eager to explore the country of 1000+ islands in the most authentic way, Croatia has started to step up its game in terms of opening its arms more to nautical tourism and the economic fruits that is likely to bring.

As Morski writes on the 14th of March, 2019, this autumn is set to bring work on Croatia's blossoming nautical tourism sector as central Dalmatia will see the opening of as many as nine construction sites designed for nautical tourism ports, as was announced by Split-Dalmatia County's tourist board.

The planned investments of the County Port Authority in the area of ​​Central Dalmatia, with the support of the appropriate ministry, amount to approximately 300 million kuna this year, which will significantly improve the entire area's maritime infrastructure, according to a report from Dalmatinski portal.

''The construction of a port with a waterfront and accompanying facilities in Omiš is being prepared. Throughout 2019, preparations will be being made for the beginning of the construction of the harbour and breakwater for all types of vessels except for the ferryboat in Bol on the island of Brač.

The Rogač port project on Šolta was realised, Stomorska port in the east of Šolta and Splitska on the island of Brač will be done up. In Sućuraj, on the eastern point of the island of Hvar, this autumn works on the re-doing of the harbour, which will result in completely new look for Sućuraj, are set to take place. The same will take place in Kaštel Stari, where a port project with all of the accompanying amenities is being implemented,'' added the Split-Dalmatia County tourist board.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for more information on what's going on in Central Dalmatia, Split-Dalmatia County, and much further afield.

Click here for the original article by Dalmatinski portal

March 14, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Pula, Dubrovnik, and Split.

Split-Dalmatia County Prefect Blaženko Boban introduced a new stimulating demographic project on Wednesday titled ‘This is Your Home’, which aims to create the necessary conditions for young families in rural areas. The project hopes to increase the number of inhabitants and bring balanced economic development in these areas of Split-Dalmatia County, reports Dalmatinski Portal on March 13, 2019. 

“We are witnessing that in the rural part of our County people are migrating not only from Croatia but also to the urban centers within Croatia. Through a series of measures we have had so far, we present the top measure today. We divided the County into settlements where we dissected each settlement in our County based on the development index, based on demographic indicators, which was the basis for classifying the categories we included in this program. The public call for this program will be released tomorrow, and the interest for this program is already extremely high. At this point, we have secured 4 million kuna, and our ultimate goal is to bring back or keep 300 families in the areas covered by this incentive program throughout three years. Our wish is for this measure to be an incentive for all local communities in our County. Some of them have already expressed interest in participating in these programs through their own budgets,” Boban said.

Four million kuna has been secured for the construction and reconstruction of buildings for young families in rural areas. In the Split-Dalmatia County area, more than 200 settlements, 32 cities, and municipalities have been divided into five categories according to the development index and four categories according to the number of children covered by this co-financing program.

The project includes financing the purchase of land for construction, professional supervision costs, developing project and technical documentation, constructing or reconstructing uninhabitable buildings, and more. 

The value of individual grants is from 40,000 to 120,000 kuna for family grants. Applications are welcome from spouses or single parents up to 45 years of age and families that want to build their home in Split-Dalmatia County in areas within the development index.

You can see which areas are included in the project here. 

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

At the University of Split Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture (FESB), Split-Dalmatia County prefect Blaženko Boban opened a pre-incubation and coworking Center for the students of Split-Dalmatia County (PICS SDŽ) and stressed that this program is a link between science, entrepreneurship and the regional community, reports Dalmatinski Portal on March 12, 2019. 

“The space we are located in is the space of the Split University, which we received as a county, and has been fully equipped for the past year. With this PICS program, we want to make a kind of pre-incubator. I am delighted that there is great interest in this project. Some students are already in the ICT sector. This is where we will find the potential in the future, which is currently missing,” Boban said.

The space will be available to students enrolled in Student Coworking where they can develop their IT ideas and projects. Membership in Student Coworking is free. Damir Brčić, project manager of the ‘ICT Counties,’ explained that student projects would be developed in this area.

“Before we opened the space, a positive climate was created. We are trying to create adequate space for entrepreneurial projects, and now is the right time for institutions to provide an additional platform, as the IT sector and companies are already slowly finding jobs in foreign markets. However, what we lack is infrastructural conditions, and we lack additional educated staff, and that is all that the County wants to strengthen and enable with this project,” Brčić added

As part of the opening ceremony of the Center, a cooperation agreement was signed between the University, FESB, PMF, III. Gymnasium and Split-Dalmatia County.

“At our University, among our students there are those whose creativity and minds need to be constantly stimulated. From the University side, we will do our best to help our students in their training to set up their startup companies. We are just in negotiations with a company looking for our students. The contract signing is being prepared, where, at the annual level, 30 to 40 of our students will be employed by this company,” said the Rector of the University Dragan Ljutić.

The County prefect also awarded the FESB students who were the authors of the best student entrepreneurial and innovative projects. Slaven Damjanović was awarded 5,000 kuna for the e-Agrar project, Ena Sarajlić, Anastazija Verović, Lucija Visković, and Ana Žunabović were awarded 4,000 kuna for the e-Vision project, and authors Petar Matan, Andrea Pezo, Anđela Čuljak, Ante Vukušić, Antonio Jurkić and Ivan Zaharija were rewarded with 3,000 kuna for the project Point.me

A device to check the levels of waste containers - TrashTrack was awarded 2,000 kuna and was the work of Petra Barać, Renato Kusanović, Antonia Senta, Mateo Vučković and Julija Županović. The last awarded project received 1,000 kuna, which is a solution for automatic irrigation - SmartFlow. The project was created by Ivan Ivandić, Dino Siriščević, Ani Stjepić, Duje Šolić, Ante Todorić, and Mislav Vukašina.

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

The construction of the northern tower of the Westgate Split complex finally resumed, though part of the steel reinforcement already in place was affected by the hurricane bura which hit Split two weeks ago at a speed of 170 kilometers per hour, reports Slobodna Dalmacija on March 12, 2019. 

“A new contractor, the Austrian company "LSG group", started today with preparations at the construction site, and will continue construction in a few days. The opening of the building will not be delayed and is planned, as previously announced, in the second half of 2020,” said Davor Pavlov, director of investor company "Westgate Tower".

According to the modified project of architect Otto Barić, the second tower, originally designed with 17 floors, was permitted to build ten more levels, meaning that Split will be home to the tallest skyscraper in Croatia with a ground floor and 27 floors, reaching a total height of 115 meters.

From the 16th to 26th floor will be the Marriott Hotel with 190 rooms and four apartments. It will be the fifth from this luxury hotel chain in Croatia, though it will be the first "Courtyard by Marriott" in Croatia which is recognized worldwide as ideal accommodation for business travel.

The northern tower building, dubbed "Dalmatia", has been idle for the past 15 months. According to the first announcements, the hotel should have received guests by Easter, though Westgate Tower d.o.o. revealed that it wouldn’t be ready until the second half of 2020. 

And there are many reasons. Not only did they have to wait to change building permits, which stopped the works at the end of 2017, but the overall dynamics of construction dictated business problems for construction company "Tehnika", over which the Commercial Court in Zagreb opened a procedure on November 9. 

A new contractor was selected, the Austrian company "LSG group", who praised this project on its website.

The contract for this hotel building with accompanying contents was signed with keys in hand, and the investment value will amount to about 260 million kuna. The investor expects top quality development and completion according to the plan.

“We are pleased to be recognized as a high-quality and competent contractor for this building,” said LSG, which built the 137-meter-high Skytower in Bucharest, the tallest building in Romania.

The completion of this skyscraper is eagerly awaited by the owners of numerous IT companies that opened in Split, which, due to their increasing scope of work and the growing number of employees, lack the appropriate business premises to accommodate their offices.

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

March 12, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Rijeka, Dubrovnik, and Split.

While one side of Split will see some 20,000 trees chopped down thanks to a bug that infested Marjan Hill, the city's Parks and Horticulture announced the first ambitious tree-planting after many years, and even decades, reports Slobodna Dalmacija on March 11, 2019. 

Namely, by the end of 2019, this utility company intends to plant 500 trees, 3,200 bushes and shrubs and 4,100 perennial plants, as confirmed by Gordan Tahirbegović, head of the Department of Urban Greenery at Parks and Horticulture.

Saša Franjkić took over the leadership of the city company 15 months ago and works under the motto “chop down one, plant two“. Franjkić emphasized that planting new greenery is one of the priorities of their work. 

Currently, Parks and Horticulture are in the final stages of planting trees at Bačvice, where 50 trees were replaced by new ones.

“By the end of this year, we plan to arrange Matoševa street in Spinut, or replace the old trees with lime trees. There will be 83 trees planted, and in agreement with the City, the sidewalk will be repaired,” Tahirbegović adds.

In addition to Matoševa, due to old age, the silver birch trees should be replaced by some other trees at both Rendića street and Sukoišanska, and Franjkić even announced new trees in Stobreč. 

On Poljička road in the center island, the missing shrubs will be supplemented, while on Vukovarska between the shopping malls Mall of Split and City Center One, 1000 new oleander shrubs will be planted. 

The park at Karamana street, the Park of Defenders at Banovina, the Park of Emanuel Vidović, Đardin and the West Riva will be revived with perennial plants.  

This year, Parks and Horticulture took over the maintenance of the green areas in front of the Tourist Palace. In that area, they will install a water system, meaning that dried grass in the summer months will become a thing of the past.

In early April, Tahirbegović will announce decorating the green areas on the Riva, or the switching plants after the winter months. 

To conclude, it is interesting to note that given the current state of Marjan, there are no dangerous pests on pine trees in Split’s green areas, such as the Turkish tower, Sustipan or Zvončac, reveals Parks and Horticulture. 

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

March 11, 2019 - The 24th round of the Croatian First League was held from March 8 to 10, 2019. The weekend saw Rudeš win their first game this season, the highly anticipated derby between Dinamo and Rijeka, and Hajduk inch closer to the top 4.