January 19, 2021 – Tourist boards in Zagreb County are uniting in two projects – to develop and promote cultural and gourmet tourism.

The new Law on Tourist Boards and the Promotion of Croatian Tourism encourage the tourist boards' association, both project-wise and formally. Local and regional tourist boards, as well as tourist boards and local self-government units that do not have an established tourist board for their area, may join a project (agreement) association.

Many tourist boards have already taken advantage of this opportunity, such as the Zadar Archipelago and Southern Istria tourist boards, and more recently, the tourist boards in Zagreb County.

Namely, they unite to promote and develop cultural and gourmet tourism. As the Zagreb County Tourist Board director Ivana Alilović points out, their goal is to intensively promote the Zagreb Green Ring region and existing tourist products and programs.

Scene from Zagreb County / Romeo Ibrišević, Zagreb County Tourist Board

"Our goal is integrated quality management of the Zagreb County's tourist destination product, which will reduce the gap between the level of quality that tourists expect and the level of quality that the destination can provide and deliver. Also, we want to improve the quality and content of Zagreb County tourism product, increase tourist satisfaction and tourist spending in Zagreb County and the benefits for entrepreneurship in catering and tourism," says Alilović.

Gourmet tourism in Zagreb County

Local tourist boards of Jastrebarsko, Samobor, and Sveti Ivan Zelina cities have concluded an agreement on the local Zagreb County Tourist Boards' association. In this first project, the joint activity will be the development of gourmet tourism. Wine roads and cheese roads are among the many tourist attractions of rural, eno, and gastro tourism of Zagreb County.

Vineyards and wine cellars in Zagreb County are located on three wine roads – Plešivica Wine Road, Zelina Wine Road, and Samobor Wine Road. Along wine roads, you can find Purtugizec Plešivica and Kraljevina Zelina wines from the Zagreb County brand, as well as Bermet, a traditional and widely recognized Samobor aromatized wine.

Also, there are wines produced from indigenous varieties Plavec yellow, sweet Zelenac, and Šipelj, and many other wines such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon, black, gray, and white Pinot, Rhine Riesling, Traminer, Frankovka, Škrlet, yellow Muscat, Šipon.

Vineyards in Jastrebarsko / Copyright Romulić and Stojčić

The main goals of the association through the gourmet tourism project are:

• The smart specialization of Zagreb County.
• The development of a tourist destination for gourmet tourism.
• Improving the value chain of gourmet tourism.
• Digitalization and application of new technologies.
• Multi-sector connectivity.
• Development of local production systems (Agri-food).
• Positioning and promotion of Zagreb county.

Cultural tourism in Zagreb County

Cultural tourism in Zagreb County is based on protected natural heritage and cultural and historical heritage. Zagreb County has a rich treasury of natural heritage and beauty. It has many protected natural areas, which contribute to the development and success of cultural, hiking, picnic, and sustainable tourism in Zagreb County.

The association project aims to establish a basis for the integrated management of cultural tourism. Alilović says they want to create a recognizable tourist destination product that will be the main instrument for encouraging tourism competitiveness in Zagreb County. She adds that cultural resources are the leading destination's product in the promotion of a tourist destination, and what makes one destination different from the other is its intangible cultural heritage.

Lužnica Castle, Zaprešić / Zagreb County Tourist Board

"Heritage is the essential element by which a tourist destination's management attracts tourists to the destination. It is an attractive basis for branding. Creativity based on traditional intangible heritage thus pushes the boundaries of the mere functionality of a product.

Through the example of a cultural thematic route, we seek to show how myth can become a potential attractive basis for the development of mythological tourism in Zagreb County. The thematic route's stories and locations offer a choice according to criteria of collective and personal importance. Therefore, the thematic route is an open system that can be toured individually or organized with expert tourist guidance.

Special attention was given to the local identity. For example, the customs of St. George and St. John were highlighted, as well as other customs that are traditionally woven into the Zagreb County and surrounding regions," says Alilović.

The tourist offer of Zagreb County abounds in cultural and historical heritage, such as stories and legends, wooden construction, sacral construction, indigenous architecture, and archaeological finds and monuments of its rich past.

Zagreb County can also boast more than 200 cultural and historical heritage sites. Among them, castles Novi dvori Jelačićevi are a unique example of a complete manorial-economic complex preserved to this day. Then there are forts, manor houses, rich wooden sacral heritage, of which the most prominent is the chapel of St. Barbara in Velika Mlaka. A beautiful example of autochthonous secular architecture is the manor house (curia) Modić-Bedeković in Donja Lomnica. A special attraction is the memorial room of Alojzije Stepinac in Krašić.

Krašić, Zagreb County / Zagreb County Tourist Board

Valuable is the archeological finds in Ščitarjevo, not far from Velika Gorica, and Budinjak (10th-6th centuries BC), one of the most important prehistoric archaeological sites in Croatia.

The project area includes the tourist boards of the cities of Zaprešić, Velika Gorica, Vrbovec, and Dugo Selo, the tourist boards of the municipalities of Pisarovina and Krašić, and the tourist board of area of the Sava-Sutla valley and hills.

"Agreements of project association in the Zagreb County Tourist Board are an example of planned activities. It is clear that the destination through joint action has the opportunity to better position itself in the market and develop projects that will stimulate overall economic development," said Alilović.

Alilović concludes that the association should result in numerous synergy effects. Not only in quality but also much-needed cost-effectiveness of promotion and project implementation.

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October 24, 2020 - 13 players and 3 staff members are coronavirus-positive at HNK Gorica, the club announced on Friday evening.

HNK Gorica announced on Friday that after testing the entire team and the professional staff of HNK Gorica, 13 players and three staff members are coronavirus-positive.

Everyone infected is immediately referred to self-isolation; everyone feels good and has no pronounced symptoms, the club added.

Due to a large number of infected players, the 9th round match against Rijeka was postponed this weekend. Furthermore, the 10th round match of the Croatian First League between HNK Gorica and NK Varazdin, which was supposed to be played on October 30, has also been postponed.

Following the regulations of the HNS and the decision of the HNS Competition Commission, individual matches can be postponed in the event there are six or more players of the same club in self-isolation. According to the provisions of the Ordinance on football competitions and the Proposal of the competition, postponed matches must be played in the first possible free period.

As things stand now, HNK Gorica will play their 11th round of the Croatian First League against Slaven Belupo, on Sunday, November 8, at 19:00. It was originally supposed to be played two days earlier, but the date was changed due to new circumstances.

Recall, three 9th round Croatian First League matches meant to be played this weekend have been postponed.

In addition to Gorica, Lokomotiva Zagreb announced they still cannot compete as the coronavirus has penetrated its dressing room. After postponing the match against Osijek last weekend, the 9th round match against Hajduk, which was supposed to be played on October 24, at Kranjčevićeva, is also postponed. The match will take place on the first possible date, which will be decided later.

The same happened with the match between Istria and Osijek, as seven players of the Osijek Football Club have tested positive. 

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

As many as 14,000 households in the area of ​​Velika Gorica near the City of Zagreb will have the possibility of the use of ultra-fast Internet with speeds over 100 Mbit/s, and in the future these speeds will exceed 1 Gbit/s thanks to a large investment from Croatian Telecom.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of July, 2020, Croatian Telecom/Hrvatski Telekom, the largest private investor in the Republic of Croatia, has started implementing the most modern optical infrastructure in the area of ​​Velika Gorica which is situated close to the capital, the move will provide Velika Gorica's citizens with gigabit speeds and the best experience possible when using Croatian Telecom's telecommunications services.

The project worth around 29 million kuna will enable the connection of as many as 14,000 households to ultra-fast Internet with speeds over 100 Mbit/s, and in the future these speeds will exceed 1 Gbit/s. In addition to the superior experience of home internet connection, which is necessary for working from home, holding distance learning and enjoying entertainment such as gaming, the implementation of this project will improve the use of advanced digital products and services such as e-Citizens, e-schools, e -health, e-parking and other projects in the domain of smart cities, and the use of which requires high access speeds.

"Optical networks to households undoubtedly provide the highest quality and fastest access to the Internet and are an integral part of the digitalisation of society, increasing economic competitiveness and quality of life. We're very pleased that Velika Gorica is part of our optical investments, which will provide a large number of citizens with an advanced user experience through the enjoyment of ultra-fast connectivity. This year, in a challenging business environment, Croatian Telecom is continuing with its investment plans, as evidenced by the record 60 percent growth in covering Croatian households with optics, which we plan to realise this year,'' said Croatian Telecom's Boris Drilo.

"Nowadays, modern high-speed communication infrastructure is one of the most important preconditions for economic development and investment attraction, but it's also important in all other spheres of social activity, especially when it comes to education. In the City of Velika Gorica, in recent years we've been continuously working on the improvement of the communication infrastructure, from the development of a broadband internet development plan to the establishment of numerous access points for free wireless internet access. The planned investment from Croatian Telecom in the form of the optical infrastructure in the area of ​​Velika Gorica is the most significant development project of this type so far, which is equally important for economic entities and institutions, as well as for households,'' said the Mayor of Velika Gorica, Drazen Barisic.

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The Croatian Post unveiled a new logo and visual identity on Thursday, and announced that they are focusing on the development of digital business, and moving to a new sorting and logistics center near Velika Gorica soon, reports Jutarnji List on June 27, 2019.

"Starting from the methods and principles of modern design and the experience of large international corporations, the old logo of Croatian Post has been redesigned and made simpler. Now we have a postmark for the modern age, because the postmark has always symbolized postal activity, and at the same time it also has a new association that is in line with the time we live in,” said Croatian Post, adding that in this process of rebranding the Croatian postal service, they preserved specifics like colors and symbols.

On this occasion, Ivan Čulo, Chairman of the Board of Croatian Post, emphasized that the company has changed significantly in recent years.

“The modernization of the logo symbolically marks the beginning of the new era of Croatian Post as the leading logistics company with the most modern sorting center in this part of Europe, and in line with the Postal Strategy for 2022, we focused on fundamental business and digitization as an important development philosophy,” said Čulo.

"In the rebranding process, we wanted to preserve all the distinctive elements of the brand, such as the color and the character of the sign, while giving it a modern and more suitable form for the digital age,” said award-winning designer Boris Malešević, the author of the new logo.

The Croatian Post also points out that in the last two years,  their most important investment worth 350 million kuna is the construction of a new sorting center near Velika Gorica.

Therefore, they believe that the completion of the construction and the largest capital investment in the history of Croatian Post is the right moment to change the company's visual identity.

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Just how close are we to a real digital Croatia? The answer is unclear and as varied as ever, but some Croatian cities have shown promise with some rather impressive and encouraging results.

As Novac/Gradonacelnik.hr writes on the 23rd of April, 2019, although more and more cities are gradually digitising their business and investing in smart city solutions, and some of the most advanced have almost completely switched to doing solely digital business, generally speaking, Croatian cities are only in the very early stages of the much needed digital transition, just as Croatia is, as a country, at the very bottom in Europe in terms of the digital readiness of general society and the economy.

As the methodology for ranking cities in terms of digital readiness is only at its very beginning even at the European level, stories and analysis of the "smart city" concept development here in Croatia are still very much based on individual experiences, examples and projects.

That is why, in order to gain a real elementary insight into the digitalisation of Croatia's services and the communication of the country's many city administrations with citizens, experts from Apsolon, a consulting company specialising in digital business development, has undertaken the very first major study of the ''digital readiness'' of twenty of the largest cities across Croatia. This study, according to project manager and smart management director at Apsolon, Ivana Novoselec, is the basis for the further development of research tools and methodology that will track the development and progress of Croatia's cities on an annual basis.

In its study, Apsolon divided the cities into three categories - large (Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Osijek), middle (Zadar, Velika Gorica, Slavonski Brod, Pula and Karlovac) and smaller cities (Sisak, Varaždin, Šibenik, Dubrovnik, Bjelovar, Kaštela, Samobor, Vinkovci, Koprivnica, Đakovo, Vukovar.)

The digital readiness index at Apsolon was set based on several criteria - the availability of e-services (the number of administrative services and their digitalisation rate in Croatia), the availability of site service information and the development of unified services for making payments in the city, then came the availability of city data, the level of citizen participation in decision making and communication channels between the city administration and citizens, ie, the availability of data and time in which citizens receive answers to their various questions. At this stage, Apsolon hasn't entered into the internal processes in Croatia's city administrations, but rather focused on what services are offered to the city's citizens and how long such things typically take.

After this type of indexing and ranking, the title of the ''digitisation champion'' among the Croatian cities was awarded to the City of Rijeka, thus confirming its status as the best city in the Smart City category which it won last year. Apsolon pointed out that the City of Rijeka has achieved the greatest advances in the systematic raising of the quality of its services, but also the opening of data and communication channels to citizens.

"Rijeka as the most advanced city in Croatia in terms of digitisation and is characterised in particular by the emphasis on openness and communication with its citizens. Its administration is oriented towards clear communication (a very clear centralised e-services approach with well-organised access to all automated services and available forms), openness and participatory management," said project manager Ivana Novoselac.

In many categories, especially those relating to the functional aspects of digitisation (advanced digital services, e-citizen connectivity, etc.), Rijeka is followed closely by the City of Zagreb.

The city of Pula is the most advanced middle-size city in Croatia, which also presents its services and available information to its citizens in a systematic and very detailed way, raising standards in terms of transparency and interaction with citizens, and is certainly a champion among cities with between 50.000 and 100.000 inhabitants.

In relation to the criteria relating to specific functional and technological solutions, Karlovac, Velika Gorica and Zadar follow. For the City of Karlovac the large number of available administrative procedures on its website and responses to citizens' inquiries are generally quick made it stand out from the crowd.

Among the small cities in Croatia, there is no distinctly dominant digital champion, but according to research findings in different aspects of digitisation, Dubrovnik, Samobor, Sisak, Koprivnica and Varaždin appear to be the most successful ones, according to this research. Among the prominent representatives of this category, Dubrovnik is strategically trying to profile as Smart City and has a high quality City Card, e-Visitor platform, is very active on social networks and it continuing to develop innovative application solutions. When it comes to the number of digitally available services, Koprivnica ranks above all.

Samobor, which is particularly active on social networks and is the category winner for social networking, has a very comprehensive and interactive website which separates the site accordingly and has adjusted all of the information for citizens and for visitors, as well as separating foreign visitors from domestic ones.

It should also be noted that Bjelovar is extremely proactive in the field of the digitalisation of its administration, it is working on applicative transparency solutions as well as on internal digitalisation processes. What is particularly commendable is Bjelovar's focus on the digitalisation of its internal processes.

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Click here for the original article by Novac/Jutarnji/Gradonacelnik.hr

You might recall that at the end of last year, the Chinese offered to build a national stadium in Zagreb, which Croatian Football Federation president Davor Šuker said did not exist. Today, however, 10 kilometers from Zagreb, an agreement has been signed between Velika Gorica, the Zagreb County Football Federation and the Chinese company Z-Run Well Ton Industry about a similar project in Velika Gorica, reports Index.hr on April 19, 2019. 

"This is the first step towards the realization of a Chinese company's investment in the sports infrastructure of Velika Gorica," announced the Office of the Mayor of Velika Gorica.

"Velika Gorica has become a favorite city for investors over the last couple of years, first with our domestic companies, such as the Atlantic Group, and now with foreign capital. We established the first contacts with the official delegation of China a few years ago, and today we discussed concrete projects here. I am pleased to develop this in a positive direction, and that foreign investors recognize our potential for their investments,” said the mayor of Velika Gorica, Dražen Barišić.

Today, after signing the agreement, Barišić revealed that the Chinese are satisfied with Gorica.

"The city has presented the possibilities of investing in sports infrastructure, which includes the stadium with accompanying facilities. The Chinese delegation also visited a potential field that spatially plans to meet the needs of stadium construction, and is the result of today's signing of the Agreement. In recent years, Velika Gorica has become a city of interest to investors, and I am pleased to see that this interest has expanded beyond our borders and that foreign investors express business intentions."

It will be a state-of-the-art stadium that will host the world's biggest football events.

"The infrastructure you have is more than satisfactory because you are connected to the whole of Croatia, the proximity to the airport is also an advantage, and we like the look of Velika Gorica. We see great potential in your city, not just for the construction of stadiums, but for investment in various forms of sports infrastructure and the sports industry,” said Jiang Yu, president of the Beijing-based company.

The new stadium would supposedly be similar to the Astana Arena in the capital of Kazakhstan, which was recently named Nur-Sultan. The agreement on understanding should, by 2021, bring the construction of a football stadium with a capacity of 30 to 35,000 spectators. 

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

Velika Gorica locals aren't happy as as yet unofficial information that ZET could charge them more to use public transport that connects them to the capital has leaked to the media.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 22nd of January, 2019, Every year, Velika Gorica ZET subsidises about ten million kuna for the Zagreb-based company to be able to connect the Croatian capital city with other nearby areas around Velika Gorica, such as Mraclin, Poljana Čička, Strmec Bukevski, Kozjača... ZET is in charge of all sixteen lines which travel to these areas, and the contract whch was initially signed is now about to expire, which is why negotiations on extensions have begun.

But the subsidy that Velika Gorica pays to ZET could, according to the first calculations which have been discussed unofficially from that company, be even higher in the coming period. The news quickly spread to local media, leading concerned Velika Gorica residents to rightfully ask: Does this mean more expensive public transport?

''That's just what we're missing! God forbid that we get new buses for the residents in the neighbourhood. They're cold inside, the wind blows from all sides, they're old and they all shake,'' reads just one of the irritated comments caused by the news about possible price increases. Those who have been using bus number 268, which they have referred to as the "line from hell" connecting Velika Gorica to Zagreb don't sound much happier, either.

"We should negotiate more convenient transportation with regard to the condition they're in - there are often defective vehicles, unpleasant drivers, constant delays or skipping departures,'' added one Velike Gorica resident, adding that the monthly workers card costs as much as 610 kuna. Still, there is no official confirmation of the ticket price increase as yet, and Velika Gorica's administration have said that they will do anything to make sure their residents don't need to pay more.

''Negotiations are in progress and we can't say anything more specifically until they're over. The expiration contract lasted for ten years, it was signed in 2009, and the signing of the next one is a matter of agreement,'' they say from Velika Gorica. This is very similar to what they are saying from ZET, and details about the contract are still as yet unknown.

''However, as of now, the quality of service and passenger satisfaction are our imperatives, and Velika Gorica and ZET are socially sensitive partners and take care of the needs of all public transport users,'' they say from ZET.

The concession contract extension, or the possibility for a new one to be signed without the announcement of a public tender was made possible by a decision by Mayor Dražen Barišić back in 2017, and the majority of that was adopted by the City Council, but only if the contract is signed under the exact same conditions as previously, so it is not yet clear how these proposed price hikes could potentially fit into a new contract.

For news and everything you need to know as and when it happens, stay up to date by following our dedicated news page. If it's just the capital and the surrounding areas you're interested in, give Total Zagreb a follow.

Velika Gorica lies just outside of the Croatian capital of Zagreb, and while you might think very little of this town when passing through, which is the only thing most people actually do, things aren't always as they seem, economically speaking, anyway.

While it's true that most people from Velika Gorica earning their money in nearby Zagreb, it would appears that net salaries are, on average, higher than they are in the heart of the capital city.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 8th of November, 2018, over recent months, Velika Gorica has been mentioned in the media mostly because of the brilliant results of their football team, but after some likely surprising data published by the Financial Agency (FINA) there are more reasons for satisfaction in that otherwise all but entirely overlooked town.

Namely, Velika Gorica comes first in the whole of the Republic of Croatia when it comes to the average salaries of workers and their respective productivity. Net salaries are on average higher than the average salaries in both Zagreb and Rijeka, two large cities, reports RTL.

As previously stated, most people living in Velika Gorica earn their wages in Zagreb, but the close proximity of the country's capital city, the close proximity of Zagreb's Franjo Tudjman International Airport, and the apparently quick administration are some huge advantages for this town, which boasts more than sixty thousand permanent inhabitants. The Lidl chain, which is recording enviable traffic in billions of kuna, also has its headquarters here, and the arrival of the well-respected and very powerful Atlantic Group has also been recently announced.

In addition, as RTL reports, Croatian Post (Hrvatska Pošta) will also have its headquarters and logistics center in Velika Gorica. Croatian Post justified this move with the fact that this location is a strategically important place for the continued development and the improving of shipment processes, as Velika Gorica is very close to the Franjo Tudjman Airport, not far from the Zagreb - Sisak motorway, and the Zagreb - Velika Gorica fast road.

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Schools in Velika Gorica are teaching their kids to be 'green' from an early age. 

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