November 5, 2019 - The World Travel Market, which takes place in London from November 4 to 6, is one of the world's most important trade fairs. This year, among the hundreds of booths showcasing tourist destinations, you'll find the Split-Dalmatia County Tourist Board, who is participating for the first time with their own booth. With this appearance at the World Travel Market (WTM), the official fair promotion of the Split-Dalmatia County tourist offer begins.

Dalmatinski Portal and TZ Split-Dalmatia County report that the Split-Dalmatia Tourist Board is presenting its tourist offer with four cluster info-desks, and has provided the county's economic operators with the conditions to interview business partners at the world's largest gathering of businesspeople from the tourism industry. Within the Split-Dalmatia County booth, a series of events and business meetings are planned, with the presence of prefect Blazenko Boban and his associates. Guests are also offered a tasting of Central Dalmatian wines, prosciutto, and cheese from local producers in Split-Dalmatia County.

“I am happy that, as a County with our own booth, we had the opportunity to be at the two largest tourism fairs this year, first in Berlin and here in London now. We aim to develop tourism in two directions. The first is to try to extend the tourist season by diverting tourist arrivals from July and August into April and May, and September and October. The fact that we were the most visited county in Croatia in October this year is confirmation that we are on the right track. We want to gently divert tourists from major coastal destinations to the rural areas of the county, which we can only achieve through attendance at fairs such as this one in London, where we have the chance to show all the beauties that our county truly abounds. And these beauties are not just in the frequently visited tourist destinations of Split, Makarska, Bol, Hvar, or Trogir. We try our best to present all the treasures of our beautiful Dalmatian Zagora and the interior of our islands. This year's results of the Imotski Tourist Board after the Berlin fair are the best indicator that we have something to offer and attract tourists both in the pre-season in the post-season and the rural, peripheral areas of the County,” said Boban, who had the opportunity to speak with the British Minister of Arts, Heritage and Tourism, Helen Whately.

Kristijan Stanicic, director of the Croatian National Tourist Board (CNTB), said that for the development of tourism, we need the right people and continuous education about the quality of tourism infrastructure, from tourist capacities and the catering offer to the quality of the overall tourist service.

“The main task of the CNTB is to recognize trends in tourism in a timely manner and to keep up with the competition in the innovation and creativity of the offer. I believe that when it comes to the sustainability of tourism development, Croatia has all the resources it needs and that a bright future awaits us.”

Tourism Minister Gari Capelli said we could expect even better results in 2021 'because, in the presence of such fairs and major marketing activities, only HRK 70 million has been invested in additional airlines over the past two years, which was discussed here'.

Josko Stella, director of the Split-Dalmatia County Tourist Board, expressed his satisfaction with the fact that Split-Dalmatia County presented itself for the first time at the London Fair.

“We want to bring our county to the British market, where we traditionally stand well,” Stella said, adding:

“We have conducted several interviews with three airlines, in cooperation with our airport in Kastela, to introduce additional lines and overcome the possible consequences of Brexit as smoothly as possible.

The results achieved during the peak season in Split-Dalmatia County continue with the new post-season records. According to data from eVisitor and the offices of the Split-Dalmatia County Tourist Board, in October, Split-Dalmatia County was the most visited and most desired Croatian region in tourism. Thus, in October, there were 188,562 arrivals and 623,895 overnights in commercial accommodation, which is an increase of 14 percent in arrivals and 8 percent in overnight stays. In October, there were 15,255 arrivals from the UK market in Split-Dalmatia County, which is an increase of 17% in arrivals and 81,142 in overnights, and an increase of 10% compared to the previous year. In the first ten months of this year, a total of 3,592,210 arrivals (+5%) and 17,932,166 overnight stays (+2%) were realized in the county. In the first ten months, the Germans ranked as our largest market for the first time, with 318,000 arrivals and 2.21 million overnight stays growing 9% in arrivals and 3% in overnight stays. Growth in arrivals and overnight stays in the first ten months compared to last year was also recorded from the UK market. Namely, with 241,000 arrivals and 1.12 million overnight stays, the UK market is up 5% in arrivals and 3% in overnight stays.

In the first ten months of this year, UK guests visiting Central Dalmatia liked Split the most. Namely, they made up 39 percent of the arrivals and 29 percent of overnight stays in Split. Split is followed by Hvar, where they made up 13 percent of the arrivals and 10 percent of the overnight stays. Split, Makarska, Hvar, Omis, Baska Voda, and Tucepi are the most visited tourist destinations in Split-Dalmatia County this year, registering an increase in the number of nights compared to last year.”

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