January 5, 2019 - In 2019, Zagreb County recorded 139,720 tourist arrivals, which is 14 percent more than in the same period in 2018 (123,008). The number of overnights also increased by 12 percent, from 205,003 to 229,827.

Out of the total number of arrivals, 107,821 were foreign guests who achieved 69,732 overnights, while Croatian guests achieved 31,899 arrivals and 60,095 overnights.

In 2019, Zagreb County was mostly visited by tourists from China and South Korea, followed by guests from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, France, and the USA.

The most visited cities were Velika Gorica, Samobor and Jastrebarsko, which recorded a 35 percent increase in tourist overnights thanks in large part to the newly opened hotels. Tourists mostly stayed in hotels, household facilities and campsites. As many as 75 percent came individually, while the other 25 percent used tourist agencies.

With these results in mind, HRTurizam discussed the plans for 2020 with the director of the Zagreb County Tourist Board, Ivana Alilovic.

This year, the Zagreb County Tourist Board will have a more competitive tourism management model, with an emphasis on positioning and promoting the Zagreb County destination based on an integrated area identity and experience portfolio with a foothold on territorial capital and regional specificities, cultural heritage and tradition, and the local production and service system. Alilovic added:

“This approach would not only promote Croatian tourism and expand its tourist offer to increase the number of tourist arrivals, as a year-round destination, but it would also target guests with higher spending power and link multiple sectors (primarily the tourism sector with the food processing sector), increase direct investment, preserve and promote the identity and tradition, enhance the quality of life, generally create the image of the destination, and bring smart specialization to the Zagreb County region," says Alilovic.

Alilovic emphasized the important role of the Zagreb County Tourist Board, together with the organization of local tourist boards, the private sector and other interest groups in target markets, especially new ones, to communicate changes, new products and motives for arrivals, and to position Zagreb County as a desirable tourist destination.

“To stay competitive, we need to keep up with innovative trends such as the digital revolution, rising environmental standards and sustainable development of local communities. It is necessary to emphasize the development of eno-gastronomy, which is being promoted as one of the motives for visiting the destination. Therefore, I see Zagreb County in 2020 as one of the more desirable tourist destinations, whose offer is based on the eno-gastronomic experience, in line with the innovative, but again with the traditional and sustainable and responsible development of tourism,” concludes Alilovic.

The goals of the identified activities for 2020 are further intensive promotion of existing tourism products and programs with defined target markets, intensive cooperation of tourist boards and tourist entities, development and improvement of selective forms of tourism by creating new tourism products based on cultural, eno and gastro, natural and historical tourist resources of Zagreb County.

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December 12, 2019 - The Zagreb County Tourist Board introduced a new promotional video on December 10, 2019, that shows the natural, cultural and historical landmarks of the County, as well as the important events, traditions, and crafts of the Croatian region, reports HRTurizam.

Tourism is predominantly a service industry and tourism is often referred to as an "industry of experience," which poses many challenges for tourism professionals, said Ivana Alilović, director of the Zagreb County Tourist Board, when presenting the promotional film. "Our goal is to become a competitive tourist destination by 2020, but also to harness the potential that tourism has as a platform for the development of other industries," Alilović added.

The promotional film featured the cooperation of the Zagreb County Tourist Board and Croata in developing promotional scarves with an emphasis on folklore style that bears elements of folk costumes that are closely intertwined with the ethno-style.

"Design is something that repeatedly attracts and overwhelms us with its capabilities - whether its visually or technically, and once this is all harmonized, we become the creators of a beautiful whole. We are proud of the scarf designs created for the Zagreb County Tourist Board. Namely, inspired by folk embroidery, we blended the traditional and the modern, and by composing the motifs of flower petals and leaves, we received an unusual texture that adds to the dynamic of the pattern. A good selection of fashion details has always been crucial and represents the point of every outfit, however classic or modern. We believe that these scarves will be worn with pride,” said Mihaela Grnović Novakovic, Art Director of the Croata fashion brand.

The director of the Zagreb County Tourist Board added that folklore style is not only a unique trend in fashion in general, uniting a wide range of shapes, colors, textures and different variations, but that today they have the opportunity to promote a new fashion accessory from Zagreb County, which was relevant yesterday and will be tomorrow through the further promotion of the Zagreb County tradition.

The promotional film was made in collaboration with Ashley Colburn. 

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