More good news from the city that recently got its second UNESCO World Heritage title
St. Michael's Fortress in Šibenik marked a very special ocassion two days ago: on July 21, the 500.000th visitor walked through the gates of the fort!
The lucky traveller was a 23-year-old tourist named Marion Härri, coming from Basel, Switzerland. She's staying in Croatia for seven days, and she spent two of those in Šibenik. Ms Härri was ceremonially presented with gifts: a free eno-gastro tour and the augmented reality (AR) tour around the Barone fortress, along with a gift basket composed of souvenirs and gourmet products she'll share with her four friends and co-travellers.
"We arrived in Šibenik this morning and the first place we headed to was this fortress. We learned about it online before we came here. The fortress is gorgeous, and the view from it incredible", said Marion Härri, adding she'll surely come back to Šibenik.
The City launched a project to revitalise the forts a couple of years ago, and the initiative proved to be a hit. Numbers bear witness to the well-preserved fortification architecture becoming a must-see attraction for tourists visiting the Šibenik-Knin County: St. Michael's fortress had 114.000 visitors in 2014, and the already impressive number grew to 137.000 in 2016, making for a 20% increase in just two years. Fortress Barone had over 48.000 in 2016, the first year it opened after renovation.
"We don't doubt the growth trend will continue until the end of the season, but also in all future seasons, judging by the efforts of all who are working in the tourism sector to brand Šibenik as one of the most coveted cultural and tourist destinations on the Adriatic. Our goal is to present the cultural-historical heritage of Šibenik to the world through an array of experiences that the visitors can have at the forts. The numbers bearing witness to an increase of daily visits make us happy, but we're also happy we're succeeding in our efforts to turn Šibenik into a centre with prestigious and versatile cultural-artistic offer", said Gorana Barišić Bačelić, director of the institution 'Fortress of Culture'.
"The number of half a million visitors at the renovated forts of Šibenik is yet another confirmation that the tourism in Šibenik is developing systematically and according to plan, through hard work and investments in the public and private sectors. The new era of tourism began with renovation of the fortresses of St. Michael and Barone, and will successfully continue with our current revitalisation project for the area of St. John's fortress, for which we procured HRK 41 million from EU funds. Once the project is finished, the story of tourism in Šibenik will become even more successful, not only judging by the number of forts that were renovated to become cultural and tourist attractions, but also through the versatility of the tourist offer and other content that will become available. Šibenik is one of the first cities in Croatia that recognised the importance of long-term investment in tourism and revitalisation of cultural heritage, and it's my pleasure to state we're already seeing the fruits of our labour", said Šibenik Mayor Željko Burić.
The article above is a translation of the article published on ŠibenikIN on July 21, 2017.
Photo credit: ŠibenikIN, Flickr
