April 27, 2021. Very grateful to Goran Rihelj from Croatia's leading B2B portal, HRTurizam, for this opportunity to talk about the new Total Croatia tourism portal, which is being finalised and will be presented at a press conference in Dubrovnik on May 3.
1. The lawsuit of the Croatian Tourist Board prompted you to launch a new portal parallel to the national tourist board?
Haha, yes, the Kings of Accidental Tourism strike again. I don't really want to talk about the lawsuits anymore, as tourism is much more interesting, but here are the links to the two lawsuits, with the replies of my excellent lawyer, Vanja Juric, for anyone interested.
/ / / Croatian National Tourist Board Sues TCN: Lawsuit 1 (50,000 Kuna)
/ / / Croatian National Tourist Board Sues TCN: Lawsuit 2 (50,000 Kuna)
The lawsuits made me realise that there is just no point trying to work with the current broken system. Rather than try and work with CNTB, it would be quicker and a lot more fun to produce a better product myself. Totally independent and working with people I chose, while making some money.
2. What will the page consist of? How is the whole project conceived?
I actually started it back in late 2018 but put it on hold until about two months ago. The lawsuits arrived in October, but it was only in February when I switched Google Adsense suppliers to a new system with AI from California that my life changed. My revenues tripled, but it was the data that the new system had which blew me away. Among the many things the system gave me, it made me realise that running TCN was a labour of love and never going to make me money, but this new TC site would.
Basically, for every 1000 visits from Croatia, I would make $1.20. If those visits came from the USA, the amount was $9.50. So how to get people from America to read my articles?
"Why don't you just finish the Total Croatia website? It is a great project, will be less work in the long run, and it sounds like it will make some nice money," suggested my wife Miranda over lunch.
Why not indeed?
I diverted resources from TCN to refresh the 86 pages we did back in 2018. The results were astonishing. Within days, we were in the top 3 spots on Google search for target keywords such as Bosnia to Croatia, Montenegro to Croatia, Zagreb Airport, Health Tourism in Croatia, Currency in Croatia. Even more interestingly, there was one 2018 article in French - How to Get from Split to Dubrovnik, which was still number 7 on Google search in France. We refreshed that and it is now number 2. Unbelievable.
I realised I now had the tool not only to make CNTB totally irrelevant, but to take control of quality tourism information for Croatia and do it properly. I also figured out that I could copy all the articles into a French directory and translate over them. We currently have translators working in 14 languages. The English site will have 170 high-quality articles, and we will be ready to launch on Monday. And we are ranking superbly in so many languages already, including Croatian! Od Splita do Dubrovnika has us at number 4.
We will not translate everything into every language, but translate gradually to meet the specific needs. Dubrovnik will be in Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and about 15 other languages, for example, but Karlovac will not need that much. We aim to make each destination page the best and most comprehensive to hit the Internet. And we have some great writers working on the project, including Marc Rowlands (ex Guardian and Time Out Croatia), Morana Zibar and Nikola Pezic.
3. How can the private sector be involved through promotion or collaboration?
This is the fun part of the project. As the project is 100% mine and I am completely independent, I can work with anyone I want. And I love to celebrate the little guy. If you are an uhljeb, you are not welcome. But if you are a high-quality local provider, then we can discuss partnership. Basically, I am looking for one main sponsor for each destination, who will get great promo, as well as editorial input and the ability to post their offers on a daily basis in all languages if they want. We have already agreed partnership deals with Suncani Hvar in Hvar Town, Hilton Hotels in Zagreb, Savills real estate in Dubrovnik and the fabulous Adriatic Weddings Croatia on Murter, for example. And there is SO much more we can do with these partners, including some coworking projects with Tanja from Saltwater Nomads.
For the small private businesses, there will be lots of opportunity. It is time to take tourism back and put it in the hands of the quality, authentic providers. Let me tell you a story of how I signed up the first TC partner 10 days ago.
I was on Hvar and got a call asking me to be in Zagreb the next day at 13:00 to interview Mark Viduka. The 06:35 catamaran and bus would get me into the office at 14:30, so too late.
I posted on Facebook to see if anyone was driving and could take me. Within 2 minutes, a message! I am not going to Zagreb, but I will drive you there, as it means I will have 4 hours of your time. I am in tourism in Split and Stari Grad for 10 years, and I followed Total Hvar from the start.
And what a journey it was. I fell in love with Nikola from Nostress Boats. I was impressed by his passion, local knowledge and approach to customer service. He was a skipper with his own boat and mooring in Stari Grad, and had started out on his own after working with a 5-star boutique hotel on Hvar. He was looking to promote his business and thought TCN/TC would be a good place. By the team we reached Zagreb, we had agreed a deal where he will be the only boat transfer option for Stari Grad in a Page. In 10 languages.
We are still setting everything up, but if anyone is interested in being a destination partner or in advertising, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . PLEASE write in the Subject - HRTurizam/Destination/Sector - eg HRTurizam/StariGrad/BoatTransfer. We will offer a discount on our rates for HRTurizam readers. This offer is valid until May 5, 2021. Please don't expect an immediate answer but we will get back to you.
4. When does the project officially start? Although the whole project is not out yet, but the site is excellently ranked on Google, the goal is to be the first choice on Google and a source of information on Croatian tourism for tourists?
We will launch with a press conference at Lazareti at 10:30 on May 3 in Dubrovnik. I am delighted that Kresimir Macan, the brains and dynamo behind the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community (which last week won the 2021 International PR Grand PRix for Crisis Communication) will also be speaking at the press conference.
Yes that is correct. We want to be the premier (and best) source of information for tourists in not only English but also in their language - #CroatiaInYourLanguage. Everything I am doing is 100% organic. I read that the Croatian National Tourist Board had a tender for a new website for 9 million kuna. My total investment in this project will be less than 5,000 euro - the project will generate the rest of the money needed. And I have already got that money back from early bird advertisers. Thanks to the wonderful PR from the Kings with their lawsuits, we have already generated more sales than the value of the lawsuits. So huge thanks!
Although the site is not yet complete, the site is made for search, and we have been sharing various articles over the last two months. The biggest early interest has come from Poland, with more than 15,000 unique visits to the 6 articles the fabulous Sabina has translated so far. The Polish version of my expat overview of living in Croatia has had over 8,000 visits already. The English version of this article has also been very popular.
We plan to be on the first page of Google for every page in English by the summer, as well as for many foreign language pages. That is what I mean by taking control of quality tourism information for Croatia. And we will thereby show just how irrelevant the Croatian National Tourist Board really is. And if you are not an uhljeb, you are welcome to join us.
If you would like to partner with the new TC project with your Croatian tourism business, please contact us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The site is still being finalised, but you can check out progress here.
