EN
HR
In the Morosini-Grimani castle in Svetvinčent, the Istra Outdoor conference was held with the aim of providing an insight into current outdoor activities, especially emphasizing the challenges faced by cyclotourists.
"Destination outdoor development must be based on synergy and networking of all stakeholders working with one common goal, which is quality outdoor development on the peninsula. Contribution and engagement must exist from all sides, both public and private sectors of common interest for the destination." , said the director of the Istrian Development Tourist Agency at the opening of the conference Slavica Tobok Kandić.
Head of the Administrative Department for Tourism of the Istrian County Nada Prodan Mrakovic she also touched on the current state of outdoor activities at the destination, as well as challenges and future steps for development.
"The County of Istria continuously participates in the development of outdoor activities at the destination while advocating destination networking, which is extremely important when creating such a product. It is necessary to connect green policy and destination sustainability and strengthen synergy between all stakeholders. More and more destinations are turning to outdoor activities, and certainly and Istria must follow the trends in order to connect all further activities into a whole. Studies on the development of quality cycle tourism management in the County of Istria are constantly being carried out, as well as the connection through the creation of the transversal Umag-Pula, i.e. Limski kanal-Labin. IRTA continues to be the coordinator of this product in the purpose of connecting all activities as well as possible, as well as the possibility of certain co-financing being distributed within the budget of local tourist boards", she stressed Mraković sold.
After the introductory remarks, the lectures followed, and the introductory part i presentation of the activities of Istra Outdoor was held Martin Cotar from the Istrian Development Tourist Agency, who highlighted the overview of the situation in the period from 2020 to 2023, key activities and the plan for further development. As one of the important topics, spatial signaling is imposed at the destination through clearly set standards depending on a certain segment within the outdoor project – bike, trails, climbing, kayaking. Application of defined standards and quality categorization for bike and trails are one of the priorities for further development.
Tedi Zgrablić, authorized designer and supervising engineer Učka Konzalting doo touched on the topic of bicycle lanes and paths along with the presentation of problems and solutions with with special reference to road cycling. It is necessary to find the key and solutions that will be systematically implemented while respecting the standards, as well as financial opportunities. It is necessary to focus more attention on education, especially when it comes to road cycling because there are a number of dangers that drivers, but also cyclists must be prepared for and know how to behave at certain times.
In the second part of the conference, Jan Klavor – Visit Good Place agency he presented a number of quality tourist products, i.e. a number of quality examples of good practice and their marketing and economic effects on the destination.
Among other things, it is there Bike Slovenia Green within which authentic service providers are connected with the creation of different products that result in high-quality, networked bike routes throughout Slovenia. Among the prominent examples are i Alpe Adria trail i Trans dinar which represents long distance trails which connects and passes through several countries and enables all visitors to experience the charms not only of Slovenia, but also of neighboring countries.
As for the economic effects, the demand for this kind of destination product is on the rise, while the direct effect is shown through extremely high revenues, while the promotion takes place at a high level through cooperation with world-famous media such as Lonely Planet and CNN. It is important to emphasize that such results are achieved after a number of years of investment, both financial and educational, as well as marketing.
Theme Outdoor festival i events through the development of manifestations in the function of promoting the destination along with the creation of attractive tourist products, examples of good practices such as Soča Outdoor festival i Julian Alps Trail Run.
About forty representatives of local tourist boards, hoteliers and other stakeholders participating in the development of outdoor activities on the peninsula were present at the conference.
Istra Outdoor operates as part of the Istra Bike & Outdoor Department which is carried out within the Istrian Development Tourism Agency - IRTA doo with the support of the Administrative Department for Tourism of the Istrian County, hoteliers, local tourist boards and the Tourist Board of the Istrian County.
