With numerous versions of the Wine and Walk event, Osijek has successfully demonstrated a completely different approach

A real refreshment in the sea of ​​wine events.

Author  Mirjam Jukić

January 24, 2025

Wine and Walk events have proven to be a great success in promoting wine offerings to guests and locals, and this concept has taken hold in all wine regions. Baranja and Istria in particular have stood out as the first to launch such events in collaboration with local wineries.

When something goes so well, there is no need to "invent hot water" and the established recipe is already applied as standard and regularly very successfully because both tourists and the local population respond very well to it. Such events are a win-win move for tourist boards as creators of content in the destination and the wine industry, for which events of this type are an excellent opportunity for promotion, but also for direct sales.

This time we will especially highlight a different example in which a well-known concept was very successfully packaged in a completely different way. The Tourist Board of the City of Osijek organized the first Croatian Urban wine and walk turning the lack of an urban city environment, or rather the lack of wineries in the very center of the city, into an advantage, through the presentation of wineries at the tourist attractions of the Slavonian metropolis in the very center of the City on the Drava. 

766a7316

The result was not absent already in the first year of holding, and now year after year they record an increasing interest in Urban Osijek Wine and Walk and they face the problem of the need to increase the number of events whose popularity is not waning.

The philosophy that wine can be successfully presented as part of a tourist tour of the city center seems easy to implement in principle, but many elements are needed to create such a successful event. It is necessary to ensure logistics at tourist-attractive locations, from wine to snacks, but also to tell an interesting story about both the wines and the location where you are.

For the needs of this event, Osijek hired, in addition to the main actors - winemakers and caterers - professional actors who presented living history at specially selected points and told the story in an interesting and original way, accompanied by top-quality wine drops, but also special indigenous gastronomic specialties. 

Revitalized the unpopular tax on entertainment, or "bećarina"

Interestingly, through this project, they also packaged interesting historical stories and legends of Osijek, such as the "bećarina". Even the registration fee in Osijek is not just a registration fee, it is a real tourist story. They ingeniously interested the guests in the legend of the old city center according to which a fine, or bećarina, was paid for noise and revelry at the Citadel. Bećarina at first sounds like an extension of the word bećar - which is the name for a Slavonian merrymaker who sings and the famous bećar is now part of the protected world intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO.

But the bećarina is not a big bećarina, but a real tax, an unpopular measure once upon a time in the city on the Drava.

766a7235

 

Namely, in Osijek during the 18th century there was a tax paid by those who drank too much plum or grape “juice” and wandered around the Citadel. At that time, public lighting was turned on manually, and the cost of the workers who performed this work was paid, among other things, by a tax called “vagabundorum” or Taxa vagabundorum, but also by a wine surcharge per barrel of wine arriving in the city. And the vagabundorum was paid by those who wanted to wander around the Citadel in the wee hours. 

The bećarina is almost extinct, fortunately the bećari and bećaruše are not, nor is their bećarac. But the Osijek Tourist Board dared to reintroduce the bećarina! They first did it last year and everyone was happy to pay the bećarina, so they decided to keep the tax permanently! What audacity, the uninitiated would say, but today everyone is happy to pay the bećarina and no one complains about it.

The packed Tvrđa as the crowning event is confirmation of the success of the concept

766a7305

The success of the Osijek version of the famous wine event is also shown by the crowning achievement of the event - a concert in the old town center, the popular Tvrđa, where the Osijek wine walk ends and turns into an all-night event with a stage, concert program, and catering establishments that once again offer the destination's wine and gastronomic story. 

A fully rounded oeno and gastro story with an introduction to the destination and all its sights - history and present, packaged as a top-notch tourist product. The Osijek example is an excellent guideline for approaching the usual established events in a different and original way, creating emotions and telling unforgettable stories.

The basis for successful tourist stories and destination promotion.

Photo: hrturism

*The article was originally published in the hrturizam newspaper. Would you like to receive the hrturizam newspaper? Become part of the hrturizam family. 

Author  Mirjam Jukić

January 24, 2025