EN
HR
Every crisis and opportunity, and they are well recognized in To the Tourist Board of the Municipality of Bol which launched an interesting name project at the time of the first lock-down "Our pain stories".
It was an opportunity for a new tourism paradigm, new sustainable and healthy foundations, redefinition of the tourism product, rebranding and repositioning, a kind of reset. To emphasize the togetherness, support and importance of locals, whose DNA includes tourism, the Tourist Board gathered local people living for and from their country or sea, to send to their guests, but also to all future visitors to this picturesque place in the south. of the island of Brač, a simple message - See you in Bol!
The 'Our Bol Stories' project started in a pandemic, during the first closure, at a time when we wanted to arouse optimism among locals who did not know if the season would be and in what form. We turned the story 180 degrees and involved the local community in promoting its places - because who will better promote the place than its locals? In this way we wanted to be primarily original, original and authentic.
We recorded the material in 2020 in two phases: in the first phase, the employees of the Tourist Board themselves recorded with mobile phones. It was during the first lock-down, when we couldn't bring professionals to Bol to record it for us. In that phase, 12 stories were recorded.
In the second phase, a professional team came to us and we recorded 10 more stories. Thus, we got quality production, quality small films, which created the conditions for these films to apply to international tourist film festivals. So our story of windsurfing won an award in Berlin. This year, too, we competed with one film for the Golden City Gate Award, which is awarded as part of the ITB in Berlin. It is a film Bol and Culture, which shows that we are not just a destination of the sea, sun and active sports, but that people know that we have a rich cultural heritage that we promote and present to the guest., he explained Markito Marinkovic, director of TZO Bola.
The project initially focused on local caterers, small producers, renters and small hoteliers, but the stories have evolved over the years.
"In the first phase, the project involved locals, and in the second phase, during 2021, it involved foreigners with family ties to Bol - Bol's sons-in-law, brides and children from mixed marriages who all live abroad. They invite their compatriots in their mother tongue to visit Bol. It is interesting that some of them, inspired by the first published stories, filmed themselves and sent us those recordings. ", he explained Marinkovic.
The project "Our Bol Stories" was also recognized by the professional public. "The promotional campaign, the storytelling initiated by the Bol Tourist Board, is to be commended. In addition to activating the local community - which in itself is of great importance in the promotion of the destination - the storytelling itself is part of our island's cultural heritage. Storytelling as such, ie a form of promotion should certainly be implemented at the national level, and TZO Bola is an example that this can be successfully implemented.
I think the communication that Bol does is one of the shining examples. My position is already well known that I think we have a lot to say on the world stage, given that our experience in tourism is huge, which makes us more qualified than others to be leaders in the digital age of tourism promotion of destinations.he told boljani.info About the project Domagoj Bebić, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb, Head of the Department of Strategic Communication and author of the book "Cyber tourist"on the use of digital media in tourism.
Tourism is not an end in itself if it does not directly raise the quality of life of the local population and the local economy. The key message of this campaign is the importance of togetherness, because without it there is no authentic experience, and Bolke and Boljani are happy to share it. They want guests to recognize them, and hear stories from them first hand that they can not read in any magazine, discover the fantastic flavors of local food and products, learn something about wild plants and truly experience this little place in all its beauty.
The scripts for 'Our Bol Stories' are written by Hana Klain, and DOKU FILMS was in charge of filming.
Photo: Screenshot Youtube Our pain stories
