Staničić: Croatia is most recognizable for tourism and sports

As part of the program 2nd World Congress of Sports Tourism, which is held in Zadar under the main topic "Tourism & Sports United for Sustainability", yesterday, among other things, a panel discussion was held on the topic of sports events and their influence on the promotion of destinations, during which the introductory presentation and presentation was held by Kristjan Staničić, director of the Croatian Tourist Board.

On that occasion, he emphasized that Croatia is best recognized in the world precisely for tourism and sports, and at the same time singled out Croatian destinations as quality examples, as well as sports events held in our country, such as the WRC Croatia Rally, CRO Race, ATP tournament in Umag and others.

"We work a lot to promote Croatia as a tourist destination through sports and sporting events, but also through direct cooperation with numerous Croatian athletes, national associations and national teams. I also remind you of our promotional film Ambassadors of Croatian Tourism, in which Croatians were among the main actors athletes and which has been internationally awarded on several occasions and was once declared the best tourist promotional video of a country", said the director Stanicic. 

As part of the panel "Sports events as a key driver for destination marketing & promotion" they shared their opinions and experiences Patrick Torrent, executive director of the tourism organization of Catalonia, Fiona Harold, commercial director of the Ladies European Tour, Ivan Kraljevic, marketing expert of UEFA and Boris Žgomba, president of the Association of Travel Agencies at HGK. 

That's right Patrick Torrent from the Catalan tourism organization emphasized that the hosting of the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 significantly helped the local community in the development of sports tourism, and then referred to the strategic goals of this popular Spanish tourist region.

"Our goal is to maximize the segmentation of the offer, that is, we want to select certain tourist products and build a marketing and promotional strategy around them. At the same time, quality analysis and market research are necessary as a prerequisite, as well as attracting investments, which in the context of sports tourism especially refers to investments in infrastructure ", he said Torrent.

Fiona Harold stressed that golf, i.e. holding competitions in this sport, as well as the general practice of golf tourism, can provide the destination with numerous benefits, both in terms of promotion and in terms of the realization of specific tourist results. The importance of sports events was also confirmed by Ivan Kraljevic from UEFA, at the same time emphasizing that each destination must assess for itself which sports events it can and wants to attract because, as he said, each sport has its own audience, so it is desirable that the infrastructure of the host destination matches their needs and preferences.

The congress program continues today, where three additional panel discussions will be held, as well as the conclusions of the congress. We remind you that the organizers of the congress are the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Government of the Republic of Croatia with the support of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the Croatian Tourist Board, and the congress gathered more than 300 international experts in the field of tourism and sports.

Congress program available via LINKS.

Source and photo: Croatian National Tourist Board