Tomislav Kovačević: Without the development of domestic production, we cannot expect the survival and development of our region

After an extremely successful business year in 2022 National park Plitvice Lakes records excellent results already at the very beginning of 2023.

In the first 45 days of this year, the number of visitors increased by 5% compared to last year, and the number of overnight stays by 6% and by even 12% more compared to the record year 2019. This step forward is especially important because it is about the winter months when tourist movements are reduced, and the market of the East, which in the pre-pandemic years was filling empty winter capacities, has not yet come to life. 

The Plitvice Lakes National Park has for many years been the bearer of the development of the local gastronomic offer and thus supports local producers of food, drinks and souvenirs and is a leader in the sustainable development of Lika. 

Through the project Gastro Academy of the National Park, which has been educating staff through specialized training for five years in a row, the quality of the performance has been significantly raised as well as the gastronomic offer has been enriched with a significantly larger share local ingredients at the park.

The gastronomic offer achieved record results with increased turnover of 23% compared to 2022 and 51% compared to the record year 2019. 

"Without the development of domestic production, we cannot expect the survival and development of our region. Only with local producers who enrich our offer can we develop our villages and thereby contribute to the demographic and economic development of the entire destination. In recent years, Lika has been profiled as a branded destination of protected areas and a gastronomic destination, and we are very careful about sustainable progress. We like to observe every tourist development with caution so that the destination does not spontaneously enter the "tourist monoculture" and that there is no imported food on our table. Also, all factors should participate in the development, and the architecture should be under a special magnifying glass because errors cannot be quickly corrected here." emphasized the director of the National Park Tomislav Kovačević.

/// JOB IN TOURISM: Plitvička jezera NP employs over 400 people during the tourist season

I will repeat this significant statement: Without the development of domestic production, we cannot expect the survival and development of our region! 

This sentence says everything about development and sustainable tourism. Sustainability is the very essence of tourism, not just a mantra of the last few years. Because if there is no domestic production, there is no domestic workforce, domestic products, a strong economy...ultimately, there is no local population either. 

Today there are several facilities in the hospitality area of ​​the Plitvice Lakes National Park; these are four hotels with their own restaurants, two independent restaurants, restaurants within two camps, as well as smaller catering establishments located at the entrances and inside the park.

Cult restaurant "The Lika house", which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, is certainly a place that every visitor must visit and taste. 

The "Lička kuća" menu was formed a few years ago as the first publicly visible result of several years of changes and improvement of the Park's catering offer, and it was created according to the programs of staff education in the kitchens, internal improvements of the sector of own bakeries, pastry shops and butchers, and technological investments in equipping preparation rooms food and kitchen facilities.

What is significant news are two key factors: quality home-made food from the Lika Quality system, ie from local family farms, and an authentic Lika gastronomic offer. As it should be, it is the very essence of tourism.

The specific taste of the food can be attributed to extremely rich pastures, and it is specific to Lika that on more than 50 species of plants grow per square meter, of which 25 percent are medicinal. The result is the LIKA QUALITY (LQ) certificate. Currently, there are about 170 products in the LQ system, and many of them are used in the menu of the Lika house.

As a reminder, in 2015 LAG Lika launched a five-year project of integral management of the destination, known as INTEGRA LIKA 2020, within which the Lika Quality system was designed, in order to retain the population in this area. In 2017, the management of the Lika Quality system was taken over by the Lika Destination Cluster, and since then it has been successfully implementing the set goals. The results are more than visible. After five years of the Lika Quality project, the certificate gathers around 176 certified products protected by the Lika Quality Mark and 80 producers, mostly family farms. 

Plitvice Lakes National Park participates in all major and important world fairs in the pre-season to present its offer and where you can see excellent announcements for visiting Croatia and the Park this year, and contracts for 2024 are already starting, adds Kovačević.

An excellent start to the year in the Plitvice Lakes National Park as well as announcements for the season show that this national park is an undisputed tourist destination in Croatia and that its incredible beauty and numerous attractions constantly attract visitors from all over the world. 

Photo: Plitvice Lakes National Park