Italian Media Promote Croatian Tourist Destinations

As Ferragosto approaches, Croatia is in the spotlight of most Italian media, which emphasize that our country has preserved its authenticity, ambiance, and traditional way of life, and that it abounds with quality eno-gastronomy, as well as a very attractive festival offer suitable for young Italian guests.

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– In the year to date, we have achieved over 450,000 arrivals from the Italian market and more than 1.7 million overnight stays. The most intense traffic from this market is yet to come, and through a proactive approach and thoughtful PR and marketing activities, we have encouraged potential Italian tourists to choose Croatian destinations for their travel. A lot of work has been done over the past year through social media, as well as special presentations that have successfully reached the younger Italian population, said Kristjan Staničić, director of the Croatian National Tourist Board, adding that the improving transport connectivity between Italy and Croatia is a stimulating factor for the growth of tourist traffic from this market.

The popularity of Croatia among Italians is evidenced by numerous publications in the most popular Italian media, such as the travel magazine Marco Polo, which dedicated its cover to Primošten and the Šibenik-Knin and Zadar counties, while Caravan e Camper published a cover and article titled “Return to Dubrovnik”, describing the city’s tourist offer, examples that are presented in the HTZ statement.

La stampa emphasizes that Croatia is not just sun and sea, and that in addition to its rich natural and cultural heritage, it offers popular music festivals, and Croatia and Vis were also written about by the beloved Italian Vogue.

Cosmopolitan explored local beaches, specifically ten places where one can find paradise in Croatia, and the well-known travel magazine Bel Europa published a special feature on Croatia. Its cover features the island of Vis.

Similarly, the Porer lighthouse appeared on the cover of Dove magazine, which published a report on Lošinj, Brač, Hvar, Korčula, and Mljet, as well as the Porer and Veli Rat lighthouses.

HTZ also points out that the Italian state television RAI 2 visited Croatia to explore the national parks of Plitvice Lakes and Kornati, and on the RETE 4 channel, a show titled “Parola di pollice verde” dedicated solely to Croatia, specifically the islands of Pašman, Pag, and Lošinj, as well as Zadar and Split, was aired.

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– Italian media are great lovers and friends of Croatia and are very eager to write about our destinations and tourist offerings. We are particularly pleased with the significant increase in interest from key Italian bloggers and influencers who have a large number of followers and who want to visit Croatia. This type of collaboration will be even more focused in our planning of activities for 2019,” emphasized Viviana Vukelić, director of the HTZ Office in Italy.

Interestingly, the Italian travel search engine Skyscanner.it analyzed flight search results from Italy to the countries that played in the finals of this year’s World Cup, Croatia, France, Belgium, and England, during the week of the World Cup finals. The goal of the statistics, which also considered Russia, the host country of the World Cup, was to find out the “winner” in the choice of Italian travelers. Cities that saw a significant increase in searches were Zagreb, Pula, Split, Zadar, and Dubrovnik.

With a total of five out of ten cities in the search table, Croatia is, according to users of the Italian portal Skyscanner, the “winner” of the World Cup. Skyscanner is the leading global search engine that offers a free service for searching and comparing flights, hotels, and car rentals. Founded in 2003, it is available in 30 languages, and every month, more than 70 million people use it to plan their travels.

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According to shares in the total traffic so far, when it comes to the Italian market, Istria dominated with 47% of Italian overnight stays, followed by Kvarner with a share of 26%, and Zadar County with a share of 6%. The favorite destinations for Italians are Rovinj, Medulin, Poreč, Mali Lošinj, Novalja, Umag, Pula, and Cres. The majority of Italians, 74%, visited our destination in individual organization. Italians are above average inclined to travel to Croatia during the peak of the tourist year, with 61% of arrivals and 73% of overnight stays recorded during July and August.