Croatian tourism sector to be re-branded

Croatia's tourism sector will have a new slogan, visual identity and marketing campaign in 2015, which, as part of a process of re-branding the country as a tourist destination, will place more emphasis on the diversity and originality of its tourism products in relation to other countries, and the Croatian Tourism Board (HTZ) will publish a tender for the new slogan, visual identity and marketing campaign next week. This was stated by HTZ director Ratomir Ivicic at a conference on the national tourism sector in Opatija on Thursday. Ivicic said the tender (regarding the slogan, campaign, the selection of a global PR agency) would remain open for about 45 days.

Croatia's tourism sector will have a new slogan, visual identity and marketing campaign in 2015, which, as part of a process of re-branding the country as a tourist destination, will place more emphasis on the diversity and originality of its tourism products in relation to other countries, and the Croatian Tourism Board (HTZ) will publish a tender for the new slogan, visual identity and marketing campaign next week.

This was stated by HTZ director Ratomir Ivicic at a conference on the national tourism sector in Opatija on Thursday.

Ivicic said the tender (regarding the slogan, campaign, the selection of a global PR agency) would remain open for about 45 days.

The tender is part of a new strategic marketing plan for the national tourism sector for the period until 2020, which envisages, among other things, Croatia's re-branding as a tourist destination in light of surveys showing that its current brand is unrecognisable globally, Ivicic said, adding that of 260 million Europeans vacationing outside of their countries, more than 110 million do not recognise Croatia's tourist products.

Ivicic said one of the goals in the strategy was to increase current tourist spending from some 7 billion euros annually to around 12.5 billion.

Aside from re-branding, Croatia's tourist sector also needs new, quality hotels and new products, which is being promoted by a project designed to extend the peak season, called Croatia 365, said Ivicic.

The conference on the national tourism industry, called Croatian Tourism Days, which traditionally brings together about 2,000 tourism workers and their guests, started today with a round table discussion on tourist destination management.

Opening the conference, Tourism Minister Darko Lorencin said that Croatia was a growing tourist destination this year as well, considering an increase in tourist arrivals, revenues and investment, but that it still lacked recognisable and thematic tourist products.

That can be changed by changing our behaviour and way of thinking and by strengthening cooperation between the public and private sectors in tourism and with all other destination actors, said the minister.

(Hina)

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