New Projects Aimed at a Higher Turnover

The Tourist Board of the City of Zagreb has presented a new Work Program for 2008. The program envisages a number of new projects aimed at improving the quality of the tourism product and securing even more significant profit levels.

The Zagreb Tourist Board’s new 2008 Work Program has been adopted unanimously. The new program has laid out a set of very ambitious goals aimed at giving a significant push to the city’s development as a convention tourism destination. For a number of years now, the city of Zagreb has recorded the highest tourism growth rates in all of Croatia. During the first eleven months of the current year, the numbers of tourist arrivals and overnights have gone up in comparison with the same period last year, by 14 and 11 per cent respectively. By the end of the year, Zagreb will record a total of 1.2 million overnights. Zagreb’s accommodation capacities have also seen a major improvement with a thousand new hotel beds added to the offer over the past two years. These figures were presented by the Director of the Zagreb Tourist Board, Amelia Tomašević, Ph.D. at the 1st general meeting.

While presenting the new guidelines contained in the 2008 Work Program, which can be implemented only in synergy with the city authorities, Mrs. Tomašević pointed out that the main objective was to upgrade and promote those products which stand the best chance of securing the highest possible profit levels. Several projects designed with this goal in mind will consume a total of 58.4 million Kuna in 2008 through financial and administrative marketing. The project ‘I Love Croatia’ which has been implemented for a number of years now within the Croatian Tourist Board system, has been given an additional new dimension reflected in its title, ‘I Love Zagreb’.

The project called ‘The Hanging Gardens of the Upper Town’ will be realized within this part of the program in order to make Zagreb even more beautiful and consequently more attractive to tourists. Involvement in the ‘Day of the Tie’ project in cooperation with the National Tourist Board is also part of the program, as well as some new city sightseeing-related projects such as ‘Decode Zagreb’ and city tours for foreigners. New tourist information centers are soon to be opened at the airport and in the Upper Town, after one such center was opened last year at the main railway station and has proven to be very useful to all tourists who arrive in Zagreb by train. A lot of attention is being paid to the production of DVD films and their broadcast via satellite and on the internet, which is the main channel of information for as many as 42 per cent of tourists who arrive in Zagreb these days, unlike seven years ago, when the internet was used by no more than 7 per cent of them.

The project of satellite film distribution will increase their outreach to 200 million people, which will certainly mean much better promotion for the capital of Croatia. When it comes to the promotion of the convention and tourist offer in general, the Zagreb Tourist Board will make the most of the capabilities of the Croatian Tourist Board representative offices abroad as well as of the Croatian diplomatic offices. In addition to a number of activities and novelties which are in the pipeline, a major noteworthy development is the fact that soon the information on the web pages will be available in 12 different languages. At the moment, it is available only in six different languages. This means that in 2008, the circle of potential consumers will broaden as the information will be accessible to them in their mother tongues which will put Zagreb in a much more favorable position in comparison with many other cities. The Zagreb Tourism Board is aware that education and training are one of the prerequisites for achieving all of the aforementioned objectives. That is why significant funds are being invested in human resources and capabilities to meet the new challenges that come as part and parcel of modern tourist offer.