It has been quite a year for Zagreb and its digital nomad journey.
It is 18 months since Dutch entrepreneur Jan de Jong wrote an open letter to Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic asking him to implement a digital nomad visa.
Things moved very quickly after that. Plenkovic announced his intention to introduce the visa some 44 days later, and it came into effect on January 1 this year. A variety of high-profile events, including the Dubrovnik Digital Nomad in Residence Program, and Zagreb Digital Nomad Week & Ambassador project, have helped to raise Croatia’s profile in the global digital nomad community. So much so in fact, that Croatia was named the second most-liked country in the world, and Zagreb in the top 5 cities in the recent Nomad List 2021 survey.
One of the big successes of the digital nomad movement has been how integrated and accepted the concept has become in the Croatian media in a relatively short space of time. The term ‘digitalni nomadi’ is now a widely understood term in the Croatian language.
Zagreb Tourist Board, together with Saltwater Nomads and TCN has been implementing the Zagreb Digital Nomad Ambassador project from July 1. Six different ambassadors – from New York, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Israel, Singapore and Poland – have been staying for a month each as guests of the city. Their insights and experiences have helped shape Zagreb’s future nomad strategy.
Anna Maria Kochanska from Poland has been a very active ambassador in December, and she has been joined by Zagreb Special Guest Ambassador, Steve Tsentserensky. Both appeared last week in the studio of Index.hr to talk a little about the digital nomad lifestyle and their impressions of life in Zagreb.
For more news and features on digital nomads in Croatia, check out the dedicated TCN section.
