As an exhibition to mark the 2400-year story of the founding of what some claim is Croatia’s oldest town is set to take place in Brussels on April 4, 2016, someone obviously forgot to tell the Stari Grad Tourist Board on Hvar.
It is like running an ice cream parlour and forgetting to bring the ice cream.
I mean, how hard is it really?
A tourist board, one of five on the island of Hvar, with a territory to promote which includes just one town of less than 2000 permanent residents and four outlying villages. A town which just so happens to have one of Croatia’s seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and is also claimed by some as the oldest town in Croatia.
A town which this year is 2400 years old. A cause for celebration? Not if you are the Stari Grad Tourist Board, who until we politely pointed out there were 100 years behind the rest of the worth with their leading website banner claiming Stari Grad was in fact only 2300 years old, finally realised that they needed to get with the times.
Magically, time moved forward 100 years within hours of our Facebook post on Facebook 2300.
It was only at Easter that I realised the Stari Grad Tourist Board really IS 100 years behind the rest. Here is how they promoted the 500 year-old Za Križen Easter Procession, also UNESCO heritage – apparently it has been happening for 100 years less in the happy world of the Stari Grad Tourist Board.
This isn’t some volunteer blogger promoting these things, it is the official tourist board, who get paid very well for promoting that one town and those four villages. If they can’t get the very basic information right, is there any hope?
Of course, things are very busy at the Stari Grad Tourist Board. They have one town and four villages to look after, a huge task. And we are just emerging from winter, a time when almost nothing happens, so they must be run off their feet. Perhaps that is why they have completely forgotten to tell the world about the events celebrating the special birthday.
Forgotten or perhaps it was too much work.
Here is the latest news from Stari Grad, above. They can’t have forgotten, as I sent them a polite reminder over a month ago, offering to share information about that and any other event in Stari Grad in my Hvar guidebook, Hvar, An Insider’s Guide:
“Hello Hvar Tourist Boards,
I am updating my Hvar, An Insider’s Guide for the first time since 2012, and it will be available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback for Easter.
I would like to include as many events as we have confirmed as possible,and if there is anything else you would like to include, please send to this email by Wednesday.
I assume there is a big plan to celebrate Stari Grad 2400, so any info on that would be welcome.
cheers Paul”
Sadly they were too busy running all the busy winter tourism initiatives in that town and four villages to reply.
Undaunted, we pressed forward, did our own research, and published what we found about the planned celebrations, an article which was widely shared – the first information in English about what was planned. You can view it here.
There is an exhibition, gastro presentation and traditional dance and singing in Brussels on Monday, organised by island MEP Andrej Plenkovic, see flyer above. I know that dealing with the tourism rush of winter in one small town and four villages is taxing, but could nobody really find the time to tell people about it? How do people get to hear about these things at all? Another case of telepathy tourism.
If the boss of an ice cream parlour kept on forgetting to make the ice cream to sell, would there be consequences?
And perhaps another question – what does the Stari Grad Tourist Board do all day?
