October the 14th, 2024 – The Spartan World Championship 2024 was hosted by beautiful Hvar, providing an incredible backdrop to an extremely challenging sporting event.
As HIA writes, Minister of Tourism and Sport, Tonči Glavina, the entire Hvar tourism scene, as well as the administration of several towns and municipalities on the island, recently discussed the challenges of Hvar when it comes to developing sustainable tourism and ensuring the quality of life of the local population.
Minister Glavina emphasised that in addition to its rich tourist offer, Hvar is also working on expanding its sporting content. He added that this year, the government co-financed the Spartan World Championship 2024 on Hvar with 1.5 million euros. That sum and show of will further supports the idea of sport as a very important segment of year-round tourism for the island. He reported that more than 2,500 competitors from 36 countries took part in this sporting event, expressing satisfaction that events can be organised outside the summer season that will attract tourists to Hvar. He then pointed out that this further strengthens both Hvar and Croatia’s position on the international tourist map.
“In addition to preserving the tourist offer of the island of Hvar, our goal is to ensure that the quality of life of the local population isn’t impaired, especially in terms of infrastructure, housing and natural resource management. We’re working to extend the tourist season and develop the tourist offer throughout the year, which is part of our wider sustainable development strategy, and our most important goal is to develop year-round tourism,” said Minister Glavina.
The Spartan World Championship 2024 on Hvar was held from October the 10th to the 13th. Taking place more specifically in beautiful Hvar Town, this great event has successfully extended the tourist season on Croatia’s premier island.
Minister Glavina expressed his satisfaction that he attended this event, noting that the government is focused on strengthening the promotion of Croatia as a sporting and tourist destination. “Hvar Town and the entire island of Hvar were really the centre of sport, leading an active life and sending out the messages of people who have positive attitudes in life, take care of their health and are physically active over the weekend. I’m extremely glad that I got to see a lot of young people and I hope that it will awaken the interest of locals, professional and amateur athletes alike, so that as many of them as possible can join,” he pointed out.
He also said that as a major global franchise seeing huge increases in popularity, the Spartan World Championship, is just breaking through here in Croatia. “The fact that this is already the second Spartan event that has been organised in this country inspires hope that in the future its popularity will continue to grow here as well. We hope that an increasing number of people from Croatia, especially young people, will come and compete,” he added.
Glavina assessed that holding an event like the Spartan World Championship 2024 on Hvar during the post-season is extremely important. “The message that is transmitted through the media, as well as via the social media of both the organisers and all the competitors and visitors, additionally promotes Hvar and Croatia as a destination for active holidays with an interesting offer of sporting content,” he pointed out.
He then announced that the Ministry of Tourism and Sport will continue to support this excellent event. “We’ll continue supporting it because of all the positive things that this event brings. I believe that next year it will be even bigger and spread out even more across the whole island of Hvar,” concluded the minister.
US national Joe De Sena was the originator of Spartan and after the competition he thanked the Croatian Government for its strong support for the Spartan World Championship 2024 on Hvar.
“I’d like to thank the Croatian Government for its exceptional support and contribution. I’d also thank Hvar Town and the people of Hvar who accepted us with open arms and allowed us to bring Spartan to this wonderful location. I can’t wait to hang out here again,” concluded De Sena.
