June 19, 2020 – Tourism is on hold, but most of us have plenty of time. So let’s look at the virtual resources available to explore Croatia virtually. We continue our new Virtual Croatia series with the tools to discover Šolta.
A few weeks ago I wrote that being a tourism blogger in the corona era was about as useful as being a cocktail barman in Saudi Arabia. I feel less useless now, a few weeks later, and I am encouraged by the number of Croatian tourism businesses who are contacting us wanting to start thinking of promoting post-corona tourism.
One of the challenges of writing about tourism at the moment is that there is nothing positive to write about. With people confined to their homes and tourism in Croatia currently not possible, many have decided to go into hibernation until it is all over.
I think that this is a mistake, and I have greatly enjoyed the TCN series by Zoran Pejovic of Paradox Hospitality on thinking ahead to tourism in a post-corona world. You can find Zoran’s articles here.
Way back on March 14 – several lifetimes ago – I published an article called Tourism in the Corona Age: 10 Virtual Ways to Discover Zagreb. The way I saw things, now was an OUTSTANDING opportunity for tourism promotion. People have time, they yearn for their freedom and former lives, so give them the tools to thoroughly research and enjoy your destinations, and you will have then longing to be there. And when they do come, they will have a deeper understanding of the destination due to their research.
South Africa and Portugal were the first to do their post-corona tourism promotion videos several weeks ago (Post-Corona Tourism Planning: Lessons from South Africa and Portugal), a trick which has been followed by other tourism countries, the latest being Croatia with the national tourist board campaign, #CroatiaLongDistanceLove, going live yesterday.
But while these campaigns create longing and market presence, they don’t really educate. People now have time to really get into destinations. And dreams of escape to somewhere more exotic are high on the list of priorities of many.
So TCN has decided to help with that education with a new series called Virtual Croatia, where we will be helping you discover many of Croatia’s destinations with all the best virtual tools available on your self-isolating sofa at home.
We started with Tourism in the Corona Age: 10 Virtual Tools to Discover Hvar.
After this, we put our a press release (which you can read here in English and Croatian) offering a free article to any local tourist board in Croatia who would like the free promotion in our Virtual Croatia series.
The Sinj Tourist Board was the first to respond, and now you can see just how rich the tourism offer is in this proud Alka town – your virtual tools to Discover Sinj. This was followed by DIscover Opatija, Discover Brela, Discover Rogoznica, Discover Stari Grad, Discover Omis, Discover Lumbarda and Discover Jezera.
Next up, Zorana Kaštelanac of the Šolta Island Tourist Board, who sent us some virtual tools to help us discover the island of Šolta.
Let’s begin!
Šolta – the Island Closest to Split
Visit Šolta, promo video from 2018.
2014 promo video.
Official video
TCN’s own Tash Pericic produced a video about Šolta as well
Meet the wonderful villages of Šolta
Gornje selo
Nečujam
Grohote
Rogač
Maslinica
Discover Šolta as Our Guests See it
A video by the Adriatic Waves
A 4K video by Ivan Mišak
Find out more about the Hotel, Marina & Restaurant Martinis Marchi on Šolta
Martinis Marchi promo video, 2018
Official Šolta Website & a TCN feature article on Šolta
Download more materials about Šolta from their tourist board website, where you can also discover Šolta’s beaches, food and wine and active vacation opportunities.
25 Things to Know about the Closest Island to Split
When can Šolta expect your visit?
To discover more of virtual Croatia, you can follow this series in our dedicated section, Virtual Croatia.
If you are a local tourist board in Croatia and would like your destination featured in this series for free, please contact us at [email protected] Subject Virtual Croatia (and destination name)
