July 9, 2020 – Tourism was on hold when we started this series of articles, but most of us still 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 Virovitica, the center of the amazing region of Podravina.
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 Omiš, Discover Lumbarda, Discover Jezera, Discover Šolta, Discover Cavtat and Konavle, Discover Koprivnica, Discover Pašman, and Discover Gradac.
People from the Virovitica Tourist Board most kindly helped us put together a series of videos promoting their town and region.
Let’s begin!
Discover Virovitica – a Town with Rich History
The introductory promotional video
History of the town and the Pejačević Castle
The project of the Pejačević Castle restoration
The story of lace traditionally made in Virovitica
Events in Virovitica through the year
December in Virovitica
GoPro postcard
International bee safari tourist route
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqYiukyEHoI
Virovitica loves trains
Discover Virovitica Websites
The Virovitica Tourist Board website has a lot of information about the town, its history, and what it offers today. You can find out all about the walking routes in Virovitica (the Green, the Sacral, the route of noble families). The Virovitica Town Museum has decided to create a virtual museum during these times when we’re not supposed to spend much time indoors with other people.
Has this lovely town of remarkable history managed to get under your skin?
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)
