‘The Mediterranean as It Once Was’ was the tourism slogan for many years, and it helped rebuilding the tourism industry after the Homeland War in the 1990s. Before the war, former Yugoslavia (essentially the Croatian Adriatic coast) was the second most popular destination for British tourists after Spain, with some 440,000 tourists annually. Yugo Tours and Yugoslavia were well-known brands, but it took time for Croatia to establish its own tourism brand, something it has managed to do with great success.
The Mediterranean as It Once Was was the slogan that captured my attention in northern Somalia while watching CNN back in 2002. I was in the market for a new home and base for my humanitarian aid worker life, and this Croatia place looked just about perfect.
And so it proved to be.
I really enjoy coming across older footage of the Dalmatian coast, when things were a lot less commercial, a lot less busy. Here is a lovely snapshot of life in Zadar in 1975. Some lovely shots of the former capital of Dalmatia, whose historic old town has remained virtually unchanged for centuries, while daily life looks perhaps a little different than it does today. The footage, hosted on YouTube channel FootageForPro.com, is introduced as follows:
Archival footage shot by a West German filmmaker while touring Yugoslavia with a sailboat probably in 1975. It contains stock footage of Zadar, a city in the Adriatic Sea in today’s Croatia and formerly in Yugoslavia and Italy: St. Donatus church, the Roman forum, tourists taking pictures, the outdoor market (Trznica Zadar), and more.
Plenty has changed since this West German tourist filmed in Zadar in 1975, including the name of his own country. For the latest on how things are in Zadar today, follow the TCN Zadar section.
