The new official uniforms for representatives of the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) at various tourist fairs will be shown for the first time on Saturday. They will be presented by a group of well-known prominent women, including Minister of Foreign Affairs Marija Pejčinović Burić, Member of the European Parliament Dubravka Šuica, the director of the Zagreb City Tourist Board Martina Bienenfeld, lawyer Jadranka Sloković, neurosurgeon Nikolina Sesar, actress Doris Pinčić, writer Milana Vlaović, blogger Ella Dvornik and many others, reports Večernji List on November 2, 2018.
The uniforms will be presented on Saturday evening during the charity fashion show “Create with Heart”. Part of the proceeds will benefit the “Dar” Association from Osijek, which helps children with autism, as well as the Croatian Early Childhood Intervention Association from Zagreb.
The new official uniforms of the Croatian National Tourist Board have been designed by the ELFS team. It is believed that dresses will be dominated by the colour blue and will abound with recognizable motives from all Croatian regions. If there were no major last-minute changes, the dresses will feature the roof of St Mark’s church in Zagreb, the Pula Arena, the Croatian Apoxyomenos statue and so on. The uniforms will again be marked by distinctive red and white squares, as stated previously by HTZ general manager Kristjan Staničić.
The first actual use of the new HTZ uniforms at a tourism fair will take place only two days after the show in Mimara, at the London tourism fair which starts on 5 November. The current uniforms also had their premiere in London in 2015, but then there was no official presentation. On the contrary, there was much more stress and even tensions in relations between the Ministry of Tourism and the Main Office of the Croatian National Tourist Board.
That year, a major effort was underway to promote Croatia on the British market. An artificial island was launched on the river Thames, and the ceremony was attended by then Prime Minister Zoran Milanović and even some British celebrities. Tourism Minister Darko Lorencin thought that the presentation should also include new uniforms, and he got angry with the then HTZ leadership because they did not think of it themselves. The uniforms were designed and made almost overnight. Still, they were ready in time for the London fair and they served the HTZ staff well until now.
If you want to known more about Croatian tourism, there is plenty to read here.
Translated from Večernji List (reported by Radmila Kovačević).
