Through the Cheese & Wine Meetup project, Croatian wines have been presented at a total of seven international tourism fairs this year, including the IBTM World fair in Barcelona.
At the IBTM World congress fair, held from November 28 to 30 in Barcelona, two years of the ‘Cheese & Wine Meetup’ project was marked, through which the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and the Croatian National Tourist Board promote Croatian wines under the brand HGK Vina Croatia at key tourism fairs, thus promoting Croatia as an eno-gastronomic destination, reports Dalmacija Danas on November 30, 2018.
During the first two days of the fair in Barcelona, visitors tasted some of the finest Croatian wines, guided by a professional sommelier who told the stories of the diverse Croatian wine regions under the HGK Vina Croatia brand. The participants were introduced to Krauthaker winery’s Mitrovac graševina, PP Orahovica’s Silvanac, Zlatan Otok’s Zlatan Crljenak, Vino Laguna’s Teran, Vina Matošević’s Alba Barrique Malvazia, and company Jako Vino’s Stina Plavac.
“Tourism is primarily an industry of experience and that is what we should be recognizing. The combination of tourism and eno-gastronomy is extremely close to us and we are happy to share the story and the best domestic products on key tourism markets through the HGK project at HTZ booths,” said Jako Andabak, owner of Jako Vino, and Chairman of the Supervisory Board and owner of Sunce Koncern, which manages Bluesun hotels & resorts. Bluesun is also the only hotel chain that boasts organic meat production on its own farm, vegetable and fruit production, and olive oil for its individual needs.
“In the future, Croatia must become the wine and gourmet center of the region, while eno-gastronomic tourism is a value-added tourism that extends the season, strongly includes continental Croatia and increases tourist spending, which are some of the main goals of the Croatian tourism development strategy. The Chamber of Commerce, through a series of projects – from specialized B2B actions ‘Buy Croatian-Croatian products for Croatian tourism’ to the Cheese & Wine Meetup – strive to link agricultural production and tourism, ensure product placement for our producers through hotel and catering facilities and ensure Croatia’s recognition through top quality and authentic products,” said Dragan Kovačević, Vice President of the Croatian Chamber of Economy for Agriculture and Tourism.
IBTM is a specialized fair and the most important gathering for the meetings and events industry, which is also attended by specialized media.
Through the Hosted Buyers program, IBTM gives exhibitors meetings with significant customers and media representatives from all over the world. Through the ‘Cheese & Wine Meetup’, Croatian wines were presented at a total of seven international tourism fairs this year, including a special boating nautical tourism fair ‘BOOT’ in Düsseldorf, a tourism fair for the general public ‘f.re.e.’ in Munich, the Berlin ITB Tourism Business Fair, the IMEX Congress Fair in Frankfurt, the TTG business fair in Rimini, the WTM business fair in London and the most recent IBTM congress fair in Barcelona.
To read more about Croatian wines, follow TCN’s dedicated page here.
