The season could not officially start until foreign media had something, well, out of the ordinary to say, which is exactly what happened in the Czech media about tourists going to Istria.
Namely, a Czech magazine recently published false news that the Croatian coast was flooded with jellyfish, which could ultimately jeopardize the tourist season. The Czechs allegedly called on their citizens not to spend their summers in Istria, to which the Istria County Tourist Board quickly responded, Glas Istre writes.
It is true that fishers had problems with jellyfish last winter, but the Czech media misinterpreted the news, said the Istria County Tourist Board. Guests from the Czech Republic and Slovakia also sent inquiries to the Istria County Tourist Board, and one Slovak who planned to go on holiday in early June asked if the story about the jellyfish invasion was true.
The director of the Istria County Tourist Board, Denis Ivošević, says that they sent a statement to the Czech and Slovak media this week “about the real situation in the Adriatic”, which is why they asked for the opinion of experts.
Ivošević assumes that someone from the Czech Republic read a story in Croatian media about fishers complaining about jellyfish over winter and transmitted the news with a delay, interpreting it completely wrong. He pointed out that there was no danger for swimmers and that the news about the mass appearance of jellyfish on the Istrian coast was fabricated. Istrian fishers have also confirmed that jellyfish have almost completely disappeared from their waters.
One Czech magazine, on the other hand, writes that the beaches in Piran, Savudrija, Umag, Poreč, Vrsar, and the entire Italian coast of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region are “covered with transparent slimy jelly”.
How about that story to kick off the season?
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