Croatia features in the New York Times Country of the Week feature in the New York Times on September 10, 2019.
A nice little promotion for Croatia in the New York Times yesterday, as well as a chance to see how well-known some of Croatia’s most famous brands are in the American market.
Americans are not famous for performing well in world geography quizzes, and so I was curious to see how readers of the New York Times would fare in a feature called How Much Do You Know About Croatia? After each answer, there was some promotional information about the subject of the question, a nice way to get a little information about the country out there to the important American market.
As one might expect, the questions were not difficult, and the task of the reader was made infinitely easier by the fact that each answer came in the shape of 4 multiple-choice questions. The most interesting bit for me was the percentage of correct answers.
1. Click or tap on Croatia on the map above.
The choices were France, Portugal, Greece and Croatia. Having read numerous articles over the years stating that 20% of Americans could not find their own country on a world map, I was surprised (and encouraged) to see that 88% found Croatia no problem.
2. What is the capital of Zagreb? Tallinn, Sofia, Prague or Zagreb? Just 73% got that one right.
3. Established in 1949 and named a Unesco World Heritage site in 1979, , a chain of 16 lakes, 80 miles south of Zagreb, is the crown jewel of the country’s oldest and largest national park. Given the choice of Crater Lake National Park, Fiordland National Park, Torres del Paine National Park, and Plitvice Lakes, 82% chose Plitvice, higher than Zagreb which is perhaps not surprising as the other three were located in the USA, New Zealand and Chile.
4. Feared and revered in his day, the Yugoslav leader is described by some as a hero of the anti-fascist struggle who kept Yugoslavia’s six republics, including Croatia, together for more than 35 years. Others call him a Communist dictator who purged his enemies. Given the choice of Erich Honecker, Lech Walesa and Joseph Stalin, 73% opted for Tito, the same percentage as Zagreb. Something for the PR gurus at the Zagreb Tourist Board to ponder, perhaps?
5. Every summer, the hordes descend upon , a gem of a Croatian city nestled on the Adriatic Sea. With Venice, Nice and Mallorca to compete with, Dubrovnik scored highest of the whole survey with 90%.
It would have been interesting to see what the percentages would have been if the multiple choice element had been removed. Some progress on visibility, some work still to be done.
