November 29, 2020 – Because who doesn’t want to say I do in Dubrovnik? A look at why the Adriatic Pearl is an ideal wedding destination.
HRTurizam reports that within the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, the Dubrovnik County Chamber, a professional group of wedding organizers has been established, which will bring together agencies that organize weddings from the wider Dubrovnik area. The idea is to gather the organizers themselves, but also related activities, into one marketing story to brand Dubrovnik as an ideal destination for weddings.
“This is an industry that entails a lot of other activities, such as suppliers of various equipment, catering, musicians, florists. From a marketing perspective, this is a unique opportunity to position Dubrovnik among different groups of people as a destination for weddings, but also in general. Weddings by their nature bring together a heterogeneous group of people, of different ages and interests in one place, and the arrival of such a group creates a unique opportunity to present the city and its offer if they decide to return in a private arrangement,” said the president of the Professional Group Ines Nanić from the company Dubrovnik events.
The newly established Expert Group emphasizes that weddings in destinations have a multiplier effect on the entire economy. An average of 70 to 150 participants travel to a destination for a couple of newlyweds.
“Their promotion of the destination through pictures and posts on social networks is something that can hardly be achieved through commercial campaigns. Therefore, this story has an extremely large impact on all segments in the provision of tourist services within a destination and is an excellent platform for building the image of the destination,” said the Expert Group.
Nanić also reminds us that in these challenging times, the competition is certainly not asleep, preparing its marketing plans and strategies for appearing on the markets, so we must be ready.
“Let’s not forget how big the wedding industry is and how many micro-entrepreneurs have been affected by its drastic decline this year. Hundreds of service providers in our country have lost their jobs. Our mission is to work together with marketing activities to revive our industry in the form of promotion that can only bring us positive results. At a time when everyone is quiet, it is up to us to do our best to make a good word heard about the services and beauties and values that our city offers,” concludes Nanić.
To speed up the recovery, joint marketing activities will promote the destination, but also those segments of the offer, i.e., the business sector that is involved in the wedding as a final product. They hope to present to the newlyweds what their story might look like if they say “DA u DU” (“YES in DU”). Since the English version of this slogan is hardly applicable, it may be that the Professional Group is targeting domestic guests and newlyweds from Croatia. The Expert Group invites all interested parties to get involved in the work of the group and present their ideas on how to improve this story and help in the campaign of positioning Dubrovnik as an ideal place for the most important day for the future newlyweds.
Weddings are a well-known tourist product that has been intensively developed by Istria since 2014, with the desire to get guests from the Western European market for weddings, as well as newlyweds from overseas countries. The Istria – wedding destination project has encouraged numerous initiatives aimed at positioning Istria in this domain and has resulted in the creation of a specialized website to further improve and develop this tourist product. Two months ago, Istria also announced that some new cooperation and product development measures had been agreed upon. In Istria, one of the first realized projects was the production of photographs and videos advertising the destination on various platforms. In addition to aerial shots, two stylized shots were organized – in the Brijuni National Park and the Village & Hotel San Canzian. According to the American lifestyle online magazine Brides.com, San Canzian is listed among the TOP 8 world locations where guests can travel virtually in search of their honeymoon.
The Istrian Tourist Board also believes that the development of wedding products can significantly mitigate the seasonality of tourism, strengthen pre-and post-season and consequently increase local community revenues in the off-season while promoting less developed tourist areas and small businesses.
Given the popularity of Dubrovnik in the world, it should not be difficult to sell the idea and story of a romantic wedding in the city where Game of Thrones was filmed.
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