July 15, 2020 – Tourism was on hold when we started this series of articles, but most of us still have plenty of time. So let’s look at the virtual resources available to explore Croatia virtually. We continue our new Virtual Croatia series with the tools to discover Bibinje, one of the many picturesque small towns near Zadar.
A few weeks ago I wrote that being a tourism blogger in the corona era was about as useful as being a cocktail barman in Saudi Arabia. I feel less useless now, a few weeks later, and I am encouraged by the number of Croatian tourism businesses who are contacting us wanting to start thinking of promoting post-corona tourism.
One of the challenges of writing about tourism at the moment is that there is nothing positive to write about. With people confined to their homes and tourism in Croatia currently not possible, many have decided to go into hibernation until it is all over.
I think that this is a mistake, and I have greatly enjoyed the TCN series by Zoran Pejovic of Paradox Hospitality on thinking ahead to tourism in a post-corona world. You can find Zoran’s articles here.
Way back on March 14 – several lifetimes ago – I published an article called Tourism in the Corona Age: 10 Virtual Ways to Discover Zagreb. The way I saw things, now was an OUTSTANDING opportunity for tourism promotion. People have time, they yearn for their freedom and former lives, so give them the tools to thoroughly research and enjoy your destinations, and you will have then longing to be there. And when they do come, they will have a deeper understanding of the destination due to their research.
South Africa and Portugal were the first to do their post-corona tourism promotion videos several weeks ago (Post-Corona Tourism Planning: Lessons from South Africa and Portugal), a trick which has been followed by other tourism countries, the latest being Croatia with the national tourist board campaign, #CroatiaLongDistanceLove, going live yesterday.
But while these campaigns create longing and market presence, they don’t really educate. People now have time to really get into destinations. And dreams of escape to somewhere more exotic are high on the list of priorities of many.
So TCN has decided to help with that education with a new series called Virtual Croatia, where we will be helping you discover many of Croatia’s destinations with all the best virtual tools available on your self-isolating sofa at home.
We started with Tourism in the Corona Age: 10 Virtual Tools to Discover Hvar.
After this, we put our a press release (which you can read here in English and Croatian) offering a free article to any local tourist board in Croatia who would like the free promotion in our Virtual Croatia series.
The Sinj Tourist Board was the first to respond, and now you can see just how rich the tourism offer is in this proud Alka town – your virtual tools to Discover Sinj. This was followed by Discover Opatija, Discover Brela, Discover Rogoznica, Discover Stari Grad, Discover Omiš, Discover Lumbarda, Discover Jezera, Discover Šolta, Discover Cavtat and Konavle, Discover Koprivnica, Discover Pašman, and Discover Gradac.
Marijana Kovač from the Tourist Board Bibinje helped us put together a series of resources to introduce Bibinje.
Let’s begin!
Discover Bibinje – the Beach Gems
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1Zg9tXMXDU
A postcard of Bibinje in 4K
Another video postcard, featuring mostly beaches
Tourist Board produced promo video
Bibinje from the air, earlier this year
Bibinje from the air, during the high tourist season
Tourist-recorded video of their vacation Bibinje
What to do in Bibinje
Catching squid in Bibinje
Bibinje fishermen
Good Friday procession
Local food competition in Bibinje
Local Bibinje traditions
Discover Bibinje Websites
Tourist Board Bibinje website has a great website, which will help you experience Bibinje before you even arrive there. Their Facebook page is also quite active, and they’d love to answer any questions you might have.
Will your next visit to Bibinje be a day-trip from Zadar, or a longer, relaxing vacation in a place with amazing beaches?
To discover more of virtual Croatia, you can follow this series in our dedicated section, Virtual Croatia.
If you are a local tourist board in Croatia and would like your destination featured in this series for free, please contact us at [email protected] Subject Virtual Croatia (and destination name)
