The marketing efforts of the Croatian National Tourist Board have been a hot topic of discussion in recent days. TCN conducted an email interview with the tourist board head office on February 19, 2016 to ask about Croatia 365, the ‘waste your life’ slogan, and THAT Slavonian video. Answers appear in full below.
1. Croatia 365 is now 18 months old, and was unveiled with great fanfare in August 2014. How would you assess the progress and success of the project so far?
The project “Croatia 365” was initiated with the primary goal to increase brand awareness, that is, to develop awareness of Croatia as a destination with an appealing offer during both pre and post season. During the pilot project in 2014, 22 destinations participated. While in 2015, by way of a public call, an additional 18 destinations were chosen. Currently there are 40 destinations participating, that is a total of 286 counties and cities, which is a key indicator of the concept’s success. Also, tourism numbers for 2015, particularly those in non-peak months are encouraging and suggest that Croatia is increasingly positioned as a destination with an attractive tourism offer year round.
2. Looking at the official website, there seems to be a worrying lack of information in some of the six target sectors. In business, for example, there are just 2 regions mentioned after 18 months, despite 22 starting the project, in cycling 8 and in wellness 7. Can you explain why?
It is important to once again highlight that 22 destinations participated in the pilot project during 2014. In 2015 an additional 18 destinations joined, giving a total of 40 destinations currently participating. It is also important to point out that the destinations chose the products and services they would offer within the PPS (pre and post season) project. That is, each market chose two of their products that would be the basis of their pre and post season offer. Of all the participating destinations only two chose to participate in the area of “Business Travel”, which is the basis for the information indicated on the website. The same holds for the other product data cited or chosen destination.
3. Taking a closer look at one example to illustrate a point, we looked at one of the cycling options called the Aurea Pannonia. There were links to three local tourist boards for more information. One had the account suspended, another was in Croatian only, and the third claimed to be in English, but only had information about cycling in Croatian. How are potential tourists supposed to find out information when the delivery is so poor?
The Croatian National Tourist Board is not responsible for the visual presentation, content or concept of the local tourist board websites (counties, cities, regions). However, the Tourist Boards did agree to provide more complete information on the products themselves, where it is desirable that each website also be available in a few key foreign languages and that the information provided is factual and precise. Namely, each “PPS destination” is required to include its PPS offer, PPS club participants and their scope. We will certainly assess the destination in question and the reasons for the inadequate delivery and presentation of the required information.
4. When the project launched, this is how it was portrayed:
“The Ministry of Tourism will focus on improving facilities and activities in those areas to make Croatia an all year round destination, and it will also be backed up with an intensive marketing plan. In September marketing campaigns will start in all of Croatia’s main markets in Europe. The 22 destinations which are included in the pilot project have guaranteed that at least 50% of all tourism and restaurant facilities remain open outside of the main season.”
I was in Hvar Town last week and not a single restaurant, apart from one in a hotel, was open. This is not atypical of the situation in other destinations. How is that possible when the project was supposed to deliver 50% opening?
Article 4 of the Policy on awarding „PPS destination“ status outlines that the pre-season must include at minimum the period between May 15th and June 30th, while post-season must include at minimum the period between September 1st and October 15th. Taking this into account, each destination defined the length of their pre and post season. The destination of “Hvar and Vis Islands” chose to define their pre-season period in line with the policy from May 15th through June 30th, where they are required to fulfil the requirement that at least 50 percent of their lodging capacities, as well as their restaurants and service establishments be open for business.
5. Are you satisfied with the quality of the information on the website promoting Croatia 365? In the culture section for Hvar and Vis for example, there is not a single mention of Hvar’s UNESCO heritage (the only island in the world with 4 UNESCO heritages) or the oldest public theatre in Europe. With such a lack of quality information, how are you supposed to attract tourists?
With regard to the web content, each destination participating in the project provided final sign-off and authorized the texts. Each of the texts were created in cooperation and in agreement with the destinations themselves. The Croatian National Tourist Board did not independently publish the texts, rather the CNTB communicated what was provided by the destinations.
6. What would you consider to be your biggest success with Croatia 365 and what will be your focus for 2016?
The main goal of this project is to extend the season, as Croatia has the foundational resources to be an attractive destination outside of the peak summer months. As we succeed in extending the season, so too will we see other effects of a successful tourism season, particularly in terms of revenue generated, which surpassed 8 billion Euros in 2015. During 2016, the project Croatia 365 will also be carrying out a number of activities including: field trips to PPS destinations for international journalists and travel agents; a quality designation will be defined for the categories “Gourmet 365” and the “Most beautiful small rural destination”; an Experience Guidebook to be based on key PPS products that can be enjoyed regardless of the weather conditions; providing subsidies for events, initiatives and products for PPS destinations; online and offline advertising of PPS destinations and their key product offers. We are sure that all mentioned will ensure even better results, that is, increased tourism outside of high season.
7. Turning to tourism promotion in general, the media has been reporting on your latest way to promote Croatia with the line ‘Croatia will waste your time’. Many commentators are convinced this was a linguistic mistake and not a deliberate attempt to attract attention to the national parks which were being promoted. Do you stand by that, or are you willing to admit it was a mistake?
The post wasn’t a mistake, it was intentionally structured this way. Namely, the sentence you are referring to is only part of the post. The full text reads:
“Before you visit Croatia you should know…
Croatia will waste your time
Deciding which of the 8 National parks is your favorite!”
In a very competitive environment it is not easy to draw attention by means of common tools. Sometimes it is necessary to try original and somewhat provocative techniques that have proven to be successful on key social media channels. These types of posts were also created and used during the Super Bowl campaign, which resulted in the Croatian National Tourist Board receiving international recognition as the recipient of the City Nation Place Award in the category “best use of social media”.
8. There was considerable anger in Slavonia about your latest promotional video Where the Horizon is Always Golden, as despite Croatia being ‘Full of Life’, not a single human being appeared in the video. Comments about the video have been deleted, and the only impression we are left with is the number of dislikes outnumbering the likes. Can you comment on that and explain the thinking behind the video?
The video mentioned is only one of a series of the Croatian National Tourist Board videos by which various segments of Croatia’s tourism offer will be communicated. Also, the mentioned video clip, as the others, are still being further developed and they will include additional segments of Croatia’s tourism offer. The mentioned video clip was released as a teaser with the intent to garner the public’s attention, pique their interest and prompt communication and we are quite happy with the public interest and buzz the video clip has created. In the upcoming period the Croatian National Tourist Board will release additional destination video clips. Depending on the length of each clip, the videos will encompass additional products, attractions and of course the beautiful sights of the destinations of which we are all exceptionally proud and are in essence the reason guests are drawn to Croatia.
9. Several people have contact us saying their comments have been deleted from your official Facebook page. While that is understandable for abusive messages, they claim that there were simply expressing their democratic opinion without abuse, but still they were removed. What is your policy on removing comments from your social media pages?
The Croatian National Tourist Board’s Social Media Policy is very clear in terms of comments. Comments that contain inappropriate content, such as vulgar language and swearing, insults and those containing any form of advertising for a commercial business are not allowed. The administrators of our social media channels do not remove any comments by individuals that express their opinion in an appropriate manner, even if their comment is negative or critical. However, we are pleased to note that these types of comments are in the minority, that is, the majority of the comments on our social media channels are more than positive.
