Environmental Protection Ministry and UNDP project PARCS presented the new mobile application Parks of Croatia
The app is an official mobile guide through 8 national and 11 nature parks in Croatia, enabling users and visitors to find their way around with ease and enhance the experience. It is also the first app in Croatia to use Bluetooth technology in open spaces and ensure availability of information in offline mode, Hrturizam.hr reported on March 17, 2017.
Parks of Croatia app is connected and completely integrated with the web portal Parks of Croatia created in the previous year, while all content was prepared by expert associates of the parks. The app thus enables users to plan individual visits to any of the 19 Croatian parks and purchase tickets in the webshop, while during their stay in the park they can use it to study numerous interesting locations, gain a range of useful information or simply view in which direction they want to proceed.
“The Parks of Croatia mobile app is the first to use Bluetooth technology in open spaces. The app uses nearly 400 beacon transmitters to enhance the experience for visitors of parks as it informs them when they are near an interesting location or attraction, whether natural or cultural sights, activities or routes available in each park,” said Valentina Futač, director of the UNDP project PARCS.
The app includes and interactive map of all parks with 1.172 paths and locations and provides interesting facts and additional multimedia content for 283 attractions and 899 activities in parks and is also available in offline mode. Additionally, the application enables the sharing of the experience with other users and represents only one of many investments in the advancement of visitor infrastructure and experience quality in Croatian parks.
“Protected nature, especially our 8 national and 11 nature parks, is Croatia’s strongest brand, confirmed by over 3.5 million visitors in just the previous year. They all brought back wonderful images and experiences and it is up to us to inform them in the future on the importance of preserving nature. This is why our efforts are directed to management plans of Natura 2000 areas, investment in research, but also development of visitor infrastructure in parks, with over 900 million kuna of EU funds available. All this will enable long-term preservation of the natural resources we have, quality management of these areas, better organisation of visits and reduction of the pressure on nature in parks which are most popular with visitors,” said Igor Kreitmeyer, Assistant Minister at the Environment Ministry.
The mobile app Parks of Croatia is available for free to smartphone and tablet users using iOS and Android, in Croatian and English languages.
