In the first nine months of this year there have been close to 145,000 tourists who have made 244,000 overnight stays, which is about 7,000 more than last year.
The destination of Plitvice Valley with the municipality Rakovica is expected to reach 3 percent more overnights this year than last year, a better trend that hopes to continue next year given the number of new tourism products which are planned to be offered to tourists, says the director of the Tourist Board of Rakovica – Mira Špoljarić, reports Poslovni.hr on 21 December 2016.
Noting that the Plitvice Valley brand unifies the offer of the northern regions of lakes around the municipality of Rakovica, Špoljarić emphasizes that with time it (the north of Plitvice) has become more visible on tourist maps, and the social networks of agencies and tour operators in the area have been offering additional content as a means to promote the areas outside of the massive lakes.
“The Plitvice Valley project is the strategic thinking for tourist development of the municipality, which is based on three themed routes aimed at visitors that stay with us at least three days. The first one operates along the cave – the main attraction being the Barac Caves, cycling and educational paths, and interpretation panels. The second is the route of water which takes you to the tower of the old town Drežnik and a walk through the canyon Korana, and the mills, while the third is a forest route we create,” explains Špoljarić of the concept.
The accuracy of the concept of branding can be seen a bit more from the results of tourist arrivals and overnights. In the first nine months of this year there have been close to 145,000 tourists, who have made 244,000 overnight stays, or about 7,000 more than last year. Most tourists came from Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Hungary and other foreign markets, while the domestic turnout is very small, making up only 1.55 percent of the total.
“We are pleased with this year’s results, and even though our tourist traffic after September is starting to cool, this is not the case with the activities of service providers who are now, more or less, looking at next year to build a new capacity, invest in improving what already exists, and prepare for the preseason 2017 as many are expected for Easter,” adds Špoljarić.
For next year, a number of new facilities on offer have been announced, from riding clubs, rafting and kayaking, to Adrenalin Park Plitvice on location of the Gajina caves, rock climbing, farm animals and many others, including a new attraction at the renewed Drežnik Grad.
At the destination, there are a total of 223 accommodation facilities with approximately four thousand beds – 204 of them in family houses, of which 24 are newly registered this year with 120 beds. Although dominated by family accommodation, most of the overnights this year, or nearly 53 percent of them, were in the two camps Korana and Turist, while 34.4 percent were in family houses, with the rest staying in hotels.
Restaurants, hotels and villas have had on average the same number of visitors as last year, while for family accommodation there was a 15 percent increase in overnight stays, but with a lower average occupancy rate of, for example, hotel and tourist camps.
The fastest growing form of accommodation are for families, which is not surprising due to the higher profitability of investments in the rooms, but not in the entire premises. However, when it comes to demand for these rooms, according Špoljarić, the total is less than the supply, so it is difficult to fill in the off season.
On the other hand, such problems don’t exist in the family structures as in addition to rooms, they offer food, transport, bike rentals, internet and the like.
“Tourism in the area so far developed the most through the efforts of people living in the municipality of Rakovica, but this is now changing because outside investors are coming in who have no experience with love but only for profit,” says Špoljarić.
“The area around Plitvice must be controlled to develop, and I’m afraid that if we fail to satisfy the needs of the capital we will have big problems in the future and our children will have no desire to live and work here,” concluded Špoljarić.
