December 14, 2018 – Where is Croatia? Nobody seems to know, according to the latest data and trends from Google’s Year in Search 2018.
2018 has been an extraordinary year for so many reasons, and few Croats will forget it due to the heroics on Russian football fields this summer.
And while Croatia finished runners-up in a highly entertaining final against France in July, it seems that this is no the only thing Croatia came in second this year.
An interesting finding from Tavel + Leisure in the recently released data available from Google’s Year in Seach 2018 showed that ‘Where is Croatia’ was the second-most searched term for ‘where is…’
In fact, Croatia was the only country in the entire top ten. On the one hand, it is great that so many people interested in where is Croatia, on the other hand perhaps a little concerning that so few people know where it is.
It does not take a genius to figure out where the interest in Croatia came from. The world went crazy for Croatia in mid-July, and there were some 60 billion mentions about Croatia on the web, more than the entire 28 years of the existence of the young modern State.
Combined.
And, as the 12-month Google chart shows, no sooner was the interest there than it was gone. For Google searchers today, the World Cup never happened, and only a fraction of people are search ‘Where is Croatia’ today.
I didn’t follow the search term at the time, but I am hoping that someone in the tourist board was smart enough to take advantage of the surge in interest with an innovative marketing campaign with Adwords. I like this very cheeky effort from the Hungarians, above, for those looking to set up a company in Croatia.
Looking at the results for Google Searches to ‘Where is Croatia’, there is very little except for the generic sites offering general overviews.
Even if the opportunity, albeit a huge one, has been missed this time, perhaps there is a lesson to be learned for the future.
As Google tells us, historically there is a big spike in interest in Croatia when the World Cup or Euros are on. At these times, interest in Croatia surges. Apart from 2010, the year when Croatia did not qualify for the World Cup.
Read more on Why Croatia should brand football and tourism together.
