Croatia is located on the north-eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, bordered by Slovenia and Hungary to the north, Yugoslavia to the east and Bosnia-Hercegovina to the south and east. The republic is twice the size of Belgium and swings around like a boomerang from the Pannonian plains of Slavonia, across hilly central Croatia to the Istrian Peninsula and the rugged Adriatic Coast. The southernmost portion of Croatia's Adriatic Coast, including the town of Dubrovnik, is separated from the rest of the country by a knuckle of Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Croatia's main tourist attraction has always been its beaches. The country has 1778km (1103mi) of coastline; 5790km (3590mi) if you count the islands. Most of the beaches, however, are slabs of rock rather than sand. The country's offshore islands are as beautiful as those in Greece. There are 1185 of them, 66 of which are inhabited.
Croatia has seven excellent national parks. Brijuni, near Pula, is the most carefully cultivated, with well-preserved Mediterranean holm oak forests. Mountainous Risnjak National Park is home to lynx, while the dense forests of Paklenica National Park harbour insects, reptiles and birds, including the endangered griffon vulture. At Plitvice Lakes National Park you'll find bears, wolves and deer.
The climate varies from Mediterranean along the Adriatic coast to continental inland. The sunny coastal areas have hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. The high coastal mountains help to shield the coast from cold northerly winds, making for an early spring and a late autumn. In Zagreb, average daily high temperatures peak at 27°C (80°F) in July and drop to 2°C (35°F) in January.
UNWTO conference forges closer relationship between tourism and the media
Focusing on the people behind the tourism numbers and maintaining an honest and open relationship with the media, are among the main recommendations to emerge from discussions between media representatives and tourism officials attending the first UNWTO International Conference on Tourism and the Media (September 12-13, Zagreb, Croatia).
Under the title “Tourism in the Headlines” and in partnership with the government of Croatia and the World Federation of Travel Journalists and Writers (FIJET), the conference aimed to analyze the relationship between tourism and the media and address why, despite being one of the world’s largest economic sectors, tourism is not sufficiently featured in the political, business, or financial news.
Opening the conference, Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor stressed the relevance of tourism as “an engine of economic growth and one of the most effective creators of new jobs,” pointing to the need to reflect this message in the media. This was further echoed by the Minister of Tourism ofCroatia, Mr. Damir Bajs, who underlined the main aim of the conference: “to join forces and to try and find ways to give more media importance to such a significant global sector as tourism.”
Members of the print, digital, and television media, including from CNN - the media partner of the conference - Time Magazine, and Newsweek International, spoke on how to make tourism newsworthy. “The economic importance of tourism is very clear,” said CNN correspondent, Frederik Pleitgen, delivering the keynote presentation, “But, in today’s 24-hour news cycle, if tourism wants to grab attention, it needs to move from the numbers to the people, as it is the people (behind the numbers) that make a story.”
“This is a two-way relationship,” said Mr. Rifai, “The media needs to acknowledge tourism, but we also need to listen to the media, speak its language, understand its needs, and provide the human stories behind the facts and figures.”
