Just a few days before the official confirmation of Croatia’s entry into the Schengen area, the Croatian National Tourist Board hosted an event in Ljubljana where they presented a new cross-border project connecting the Slovenian Green Karst and the Croatian Gorski Kotar.
Exploring the karst phenomena
The organisers of the programme will introduce attendees to the stunning life in the karst landscape and one of Europe’s last wildernesses with experienced experts and locals. With exclusive experiences and getting to know natural phenomena in an unchanging way, attendees will make unforgettable memories.
“Cooperation between two related and extremely alluring mountain regions offers many unexplored areas,” said Dejan Iskra, an employee of RRA Zeleni kras based in Pivka, where they operate as a destination and tourist agency. On the other side of the border, the project is led by Petar Hrg, director of the Gorski Kotar Tourist Association, founded two years ago to comprehensively cover the tourist area and promote it to the level that the region rightly deserves. “We are trying to present Gorski Kotar as a destination for year-round tourism, and we want to position it as a destination ripe for investment.”
Raising the offer of local experiences
As the presentation highlighted, both destinations deal with similar challenges: raising the offer of local experiences to a higher level and presenting the activities of individual providers of tourist experiences. “We decided to connect two areas that intertwine natural heritage, cultural attractions and the very culture of the inhabitants. We are building this on the recognition the area has gained over the past 15 years,” said Iskra. He added: “We prepared 14-day itineraries, which we divided according to segments. They are prepared for smaller groups, up to 8 people. That has also proven to be the right direction after the corona crisis. With exclusive experiences and getting to know natural phenomena in an unchanging way, guests make unforgettable memories.”
Experiences are created by people
One of the main attractions is the observation of wild animals in nature. The latter has experienced a real boom in Slovenia in recent years, and numerous observatories allow visitors to marvel at brown bears, lynxes, birds and other animals. In the area of Gorski Kotar, they launched a similar project – the Center for Large Animal Visitors. “The centre stands next to the old Frankopan Manor and explains how the three big beasts coexist,” added Hrg.
Find out more about the project here.
