Destination Lika world title
At the end of last year, Lika achieved great success by placing among the TOP 100 world sustainable destinations.
At first glance, it is sustainably associated with the greenery and nature that Lika abounds in, but the award for a sustainable destination also went to Lika for a project submitted by the Lika Destination Cluster, which is also branding Lika as a destination. However, even greater success was achieved last week at the International Tourism Fair in Berlin (ITB Berlin), which took place online this year.
Namely, the expert commission selected 100 finalists from among the 15 selected, whose projects stood out, and one of them is the project Cluster Lika Destination: "Local products in the function of sustainable development of the destination", better known as the Lika Quality project, which we have been following on the portal from the very beginning.
Cluster leader Petra Kovačević does not hide his great pride in winning the award and placement on a global level and points out that Lika, as a karst area rich in biodiversity, has always attracted nature lovers, and with its natural phenomena it was an undiscovered treasure.
"Due to rich pastures and harsh climate, Lika is primarily a livestock area. Little is known that dozens of plant species grow on Lika pastures, many of which are medicinal, while in European countries with far more developed agriculture, only a few species grow on pastures. This is what significantly differentiates the destination of Lika in the quality of the food produced. No matter what kind of food it is, if it is produced in the destination Lika, it really tastes unique"Kovacevic points out.
Producers from Lika are gathered in a joint strategic project called INTEGRA LIKA 2020 This is, for Croatia, a unique five-year project aimed at branding Lika as a unique sustainable destination. Through this project, a brand of Lika food, drinks and souvenirs was created under the name Lika Quality. Most importantly, a total of 160 products currently carry the Lika Quality certificate.
In parallel with the development of the Lika Quality system, work was done on educating the population, agricultural producers and stakeholders in the tourism sector. The process of branding the destination and the Lika Quality system is successfully managed by the tourism industry Cluster Lika Destination, which brings together local tourism entrepreneurs. In addition to the cluster, the Agricultural Cooperative also operates Lika Coop which markets all these products.
So, this is a complete project, which is market-oriented and the best example of how agriculture and tourism can be connected.
Kovačević also emphasizes the importance of education if you want to keep up with trends, and that it is a constant process and needs to be continuously improved. “We educate ourselves and in parallel work on educating producers and the local community. We have a minimum of 10 different educations a year, live or online, and as far as our producers are concerned, their products are of high quality and only we can learn from them. What they lack is knowledge about packaging, packaging, marketing, advertising, etc. and there is that part that we do for them and with them. We regularly hire external experts according to the topics that all of us need in order to purposefully improve the necessary knowledge. Lika Quality is a sustainable development project, in that it is designed so that local producers can meet the needs of the local market. In this way, transport is shorter and carbon dioxide emissions are automatically reduced, and the amount of packaging is far reduced. ” states Kovačević and emphasizes that the most important thing is to enable (self) employment of the local population and stay in this beautiful area of the Republic of Croatia.
As much as it was a challenge to bring a new way of selling and promoting their products to traditional producers, the cluster leader points out that this is also something that the cluster is working on permanently.
"This is the fifth year of implementation of the Lika Quality system and the progress is, compared to the initial state, more than visible. For example, most manufacturers sold mostly on the doorstep and by recommendation, most of them did not have promotional materials, there was not much information about most of them on Internet search engines. Today, the cluster's website contains information about all manufacturers, almost all of them have promotional materials, most of them regularly update their pages on their social networks, we organize fairs and similar events where they meet and now recommend each other.
However, as the greatest success, the cluster leader points out the change of consciousness, way of thinking and working. “We have achieved that manufacturers think not only about their product, but also about the Lika Quality brand, as well as other manufacturers. Cooperation is very important and only through joint work and recommendation can such projects succeed. Of course, product quality is most important, but they are no longer focused exclusively on the product, but also take into account the marketing component. Lika Quality has become recognizable and is often cited as an example of successful practice throughout Croatia and beyond, and we have a number of successful organizations that want to develop a system modeled on ours.”Points out Kovačević and concludes that the inclusion of Lika on the list of TOP 100 world sustainable destinations is a success of all stakeholders because only together can such results be achieved, which we have proven this time as well.
Due to its geographical position, rich biodiversity and a number of natural phenomena, the destination of Lika certainly has a future in tourism with an emphasis on the exclusive development of tourism according to the model of sustainable development. The basic motto of the Lika Destination Cluster is Smart sustainable destination, which speaks volumes about their vision.
A great concrete example of how to do it and what the right path is.
Downloaded from: https://hrturizam.hr/en/
