TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Croatia, Slovenia, and Hungary held a joint seminar to promote, following last year, the “Pearl Road” tours that make a visit to the three countries along the way. The Pearl Road is a route going through northern Croatia, Slovenia, and south of Hungary, and its name is derived from the figurative word “Pearl” associated with each country like “a Pearl of the Adriatic Sea.” They are going to take up wine as the travel theme because it is the common product of the three, featuring visits to wineries, in addition to sightseeing, and local foods matched with wine.

Bálint Rei Kósa, Director Japan, South Korea & Taiwan, Hungarian National Tourist Office, says that, judging from the Japanese traveling patterns, it would not be easy to make a success in presenting mono- destination tour for Europe except for France and Italy. Pearl Road tours, in this connection, would appeal to Japanese people if the three countries work together, he continued. Pearl Road tours went on sale after they held the first seminar in October last year but, in his opinion, they have not reached consumers yet. He is requesting travel agencies to market the tours and at the same time preparing to organize an inspection tour for the press in an attempt to have more coverage in mass media.

Three Countries Harbor High Expectation for Pearl Road Programs
Edouard Tripkovic Katayama, head of representative office in Japan, Croatian National Tourist Board, indicated the number of Japanese tourists is on the increase but most of them swarm to Dubrovnik. The Pearl Road would serve to draw them to the northern part of the country, and he was eager at the seminar to take them to the capital city of Zagreb and its vicinity and to the region of Slavonija.

What is a problem to Slovenia is too short a stay of tourists in terms of the number of nights. Terue Ishige, marketing manager of Slovenian Tourist Board and PR representative Japan, said Japanese visitors grew 58 percent to 38,796 in 2008 and this year saw a positive growth every month over a year ago except June, and Japanese arrivals in August jumped 37.3 percent to 5,716. Despite such growth in the number of tourists, their average stay remains at 1.4 nights, so she strongly recommends two nights’ stay in the Pearl Road plans.

Hungary tries to disperse the flow of tourists from overconcentration on Budapest. Kósa disclosed a fact that the existing circular tours around the country are mostly a combination of Budapest and Prague offering few options to travel to other parts of the country. That is why repeat travelers are not much attracted. He expects the Pearl Road will make a good chance for them to go down to the south and visit Pécs and other places in the region.

Source: Travel Vision

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