Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport #37

EUROPE INBOUND
TRENDING DESTINATIONS
Gibraltar’s Minister for Tourism
has launched the nation’s “year
of culture”.
The Minister, Gilbert Licudi
(pictured), launched the
Gibraltar Tourism Board’s new
campaign at the recent World
Travel Market in London.
For the first time in its history,
the GTB held a major press
conference at the WTM
International Media Centre
where the new campaign was
unveiled by Mr Licudi, along
with GTB Chief Executive, Nicky
Guerrero. In his address, Mr
Licudi stressed that Gibraltar
continues to grow as a tourist
destination as is evidenced by
the imminent opening of the
Holiday Inn Express hotel and by
two other hotel projects in the
planning process. Mr Licudi also
stressed that while Gibraltar’s
traditional tourist product,
‘based on beaches, monkeys,
caves and the Upper Rock’ will
Gilbert
Licudi
Gibraltar’s Minister
for Tourism
YEAR OF CULTURE
FOR GIBRALTAR
continue to be important, the
new campaign will focus on
chess, backgammon, the literary
festival, the music festival, the
food festival and sports tourism.
“It is not about designating any
particular year as the year of
culture,” he said, “but about
celebrating the richness of our
culture which we enjoy week in,
week out, throughout the year –
every year.”
Mr Guerrero, meanwhile,
stressed the significance of the
Island Games which will bring
over 2,000 athletes to the Rock
in 2019. He also spelled out
the themes of the campaign,
“History, pageantry, wildlife,
nature, cuisine, heritage, music,
the arts, literature, sports,
architecture and religious
influences – all these influences
will be captured in the ‘Year of
Culture”
IT’S SLOVENIA
CULTURE TIME,
THE YEAR OF
CULTURAL
TOURISM
The Slovenian Tourist Board is looking
forward to its Year of Cultural Tourism
2018, aligned with the European Year of
Cultural Heritage. A well-preserved cultural
heritage, iconic places, some of the oldest
archaeological findings in the world, and
the architectural masterpieces of Plečnik and
his successors, are some of the reasons to
plan a cultural holiday in Slovenia.
The iconic places of Slovenian culture are
known for their rich history and tradition.
Among them is the renowned Lipica Stud
Farm, the oldest place in the world known
for continuous breeding of the aristocratic
Lipizzaner horses. Since its foundation in
1580, Lipizzaner horses have been the pride
of Slovenia, famous for their white coats,
elegance and incredible learning capacity.
The crossroads of the Alps, the
Mediterranean, the Karst region and the
Pannonian Plains has inspired innovations
for thousands of years. In Slovenia, they
found the oldest musical instrument in the
world – the Neanderthal flute – exhibited
at the National Museum of Slovenia in
Ljubljana. Another of the oldest manmade
items in the world is the wooden wheel
with axle found in the Ljubljana Barje
marshes, soon to be on display at the City
Museum of Ljubljana.
© Lipica