The 74X Culture Bus: A one way ticket to fail
Touristic creations like the Barcelona Bus Turistic are dreamy. They're a public bus line aimed at serving the needs of the tourist so that they don't crowd the other public lines that people commute on, the tourists pay properly for transportation that they don't pay taxes to support, and most importantly, they stop tourists from driving all over the city. It's a genius system and I was constantly pounding my fist on my desk about the fact we don't have this in San Francisco.
Well, it turns out that I bruised up my fist over nothing because apparently, we do have a touristic bus, the SF Culture Bus or otherwise known at the 74X. You can read all about it on their FAQ and while it may read a great deal like Chuck Norris Facts, you can get the general idea.
Reading through all of that, I quickly realized that this bus is screwed. First off, the route that it covers is quite well served by the 7 or the N Judah. These lines are a mere $4 (oh yeah, celebrate the 33% fare raise today. yay...) round trip as opposed to the $7 for the 74X. The bus runs every 60 minutes which is a joke. Also, it doesn't take credit cards, Translink or even give change, so you better have a five and two ones to pay for it on board.
Also, this route is not a popular route. Museums are fine and I like them, but the typical tourist doesn't give a rat's ass about these things. They want that "curvy street", "bridge", "pointed building", and the "Italian place". There is no touristic bus to these areas, but there are a great deal of taxis and other private operators who work to service these areas like all the taxis at Coit Tower waiting to prey of taking people to Fisherman's Wharf which is about a 10 minute walk--downhill. Can't step on their toes, can we now? I mean, just even stretching the 28 to go to Fisherman's Wharf instead of having it fart out at Fort Mason would be an improvement, but no, we get the 74X and that's it.
It reeks of people going to City Hall, showing how touristic routes would be a great idea, Mayor Prettyboy going along with it, but making sure not to touch the private operators, establishing this route in this way thus dooming it to failure as shown by the buses always being empty despite plenty of tourists being in town right now. This way, after they shut it down, they can point to it and say, "See, we had a touristic bus and it failed, so why you wanna go down that road again? Now, on to handing out more taxi medallions..."
01 07 2009 0 comments
Tags: culture, san francisco, tourism
A Spanish street urinator does not a Spaniard make
A little while back, I came across this article where it is assumed that Google Streetview caught some woman in Madrid taking a wizz behind a parked car in Madrid.
While it was obviously in Madrid, it's not obvious that she is a Spaniard. I mean, sure, she could be, but she could be just about anyone else. In fact, the chances of her being a tourist are probably the greatest as I've seen tourists doing the most ridiculous crap when they're in Spain. It seems to be the national pastime of a great many countries to pee on the streets of Spain. So, before folks go pointing any fingers, let's just keep this in mind.
This is just one example of how bizarre the whole Google WorldDomination system is which is also not lost on Spaniards as seen by this shirt, a popular item in Spain, well, actually Catalonia.
02 04 2009 0 comments
Tags: google, spain, tourism
Hey Napa Valley, Perhaps a Reality Check?
Napa Valley confounds me as to how it is able to change so radically from year to year. It's not so much that there are new things popping up, but more that the price of the place keeps going up at an alarming pace. My last visit there was a touch over a year ago. It seemed to be the case that wine tastings generally ran about $5 minimum and up to $12 maximum with some rare $25 tastings like at Rubicon. This latest visit over the weekend showed that tasting fees have just about doubled. Finding a $5 flight seems nearly impossible and attached to that is the fact that you don't even get to keep the glasses anymore, which wasn't something that drove me to taste at a winery, but at least it was something.
Don't get me wrong, but I do completely agree with having some kind of tasting fee. Back in the days when there were no tasting fees, it was nuts. People got thoroughly tossed and were pretty much just mooching wine up there. The fees keep this in check to some degree, but as we saw there still are accidents along the treacherous Highway 29. But it has to be said that at some point the tasting fees are just out of hand. For $15, you maybe get around 2 dl or a half glass of wine after finishing all the tastes; maybe. It's actually getting to be cheaper to go to a wine bar outside the area to try new wines, which doesn't make any sense when you're tasting at the source.
Time and again, I keep thinking that the wineries should band together to create a shuttle bus that picks people up at the Vallejo ferry terminal to a) cut down on road traffic b) cut down on drunk drivers and c) promote the valley more in an environmental manner. But, when I look at how much these guys rake in, like V. Sattui whose wine is crap and yet manages to sell 100,000+ cases just out of his winery, I understand why Napa doesn't take on a shuttle project. And this is what it really comes down to: greed. Of course, this is starting to bite back at the wineries.
Whereas San Francisco is flooded with tourists, all of the folks I asked up in Napa said that their receipts were down. All the Europeans coming to the City aren't making the rounds up to Napa. Perhaps it is time for that shuttle after all? But, a lot of the folks up there were hoping that locals would come back more because of high fuel costs, except that we aren't because to go and spend $10 on average to taste wines and then spend $35+ on a bottle of wine is not tenable. I know that this is going to be my only trip for the year.
While I don't know for certain, we might actually start to see some changes with how Napa does business. The wine market is flooded with tons of wines these days and good wines too, like those from Spain. There are tons of other options in this area including Sonoma Valley, Alexander Valley, and Paso Robles. The latter of these has some of the best priced California wines I've had in some time. Who knows though, as Napa Valley has massive brand recognition and folks bound to amble up and back to there for some time to come, unless gas continues to be more properly priced.
26 08 2008 2 comments
Tags: california, napa, smell my cork, tourism, wine
You Ready for a Bit of the Old Ultra-Venice?
I've lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for over a decade now. I've live in San Francisco for just a bit over half of that and I have never, ever seen it so packed with tourists as it is now. The vast majority of them are from EU countries because naturally, SF is a pretty good bargain when you factor in that exchange rate which makes everything 1/3 off. It's a lot better than going to Europe where suddenly everything is 50% more.
Folks seem to be coming from everywhere on the Continent. I haven't seen so many British as a weak dollar is nothing new to them, so why go and hang out with Spaniards, French, Germans, and the Dutch when that can be done in Spain. It's just wild to see the streets looking like Barcelona or Venice. Thankfully this only really happens in August, so in theory things will be returning back to ho-hum in a few weeks.
I would chat about it further, but why bother, when there are great reporters like Mr. Nigglebits who does it so much better, although I seem to have a touch of congestion which is making it harder to be the man...
20 08 2008 0 comments
Tags: nigglebits, san francisco, tourism, us america
Travel Writing is a Dream Job... for Dreamers
Before my last stint traveling around Europe last summer, I got a lot of "Gee, that must be nice." or "Nice life you've got there." This was of course all said with a bit of a sarcastic tone.
I only had one real goal when heading there, which was to research the wines of the Dalmatian region in Croatia. What ultimately got tossed on top of that just before leaving was writing for two companies during the travels. So, inadvertently, what started out as just a hobby project with no direction, ended up being full time travel writing that paid for most all of the trip. Contrary to what people think, this was a lot of work. The days were long and went far in to the night to get stories out in a timely fashion while still traveling.
Of course, once I got back and got the same response from people, I tried to clarify the misconception of how "great" this kind of work was. Yes, I definitely do like it, but it isn't relaxing. You don't sip on a drink in a hammock, write for 30 minutes, and then send it out to collect a fat paycheck. No, we had to stick to a pretty tight budget (we didn't get paid until we returned) and we had to run around a lot.
To people who like wine, visiting 6-12 wineries in a day might sound like a dream, but it's damned hard work, especially when you're working to speak a second language, it's hot, you have to either spit out the wine or get groggy and irritable from it, and you're navigating another country's roads that you're never been on before. All that drinking under the sun has the harsh reality that you crash hard at night, having spent another day of what everyone thinks is just a fun holiday, being a receptacle of information that you then need to process and write. Out of four months along the Mediterranean, I think there were all of six or seven days of that spent at the beach. I know people who double that amount when they take their annual (and pathetically short) two week holiday in the US.
Still, there are those who doubt as to the fact that this is really work. So to that, I present this article which is an interview with a Lonely Planet writer. From my experience, I agree completely with what he wrote, but instead of trying to figure out some way to describe the exact same chain hotel floral bedsheets, I had to discover how to uniquely describe my 15th tasting of Blatina and Žilavka wines in Herzegovina, because that's almost all they grow there.
Yes, this may all sound like I'm whining and asking for sympathy while others punch a time clock in a cubicle somewhere. But in reality, this "dream job" is just that. Between the time you spend researching and writing, plus all the time you put in for free (like this blog and others) you end up spending many more hours working than just 40 hours a week. It may seem like an exciting adventure, but it's rough and you can burn out if you do it for too long, which is why most professional travel writers will bounce between writing, photography, editing, tour guiding, professional speaking, being a hermit in a mountain cave, and then trying the writing again.
If you still don't believe me, then here. That's a list of 50+ publications that are looking for writers. Come up with an idea or two, set off on an adventure and see how much time you have for mai tais in a hammock while you try to meet your deadline on a tight budget.
29 01 2008 2 comments
Tags: tourism, travel, writing
Fodor's Hawaii Failed Us
I really don't get it. Who exactly is the, Fodor's Hawaii for?
I asked this question repeatedly as this thing let us down repeatedly in Hawaii. Usually I stick to the Rough Guides as they are full of the history of a place and slightly snarky in tone due to their "British edge". But, I thought, hey, let's branch out and try a different one, which ended up being Fodor's.
Most guidebooks tend to have a focus audience. Rough Guides are good for Europeans and the slightly adventurous type. Lonely Planet are all around good, but I tend to not prefer them as they don't travel the way I like. Moon used to be for the hippies, although I don't know their true focus anymore. Let's Go are strictly for students and those on a budget who want to party wherever they go. Bradt are just awesome for those that want to adventure and see the unseen. I mean, who else has a Kosovo (a contested region), Democratic Republic of Congo (a conflict region), and Iraq (a flat-out war zone) guide? Bradt, that's who.
So, I didn't really know where Fodor's fit in. I thought it was something like Lonely Planet with a definite angle about catering to Americans. I was wrong, but I wasn't completely wrong. In fact, I don't know where I sit and I have no idea who Fodor's is for.
If you're an adventurer, it is crap. We had to find a good number of things out on our own and it never points out hole in the wall places to eat that can be great and cheap. Also, we had to find most of our own accommodations online because they seem to like to show the midrange places and up.
If you're a beachgoer, it sucks. We found that the best, cleanest and most enjoyable beaches were in Kauai, which were hardly covered. They seemed to like to pick the dirty, crowded beaches. Maybe some people like these as they feel safe and at home on them? I don't know.
If you're a Lazy Fat Pale Scared American (LFPSA) the book is bad as well. While parts of it seemed to cater to the LFPSA crowd, they would flippantly mention things like the Haleakala Crater hike as an outing and not point out that LFPSA's would die doing that hike. It also doesn't really give very good layouts of itineraries because LFPSA's need to have everything planned for them, although maybe they do this through package deals to the islands. Again, I don't know.
Lastly, it's inaccurate. The pass you get for Haleakala National Park is not good for a week as they say in the book, but three days, making it rather hard to reuse for Oheo Gulch and the Crater. Also, the beach at Polihale is correctly labeled as one of their choice beaches in the guide, the information about the are is dead wrong. For one, that beach is officially closed. Two, the road is not just rough on a car, it's damned near impassable. Spots really require a vehicle with a solid eight to ten inches of clearance to make it in. You can do it in a rental car, but it's very, very rough. Lastly, there are no facilities out there due to a broken water pump. All the bathrooms and showers are closed. This information has been known online since mid last year, yet they went to press with it like this.
In general, I got the feeling that the guide was lazy and places hadn't been visited for awhile. This is sad, seeing as how Hawaii isn't Croatia. Things aren't changing from year to year. It's the US and it's been a continuous tourist destination for decades.
So, from know on, I'm sticking to my Rough Guides and Bradt books. One alternative that is good for this region about the books from Wizard. Despite the cheesy name, their Maui Revealed and Kauai Revealed guides are extremely in depth and detailed. A friend loaned them to me and they were good resources to balance out the craptacularness of the Fodor's. Dog Eared Books, a very unused Fodor's is soon coming your way!
27 01 2008 7 comments
Tags: books, hawaii, tourism, us america
Yes, There are Buses in Hawaii. Use Them!
Our ridiculous Fodor's guide seriously downplayed the buses in Hawaii. Repeatedly it stated that you really needed a car to get around. Sure, cars make life a lot easier in Hawaii, but driving everywhere sucks. It wasn't until we got to Oahu and took the bus that I really felt like I was on a vacation how I like to vacation. I mean, driving is fun and all, but losing the responsibility, cost, and worry of the car is fantastic, which is one of the reasons I like Europe so much: no car needed. Then of course there is the environmental factor as well. When 30 people are on a bus, you're simply not polluting as much as if you were 30 cars. So, for folks who are more eco-minded out there, I present a bit about the buses in Hawaii, since it appears no guidebook wants to go there. I just hope that more people will use them and the system will develop more.
Probably the most developed and extensive of all of them and there is a Ferry system that ties in to it as well. At $2 a ride, it's not the cheapest bus out there, but you can do things like get from the airport to Waikiki without using a $15 a person shuttle. Officially, you're not supposed to bring large luggage on the bus, but we did and it worked out. We were the only ones doing it unfortunately which goes to show that too many idiots overspend while on holiday and get sucked in to using a taxi from the vultures who constantly ask you if you want a ride.
Not as extensive as Oahu and it serves mostly the west and central parts of the island. So, you're not going to get up to the Haleakala Crater or to Hana on it, which is a shame since those roads get very congested. For a quick view of where it goes, check out the system map
We saw a good deal of this bus and it appeared to have a pretty regular schedule that ran the whole gamut of the civilized part of the island. The Waimea Canyon can't be reached with it, but most everything else worthwhile can and it's only a $1.50 to go anywhere on the route, which is a really long route from one end to the other. The Kalalau Trail is stopped just short of as the end of the line is in Hanalei, but the adventurous can walk the distance and we saw folks doing this. But what I'd really recommend is to rent a bicycle while there and use the bus. They have a space for bikes on the front of the bus and everything short of Waimea can be reached from any of the stops.
They have one of the worst websites I've ever seen for a bus route, but it is apparently free. We didn't make it to the Big Island on this trip, so I can't speak as to any firsthand knowledge. Also, the site doesn't appear to have a system map, which is a bummer as it appears they have a good many routes and service seems good. It's something to look in to more if interested and hopefully anyone with more advice might leave a comment? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink...
23 01 2008 4 comments
Tags: hawaii, tourism, transportation, us america
Staying Cheap in Hawaii
It's a pretty well-known fact that the main costs in traveling are transportation, lodging, and food. In reality, these are the main costs of life in general, but they become ever more apparent when one is traipsing around carelessly. Transportation can be tough to save on, while food can be much easier. When it comes to lodging, savings can be had if one is willing to battle any number of elements, including crappy websites, minor shams, and taking chances.
We went through all of these problems as we looked for cheap places to stay when visiting Maui, Kauai, and Oahu. Given that I make no money off this blog (well, $20 or so a year in AdWords I guess), I felt that I might as well share what I found in the hopes it helps others out there in either saving money or avoiding rough places. So, here we go...
MAUI
Joe's Place - This is one of the (if not the) only places to stay in Hana on the east end of Maui for less than $100 a night. It's on the $55 a night cost of a double that I assume the place stayed in business. It's not luxurious. It's barely even basic. It is a place to stay if you want to stay in Hana and not pay a lot. For one night or maybe even two, it can be tolerable. We stayed for three and it was a bit much. Not only is there not a lot to do in Hana, but our room had a funk to it that can really only be described as "warm heaving fart". I do need to add that apparently our room was shampooed just before arrival and it seems the shampoo man did something nasty in there as the other rooms didn't smell like this.
While it is a cheap place, you do get stuck with other cheap guests and in the morning, these cheap guests are a serious pain in the communal kitchen area. If you can tolerate this and move on to greener pastures after two days, then enjoy. If not, get ready to pay $150+ a night for something like the Hana Hale Inn which was right across the street from Joe's and looked like a very nice place to stay. Hana Hale is also off the road a bit, and I gotta tell ya, this road sucks. It's incredibly busy despite how small Hana is.
Peace of Maui - This family-run affair is quite nice, situated up near the small town of Makawao. It's pretty convenient to the airport, Haleakala Crater, and most anywhere you need to go. Tammy is a super host and keeps the rooms very clean. She opens up her wifi free of charge and even has a communal computer for folks to use, although, she can't guarantee that these items will always work (I managed to get us two free t-shirts gratis for fixing the communal computer while we were there).
At $55 a night, you really can't beat the place and it's no wonder it always gets recommendations in every guide there is on Hawaii. The only downside are the often aggressively outgoing guests who don't leave you alone to relax and have loud conversations in the communal kitchen in the wee hours of the morning. Hit a quiet group and you're golden. Hit a noisy group and they're worse than chickens on Kauai.
KAUAI
Kauai Palms Hotel - Nothing mind blowing about it. It's pretty clean and a decent place. The rooms are small, but the beds are big. They have cable TV there for when boredom hits after the sun goes down and it's a convenient place to the airport, which also means you can hear the few planes that take off out of Lihue.
It costs about $65 a night, which isn't terrible, but also isn't the cheapest deal on Kauai.
One bright side to the place is this cheeky cat with a lot of personality who waited outside our room for three hours just so that it could play with something. Another bright side to the place is that it's a two minute walk around the corner from the super cheap Hamura Saimin which has some of the most kickass food on the island.
Aloha Estates at Kalaheo Plantation - The long title is undoubtedly to avoid saying that it's a "hotel" so it can stay under the radar with the license issues. But, this is a very nice place in Kalaheo, which is in the middle of the south side of Kauai. The place has been nicely remodeled and each room has a pleasant theme to it.
That being said, the owner is a bit of an ass. The website says, $45 a night for the Bamboo Suite where we stayed, but the owner slipped through charging $55 a night for it. This was cheeky by itself, but the room also has a massive funk to it that makes it smell like a locker room. The other rooms might smell better as they don't have bamboo coverings on the wall, but we wouldn't know as we didn't stay in them. There is also the issue of the damned roosters in the back yards of neighbors, which will inevitably wake you up.
It's all quite a shame, as the place seems to have a lot of charm and I might recommend staying in one of the other rooms or suites as long as the owner doesn't mess with the price and you bring some earplugs.
OAHU
Waikiki Hostel - Yes, that's right, we stayed in a youth hostel. Only being in Honolulu for one night made this the cheapest and most sensible option and overall, it's not all that bad. For $60 a night, you get a very basic, yet clean bed in a small room with a private bath and shower that you don't get the creeps about using.
We feared that there would be constant noise of party goers in the area, yet despite being the center of Waikiki, it's surprisingly quiet. It may have had to do with it being a Sunday night, but we saw plenty of nyuk-nyuks heading out to the bars as we were heading home to sleep, so the night was definitely alive.
As weird as it is, this was probably the most quiet night and restful night we spent in all of the three islands we visited.
22 01 2008 2 comments
Tags: hawaii, tourism, us america
How Mighty the Topless
I present you a riddle. The top picture in the montage below is:
- A local fisherman taking a midnight cruise throw eel infested waters
- A duck
- A couple of goofballs in their rented Mustang convertible.
Obviously, the correct choice is number two.
It says right at the start of the car rental section in the tour guide that we got that, "While that convertible Mustang may seem really tempting at the rental office, they are a sure sign of a tourist and will undoubtedly be broken in to while parked."
I see why they too the time to mention that. For some reason, I am seeing one after another of these damned things and yes, if I wanted to steal stuff from tourists, I would head straight for these vehicles. "Oooh, the top is up, can't steal nuthin' there. Oh wait, here's my knife."
The most popular color by far and away is red. It's like they've tagged and released you as a tourist in to the wild if you rent one of these things. I mean really, people are free to rent whatever they want, but I just found it really funny. Be free my little tourist, be free!
For our wheels, we picked up some kind of Chevy thing that's pretty weak and feels like someone tried to go offroading with it at some point, but it gets us around, has no pop-top for easy access to our belongings, and most importantly, is pretty cheap, although the gas mileage is typical of any tin box made by GM. By this, I mean that what I'm saving in the cost of the rental is being eaten up a the pump with the nearly $4 a gallon cost for gas here.
12 01 2008 1 comment
Tags: cars, hawaii, maui, tourism
Croatian Tourism Part 2: Going the Distance
In Part 1 of this series, I talked about all the problems that have come about as tourism has exponentially grown in Croatia. Now, it's time to get in to what I feel should be done to solve some of these problems. Keep in mind that I'm not expert or elected official. I'm just a guy with a blog, Croatian heritage, and who has traveled a great deal in Croatia and likes to write.
Croatian tourism is an economy that could easily be a good economy, as opposed to the rather malignant one that it is now. There are a number of changes that would need to come about to make this happen though. The first big one is in dealing with the infrastructure. Take the new A-1 auto cesta that I talked about in Part 1. This was built to be the Tourist Express. It is true that a good connection was needed from the interior out to the coast, but was this entire road needed? There already was a train connection, which I might was also worked on to speed up transport for passengers.
When thinking about this, one needs to keep in mind that the A1 is not finished. There is a stretch that is being worked on from Split to Dubrovnik. This segment is coming at a great expense due to a bridge needing to be built to skirt the strip of Bosnia Herzegovina left over from the Karlowitz Treaty. Let's assume that the road from Zagreb to Rijeka and Zagreb to Split was needed. The old connection to the coast, was a small, meandering road that was difficult to traverse. The new one makes things a lot better. But, the extension that is being worked on from Split to Dubrovnik is unnecessary. The road that connects these two areas is a good road. It's small, but it's good. So, why build the new one? Simple, to get tourists to an already overcrowded Dubrovnik faster. This is the simple answer, but at the core, I think that there is a bigger problem.
Most people don't realize this, but there is no Ministry of Tourism in Croatia. Well, there is, but it isn't by itself. The official name is the Ministry of the Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development or MMTPR. You see, tourism has been intertwined with several other departments that I believe create a conflict of interest. Tourism projects would naturally get in line first for development over say a hospital, which is under a different ministry. The solution? Strip out the Ministry of Tourism in to its own separate department and make it have to put out its hand for an equal share of the pie. It's an crippling practice to be putting too much money in to projects to promote tourism that take money away from other projects that could promote a better standard of life for the Croatian people. The Germans and Hungarians that will eventually be zipping down to Dubrovnik will love it, but the Croats getting to endure being #43 in health care for the world won't see the benefit.
The next big step that needs to happen is to stop promoting Beach Tourism. At the very least, promote Beach Tourism in the off season as well, so that people can go enjoy the "fresh sea air" and the people in the coastal communities can have an economy based upon a regular as opposed to a seasonal source of income. But, the best course of action, is to scrap the beach bit altogether. People know it. People are coming. Enough.
Croatia needs to start promoting the interior. The country has lovely, wonderful spots that, while not near the sea are great to visit. The Zagorje is a nice place full of rolling hills and fresh springs (this is where Jana water is bottled.) Medvednica and the Međimurje are also lovely places with serene villages, good white wines, and castles for those interested. Spas are popping up in these areas for those who really want to relax. You're not going to relax at the beach in high season, but up there, you can. It's peaceful.
There are also towns that could be promoted more. Dubrovnik and Split get the majority of the press as they're coastal towns. But, Zagreb is a town that I've been to four times now and really love. The buildings are all from the days of the Austro-Hungarian Crown, there are a great number of parks, and about 10 museums worth visiting. Varaždin, Samobor, and Karlovac are also nice towns to visit. While a one or two day stay would be plenty per each of them, they offer that Central European feel, but far cheaper and more relaxed price than say Prague.
There are even decent skiing slopes in northern Croatia, but based upon the promotional materials now, you wouldn't think that the country had any snow anywhere. There are also many parks, but with the exception of Plitvice, they get little mention, because most of them aren't on the beach. It's true that the park of Mljet is surrounded by water as it's on an island, but again, it's a spot that is over hyped because it sits on the Adriatic.
Then there is Istria. This little peninsula is a microcosm of everything that is wrong and everything that is right about tourism in Croatia. I covered all the things that were wrong about it in Part 1, which center around the Beach Tourists who flood there. But, in Istria's defense, I think that it's more for reason of proximity than for promotion of the beaches, that the tourists have come. It's literally a 20 minute drive to Istria from Italy. It's maybe three or four hours at most from Austria. It's just really close and so, the Beach Tourists flock there with little that can be done except to try and accommodate them. But there are things happening in Istria that are very interesting. For one, there is wine, lots of wine. Terran (Refošk) and Malvazija are excellent varietals and these wines give more of a reason to visit than warm waters. It also creates a sustainable economy for the area. From this, other things have risen up like Agritourism. People have found that staying in the middle of bucolic hills, surrounded by wine vines can be a pleasant way to spend a holiday. This is something I might add, that can be done year round and is thusly not a big seasonal "kaboom" followed by nothing except hoping that the next season is the same.
Then there is Grožnjan. I don't know who is in charge of this little town, but they're doing good things in showing how to properly run a tourism economy. They have arts and crafts being sold in cute little stores of the old town. They have a Jazz festival that is an outgrowth of the International Cultural Centre of Young Musicians. They have truffles, wine, and good restaurants as well. All of this is in a town with maybe 100 homes, in the center of Istria, and a good half hour drive drive from the almighty beach. But the people who go there, don't go for the beach. They go for the charm of the little town and the fact that out of all of Istria, it was the one place I could actually find listed rooms to rent. There is much to be learned from this town for all of the rest of the coastal towns.
And that's what it comes down. There is much for Croatia at large to learn in how it handles its tourism. I would most likely be slapped for saying it, but they could learn a lot from their neighbors of Slovenia and Bosnia Herzegovina. The difficulties these two countries have in that they are nearly beach-less is what makes their tourism industries stronger than in Croatia. They have had to develop places and destinations for tourists and in doing so, they inevitably develop places that are going to have sustainable tourism simply because they are not flippant Beach Tourists.
Croatia will level out in the end. It has to. This will either be a smooth road, paved with long-term thinking and an overall plan for tourism development to co-exist with the people in the country, or it will be a bumpy road with localized recessions and depressions that will ultimately bring the whole country down if too many things are built on the premise that the Beach Tourist is forever. Only time will tell and it, as well as neighboring Montenegro and Albania will be interesting countries to watch over the next decade.
28 12 2007 0 comments
Tags: croatia, tourism
